USADA to ban Armstrong for life, strip all 7 Tour de France titles

[tokugawa]

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- With stunning swiftness, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Thursday night it will strip Lance Armstrong of his unprecedented seven Tour de France titles after he dropped his fight against drug charges that threatened his legacy as one of the greatest cyclists of all time.

Travis Tygart, USADA's chief executive, said Armstrong would also be hit with a lifetime ban on Friday. And under the World Anti-Doping Code, he would lose the bronze medal from the 2000 Olympics as well as any awards, event titles and cash earnings.

Armstrong, who retired last year, effectively dropped his fight by declining to enter USADA's arbitration process - his last option - because he said he was weary of fighting accusations that have dogged him for years. He has consistently pointed to the hundreds of drug tests he passed as proof of his innocence while piling up Tour titles from 1999 to 2005.

"There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, `Enough is enough.' For me, that time is now," Armstrong said. He called the USADA investigation an "unconstitutional witch hunt."

"I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999," he said. "The toll this has taken on my family and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today - finished with this nonsense."

USADA reacted quickly and treated Armstrong's decision as an admission of guilt, hanging the label of drug cheat on an athlete who was a hero to thousands for overcoming life-threatening testicular cancer and for his foundation's support for cancer research.

"It is a sad day for all of us who love sport and athletes," Tygart said. "It's a heartbreaking example of win at all costs overtaking the fair and safe option. There's no success in cheating to win."

Tygart said the agency had the power to strip the Tour titles, though Armstrong disputed that.

"USADA cannot assert control of a professional international sport and attempt to strip my seven Tour de France titles," he said. "I know who won those seven Tours, my teammates know who won those seven Tours, and everyone I competed against knows who won those seven Tours."

Still to be heard from was the sport's governing body, the International Cycling Union, which had backed Armstrong's legal challenge to USADA's authority and in theory could take the case before the international Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Tygart said UCI was "bound to recognize our decision and impose it" as a signer of the World Anti-Doping Code.

"They have no choice but to strip the titles under the code," he said.

USADA maintains that Armstrong has used banned substances as far back as 1996, including the blood-booster EPO and steroids as well as blood transfusions - all to boost his performance.

The 40-year-old Armstrong walked away from the sport in 2011 without being charged following a two-year federal criminal investigation into many of the same accusations he faces from USADA.

The federal probe was closed in February, but USADA announced in June it had evidence Armstrong used banned substances and methods - and encouraged their use by teammates. The agency also said it had blood tests from 2009 and 2010 that were "fully consistent" with blood doping.

Included in USADA's evidence were emails written by Armstrong's former U.S. Postal Service teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after a positive drug test. Landis' emails to a USA Cycling official detailed allegations of a complex doping program on the team.

USADA also said it had 10 former Armstrong teammates ready to testify against him. Other than suggesting they include Landis and Tyler Hamilton, both of whom have admitted to doping offenses, the agency has refused to say who they are or specifically what they would say.

"There is zero physical evidence to support (the) outlandish and heinous claims," Armstrong said. "The only physical evidence here is the hundreds of (doping) controls I have passed with flying colors."

Armstrong sued USADA in Austin, where he lives, in an attempt to block the case and was supported by the UCI. A judge threw out the case on Monday, siding with USADA despite questioning the agency's pursuit of Armstrong in his retirement.

"USADA's conduct raises serious questions about whether its real interest in charging Armstrong is to combat doping, or if it is acting according to less noble motives," such as politics or publicity, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks wrote.

Even if UCI and USADA differ on the Tour titles, the ultra-competitive Armstrong has still done something virtually unthinkable for him: He quit before a fight is over.

It was a stunning move for an athlete who built his reputation on not only beating cancer, but forcing himself through grueling offseason workouts no one else could match, then crushing his rivals in the Alps and the Pyrenees.

"Today I turn the page. I will no longer address this issue, regardless of the circumstances," he said. "I will commit myself to the work I began before ever winning a single Tour de France title: serving people and families affected by cancer, especially those in underserved communities."

Armstrong could have pressed his innocence in USADA's arbitration process, which would have included a hearing during which evidence against him would have been presented. But the cyclist has said he believes most people have already made up their minds about whether he's a fraud or a persecuted hero.

Although he had already been crowned a world champion and won individual stages at the Tour de France, Armstrong was still relatively unknown in the U.S. until he won the epic race for the first time in 1999. It was the ultimate comeback tale: When diagnosed with cancer, doctors had given him less than a 50 percent chance of survival before surgery and brutal cycles of chemotherapy saved his life.

Armstrong's riveting victories, his work for cancer awareness and his gossip-page romances with rocker Sheryl Crow, fashion designer Tory Burch and actress Kate Hudson made him a figure who transcended sports.

His dominance of the Tour de France elevated the sport's popularity in America to unprecedented levels. His story and success helped sell millions of the "Livestrong" plastic yellow wrist bracelets, and enabled him to enlist lawmakers and global policymakers to promote cancer awareness and research. His Lance Armstrong Foundation has raised nearly $500 million since its founding in 1997.

Jeffery C. Gervey, chairman of the foundation, issued a statement of support saying:

"Faced with a biased process whose outcome seems predetermined, Lance chose to put his family and his foundation first," Gervey said. "The leadership of the Lance Armstrong Foundation remain incredibly proud of our founder's achievements, both on and off the bike."

Created in 2000, USADA is recognized by Congress as the official anti-doping agency for Olympic sports in the United States. Its investigators joined U.S. agents during the federal investigation of Armstrong. Tygart dismissed Armstrong's lawsuit as an attempt at "concealing the truth," saying the agency is motivated by one goal - exposing cheaters.

Armstrong had tense public disputes with USADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, some former teammates and assistants and even Greg LeMond, the first American to win the Tour de France.

Others close to him were caught up in the investigations, too: Johan Bruyneel, the coach of Armstrong's teams, and three members of the medical staff and a consultant were also charged. Bruyneel is taking his case to arbitration, while two medical team staffers and consulting doctor Michele Ferrari didn't formally contest the charges and were issued lifetime ban by USADA. Ferrari later said he was innocent.

Questions surfaced even as Armstrong was on his way to his first Tour victory. He was leading the 1999 race when a trace amount of a banned anti-inflammatory corticosteroid was found in his urine; cycling officials said he was authorized to use a small amount of a cream to treat saddle sores.

After Armstrong's second victory in 2000, French judicial officials investigated his Postal Service team for drug use. That investigation ended with no charges, but the allegations kept coming.

Armstrong was criticized for his relationship with Ferrari, who was banned by Italian authorities over doping charges in 2002. Former personal and team assistants accused Armstrong of having steroids in an apartment in Spain and disposing of syringes that were used for injections.

In 2004, a Dallas-based promotions company initially refused to pay him a $5 million bonus for winning his sixth Tour de France because it wanted to investigate allegations raised by media in Europe. Testimony in that case included former teammate Frankie Andreu and his wife, Betsy, saying Armstrong told doctors during his 1996 cancer treatments that he had taken a cornucopia of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs.

Two books published in Europe, "L.A. Confidential" and "L.A. Official," also raised doping allegations and, in 2005, French magazine L'Equipe reported that retested urine samples from the 1999 Tour showed EPO use.

Armstrong fought every accusation with denials and, in some cases, lawsuits against media outlets that reported them.

He retired in 2005 and almost immediately considered a comeback before deciding to stay on the sidelines - in part because he didn't want to keep answering doping questions.

"I'm sick of this," Armstrong said in 2005. "Sitting here today, dealing with all this stuff again, knowing if I were to go back, there's no way I could get a fair shake - on the roadside, in doping control, or the labs."

Three years later, Armstrong was 36 and itching to ride again. He came back to finish third in the 2009 Tour de France.

Armstrong raced again in 2010 under the cloud of the federal investigation. Early last year, he quit the sport for good, making a brief return as a triathlete until the USADA investigation shut him down.

During his sworn testimony in the dispute over the $5 million bonus, Armstrong said he wouldn't take drugs because he had too much to lose.

"(The) faith of all the cancer survivors around the world. Everything I do off the bike would go away, too," Armstrong said then. "And don't think for a second I don't understand that. It's not about money for me. Everything. It's also about the faith that people have put in me over the years. So all of that would be erased."

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mo...ops-fight-us-antidoping-agency/#ixzz24R6Onh8e

Lance Armstrong has dropped any further challenges to USADA's allegations that he took performance-enhancing drugs to win cycling's Tour de France from 1999-2005. Guess this means he's officially guilty! Too bad because it was a great story; from cancer survivor to 7 time Tour de France champion

 

[Cock Throppled]

Bullshit.

Armstrong has given more urine samples than a japanese Golden Shower specialist.

The fuckers at USADA have conducted a witch hunt based on accusations by admitted cheaters.

 

[Hoops]

i feel badly for all his fans who 'believed'.
I never believed and always thought It was a matter of time.

 

[tokugawa]

Guess Nike will soon be dropping from Lance from it's lineup!

http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/?l=shop,men_livestrong

 

[GATSBY]

Ouch. I'm surprised though that they want to get him so badly..

 

[UhOh]

He may have won the wars but he was beaten in most of the battles. Gee I wonder how those guys beat him. Good nutrition, yeah thats it..

 

[Cock Throppled]

Seven years after his last TDF win and they still go after him.

None of the doping allegations has ever been substantiated.

Did he piss someone off really high up?

Why aren't they going after their Olympic heroes like Phelps with such vigour?

 

[blazejowski]

Bunch of horseshit... I don't believe it whatsoever...

 

[Big Dog Striker]

Usada

After the Honorable Republican Congressman from the 5th District of Wisconsin requested the Office of National Drug Control Policy to investigate the US$ 9 Million in grant given to the USADA yesterday - the latter responds with this BS today to justify its existence. :doh:

 

[kickback]

For now he will remain the worlds greatest cyclist. He knows that and anyone who knows anything about cycling knows that; that matters more than the titles.:clap2:

 

[Tugela]

So, let me get this right, they don't have any actual evidence other than allegations from people who are trying to deflect attention from their own drug use, and the federal investigation was concluded without any charges being made??

And they think they can strip him of honors won in international competition, where the organizers of those events disagree with them?

Are they the last word in world sport? Since when?

Their "due process" appears to be to issue a summary conviction, after which you have the opportunity to appeal and try to convince them to change their mind. And if you don't do that you are just guilty, no hearing, no evidence, nothing.

Congress needs to look at these guys again, scrap that organization and replace it with one that operates on the same principles as a real court.

 

[jharm]

By refusing arbitration Armstrong doesn't have to confront the USADA evidence and he keeps it out of the public for now. Armstrong is the one avoiding due process and the publication of the evidence against him. In the dismissal of the lawsuit in federal court on Monday, the judge found the USADA to have due process and that's why he dismissed Armstrong's lawsuit. There was no need for the federal court to get involved when the arbitration process is capable of handling the case. Armstrong looked at the strong USADA case against him and he bailed - bottom line. The grand jury case earlier this year only dealt with criminal violations. Doping is not against the law. You and I could use EPO tomorrow and it is legal. The Feds were trying to prove insurance fraud and breach of contract from the US Postal team and that's hard to do. Look at Bonds and Clemons, the Feds lost. The USADA case isn't about breaking laws. It's only about doping and the job of the USADA, to catch doping in sports.

 

[booblover]

I believe it and it still doesn't matter. This is professional sports and the top level use performance enhancers. Balco guessed that at the British Olympics 60%+ of Olympians were "dirty". The head of Olympic testing said he knows more then they do (they estimated 20%).

 

[Aleister Crowley]

Armstrong has given more urine samples than a japanese Golden Shower specialist.

Really , do the Jap girls give best golden showers?
ellaborate please?

 

[Tugela]

By refusing arbitration Armstrong doesn't have to confront the USADA evidence and he keeps it out of the public for now. Armstrong is the one avoiding due process and the publication of the evidence against him. In the dismissal of the lawsuit in federal court on Monday, the judge found the USADA to have due process and that's why he dismissed Armstrong's lawsuit. There was no need for the federal court to get involved when the arbitration process is capable of handling the case. Armstrong looked at the strong USADA case against him and he bailed - bottom line. The grand jury case earlier this year only dealt with criminal violations. Doping is not against the law. You and I could use EPO tomorrow and it is legal. The Feds were trying to prove insurance fraud and breach of contract from the US Postal team and that's hard to do. Look at Bonds and Clemons, the Feds lost. The USADA case isn't about breaking laws. It's only about doping and the job of the USADA, to catch doping in sports.

But they didn't catch him doping. Their case is based on what other people who have been caught are saying, all of which we allready know. And those people are trying to deflect attention from themselves. The bottom line is that the USADA simply doesnt like Armstrong's big mouth, that is what it boils down to. It is pretty clearly a vendetta. If they actually had real data they would publish it. They fact that they have not means they don't have anything other than rumours. Armstrong not going through with the arbitration doesnt mean there is evidence, it just means there is no point for him.

The judge who dismissed the suit also questioned ASADAs motives when he did it.

 

[Cock Throppled]

I can't understand why the huge push to go after him.

He's already retired. His last Tour de France win was 7 years ago and he passed all the drug tests.

Who's behind the relentless pursuit of him?

I can see why he gave up after 10 years of fighting, probably using his own money against a bottomless pit of funding for USADA and a bunch of sore losers already caught cheating who can't admit maybe he was clean, but way better than them.

There is no way to defend against accusations. Remember Milgaard? Hurricane Carter?

 

[tokugawa]

But they didn't catch him doping. Their case is based on what other people who have been caught are saying, all of which we allready know. And those people are trying to deflect attention from themselves. The bottom line is that the USADA simply doesnt like Armstrong's big mouth, that is what it boils down to. It is pretty clearly a vendetta. If they actually had real data they would publish it. They fact that they have not means they don't have anything other than rumours. Armstrong not going through with the arbitration doesnt mean there is evidence, it just means there is no point for him.

The judge who dismissed the suit also questioned ASADAs motives when he did it.

The case against Lance Armstrong

Over his two-decade career, cyclist Lance Armstrong passed every anti-doping test required of him.

There were hundreds of them. Blood tests, urine tests. Samples given any time of day, any day of the week; during training, after a competition, in the off-season. The Texan passed them all “with flying colours,” he says.

That is true.

Yet Friday, Armstrong — the most dominant cyclist in history, cancer survivor, hero to millions — was branded a cheat and a liar, stripped of his unprecedented seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

How is this possible? Former teammates, mostly.

Armstrong, who retired from the sport in 2011, vehemently denies ever cheating, even as rumours dogged him for years. His reputation remained intact after a two-year federal criminal investigation into doping allegations closed in February (he was not charged), only to then be accused of a slew of infractions by USADA in June.

On Thursday, the 40-year-old announced he would no longer fight USADA’s drug accusations against him and walked away from the doping agency’s arbitration process. USADA characterized his decision as an admission of guilt and vacated all his competitive titles won since Aug. 1, 1998.

Evidence of cheating, says Doug MacQuarrie, the chief operating officer for the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, is not solely reliant on laboratory detection which can flag a drug user immediately — as happened most famously with Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

“The reality under the (international) rules of doping is that there are eight ways to generate what is known as an anti-doping violation,” says MacQuarrie whose organization is the Canadian counterpart of USADA.

Flunking a drug test is only one of those ways.

“When presence (of a banned substance) is the issue and there’s a certified laboratory analysis, that is a very easy process to prove that A equals B (with a positive test).

“With the other violations, it is far more judicial. You have to go out and obtain evidence. The evidence has to be legitimate.”

That evidence can come from those closest to the athlete. Friends and rivals.

Inner-circle colleagues and teammates who witnessed, participated in or were counselled in performance-enhancing drug use or prohibited practices can provide powerful testimony. Particularly in a discipline like professional cycling that for years has been linked closely with dirty doctors, police raids and doped-up riders.

USADA stated up to 10 former Armstrong teammates were set to testify against him. Included in the case were emails sent by Floyd Landis, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for doping, describing an elaborate doping program on Armstrong’s U.S. Postal Service teams, and Tyler Hamilton’s interview with 60 Minutes claiming he had personal knowledge of Armstrong doping, according to The Associated Press.

USADA says it also had people willing to provide “analytical data” of the doping activity involving the cyclist and his U.S. Postal Service team. USADA chief executive Travis Tygart says Armstrong “was invited to meet with USADA and be truthful about his time on the USPS team but he refused.”

USADA informed Armstrong and five other individuals, including the USPS team director, team trainer and three team doctors, in June of the anti-doping agency’s intent to open proceedings against them. The agency later notified the group that there was “overwhelming evidence” to charge them with rule violations.

This is from USADA’s statement issued Friday:

“Numerous witnesses provided evidence to USADA based on personal knowledge acquired, either through direct observation of doping activity by Armstrong or through Armstrong’s admissions of doping to them that Armstrong used EPO, blood transfusions, testosterone and cortisone during the period from before 1998 through 2005, and that he had previously used EPO, testosterone and (human growth hormone) through 1996.

“Witnesses also provided evidence that Lance Armstrong gave to them, encouraged them to use and administered doping products or methods, including EPO, blood transfusions, testosterone and cortisone during the period from 1999 through 2005. Additionally, scientific data showed Mr. Armstrong’s use of blood manipulation including EPO or blood transfusions during Mr. Armstrong’s comeback to cycling in the 2009 Tour de France.”

USADA says all the evidence would have been available for Armstrong to challenge if he had accepted the arbitration process.

Today, scientific sleuthing allows samples as old as eight years to be retested for prohibited substances and evidence of blood doping — one of the agency’s claims against Armstrong.

MacQuarrie, who has no knowledge of USADA’s evidence against Armstrong and is not part of the case, says, in general, athletes who have always produced clean tests deny all doping accusations.

“It’s very clear to us where the (original) analysis of a sample has failed to identify a prohibited substance, that is not proof conclusive that for all time, the individual has not doped,” MacQuarrie says.

“There are ample cases of high profile athletes who have denied, denied, denied and proclaimed innocence only to be found out after the fact that in fact, they had used illegal methods or substances. Often times, that comes from the back-testing of samples after the science determines ways to detect substances that were previously (unknown).

He cited the rise and fall of Marion Jones as an example. Her stellar track career collapsed after Jones admitted she’d used a powerful anabolic steroid called THG (tetrahydrogestrinone), known as “the clear” prior to the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She won five medals in Sydney, three gold and two bronze. After years of denials, she admitted her drug use in 2007.

These are the eight ways to generate a doping infraction under the Canadian Anti-Doping Program: Presence of prohibited substance in a sample; use or attempted use of substances; refusing or evading a doping test; not providing availability information or missing tests; tampering or attempted tampering with any part of doping control; possession of prohibited substances and methods; trafficking or attempted trafficking; administration or attempted administration.

Armstrong maintains USADA does not have the authority to remove his titles. The International Cycling Union, cycling’s global federation, says it will await USADA’s formal decision before commenting on the Armstrong matter.

At that point, Tygart says some of the evidence against Armstrong will become clear when USADA presents its work to the international union.

Former Canadian road cyclist Steve Bauer distanced himself from the doping allegations Armstrong is embroiled in. Bauer, who finished fourth in the 1988 Tour de France, released a statement Friday that read in part:

“The recent news of the USADA vs Lance Armstrong case is not related to our current state of affairs in professional cycling. The sport of cycling, governed by the International Cycling Union and the World Anti-Doping Agency is a leader among all sports in its anti-doping policies, with the most stringent policies actively in place among professional sports.”

Bauer is currently managing Team SpiderTech, a professional road racing team.

Armstrong’s fan base remains strong, particularly supporters of his charitable works for cancer. Armstrong survived life-threatening brain, lung and testicular cancer.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation, Livestrong, which has raised cancer research funds for 15 years, announced on Friday that by the middle of the day, donations were up 30 per cent over Thursday. No dollar figures were released.

MacQuarrie says though Armstrong declared he is finished with USADA’s “unconstitutional witch hunt” of him, the anti-doping executive thinks the world had not heard the last of the Texan on this matter.

“The story is certainly not over,” MacQuarrie predicts.

With files from The Associated Press.

Read more: http://www.thestar.com/sports/tourdefrance/article/1247078--the-case-against-lance-armstrong

 

[Cock Throppled]

My gawd - read that "Case Against Lance Armstrong" carefully and it becomes very scary.

"These are the eight ways to generate a doping infraction under the Canadian Anti-Doping Program: Presence of prohibited substance in a sample; use or attempted use of substances; refusing or evading a doping test; not providing availability information or missing tests; tampering or attempted tampering with any part of doping control; possession of prohibited substances and methods; trafficking or attempted trafficking; administration or attempted administration."

Armstrong doesn't fall into any of those. So far, only accusations from other riders is all that has come out.

If a vindictive coach, rival, agency, jealous teammate, etc wants to build a case against anyone, using the methods and policies in that article there is no way to defend or fight against it.

The outcome is pre-determined and they just build blocks of "evidence" up to bolster their case and challenge the accused to find a way to argue against it, which is impossible.

 

[Sexiaccent]

That get me curious about this case is that a US agency is the one that is all over him, when usually any US agency-media always look to protect their sport stars. Why don't this USADA does not blast any sport player that uses prohibited substances (foot-ball, baseball, hockey,basketball, athletism, etc)?

I think that Brian Bosworth (Oklahoma Sooner and Seatttle Seahawk linebacker) mention once that since his college years the Steroids run like candy at the Universty Lockers and not only on FootBall but in all the sports.

For me is unfair that Lance Armstrong get this punish, he is an example about never quit in life!!!

 

[rexxx]

Ouch. I'm surprised though that they want to get him so badly..

Why are you surprised the guy became a famous millionaire thanks to Nike ads saying "Winning is about heart" the guy was the poster boy for hard work and fair play he was a gigantic hypocrite how can you convince athletes that its not worth it to dope when the most successful doper ever gets away with it? The evidence will come out soon enough and anyone with any common sense will see he was cheating