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Armstrong case sends warning to potential cheats, WADA chief

2012-10-19 17:49 Xinhuanet

SHANGHAI, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- American cyclist Lance Armstrong's fall from grace sent a clear message to sportsmen and women around the world that the anti-doping people are determined to catch drug cheats no matter who they are, World Anti-doping Agency head John Fahey has said here.

Last week U.S. Anti-Doping Agency revealed a report of 1,000 pages, including testimonies of Armstrong's 11 former teammates, on systematic doping in the former US Postal/Discovery cycling team, masterminded by Armstrong.

About six weeks ago, USADA had stripped the 41-year-old cancer survivor of his results dated back to August 1, 1998, including his unprecedented seven Tour de France titles between 1999 and 2005.

Fahey said fame could not protect a drug cheat from punishments.

"No matter how important, how successful, how powerful you are, if you are cheating, you will eventually get caught. You'll bring shame on yourself and on your family and on your country," said Fahey during the Oct. 17-18 Asian anti-doping education symposium here.

"I think the Armstrong case demonstrates there are good people out there who will continuously be vigilent and strong to catch drug cheats no matter who they are no matter, what country they are in and no matter how good they in sport," he said. "So I hope there is a message for all the sportsmen and women around the world."

Despite that USADA described the American Postal team's doping scheme as "the most sophisticated doping program in sports history", Armstrong has vigorously denied all wrong-doing. His lawyer even indicated that Armstrong might accept a lie detector test to prove his innocence.

Armstrong's former alliance seemed falling apart too as he stepped down as the chairman of Livestrong, his cancer foundation, and Nike, the sports brand most closely associated with his racing days, parted ways with him.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation, Livestrong, has raised more than 470 million U.S.dollars to help cancer survivors and cancer research since its inception in 1997.

The charity has been in a dilemma since Armstrong was accused of doping and their founder on Wednesday decided to resign.

Armstrong, who survived a stage three testicular cancer in 1996, said in a statement that he wanted "to spare the foundation any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding my cycling career."

On the same day, Nike announced in the statement, "Due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade, it is with great sadness that we have terminated our contract with him."

"Nike does not condone the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in any manner," it said.

Armstrong, however, still got his supporters.

Former International Cycling Union (UCI) president Hein Verbruggen said he was yet to be convinced, according to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf on Thursday.

"Armstrong has never tested positive, even by USADA," Verbruggen was quoted as saying. "There is no trace of evidence."

Verbruggen, now at 71, was president of UCI between 1991 and 2005.

Earlier this week, Kathy LeMond, wife of former Tour winner Greg LeMond, said that Nike wired 500,000 US dollars to a Swiss bank account that belonged to Verbruggen to compensate for the cover-up of a 1999 positive drug test for corticosteroids by Armstrong.

"Everyone who knows the doping control procedures knows this is not possible," said Verbruggen. "Mrs. LeMond's story is so absurd that it's not worth an official statement. There are many, many stories and insinuations. I already passed the stage of being tired of it."

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