USADA to strip Lance Armstrong of 7 Tour titles

Associated Press ^ | August. 23, 2012 | JIM VERTUNO

[Free ThinkerNY]

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Thursday night it will strip Lance Armstrong of his unprecedented seven Tour de France titles after he declared he was finished fighting the drug charges that threaten 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.

[Jonty30]

If they have sufficient proof of his guilt, that should include coaching as well. Otherwise it’s that that big of a punishment, because he’s accrued all the meaningful benefits.

[dfwgator]

If he never tested positive, how do they have proof?

[irishtenor]

So now in America a person is guilty unless he can prove his innocence? What objective body of evidence do they have? How about his several hundred blood samples, each of which has never shown as positive.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Unless the USADA operates the Tour de France, that sounds like a meaningless gesture.

[dfwgator]

This is BS!

[mkjessup]

Travis Tygart must have some really sprained wrists after announcing this.

[Jonty30]

I don’t know. Maybe they kept samples that could be later tested with more sophisticated tests.

[struggle]

He should tell them he’ll give them his left nut before he gives up his trophies.

[dragonblustar]

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency

Total waste of tax payer's money.

[rwfromkansas]

This stuff just is meaningless. Nobody will think his wins aren’t valid just because this agency “erases” them. It’s completely meaningless.

[marygonzo]

Good!! It is my opinion he is a liar and a big steroid freak, I hear he is an egocentric jurk. Adios . You are a disgrace to real sport sir!!

[Cyman]

This is one of the most outrageous abuses of power that I have ever heard. I would hate to hear that even though I proved my inocence over 500 times, these quasi policing bodies, corrupt as hell by the way, could pull out a piece of “evidence” and demand I defend myself for number 501 + x.

Lance “ John Demjanjuk” Armstrong.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Just another way to destroy American exceptionalism.

[rockvillem]

Unless the USADA operates the Tour de France, that sounds like a meaningless gesture.

This. Throw in a "lifetime ban" from a sport from which Armstrong has already retired. I need to go re-read Les Miserable - there is something very Javert like about this pursuit.

[mkjessup]

Good!! It is my opinion he is a liar and a big steroid freak, I hear he is an egocentric jurk. Adios . You are a disgrace to real sport sir!!

I agree, Travis Tygart is indeed a disgrace.

[eddie willers]

This is a surprise to no one. Especially the guys that finished behind him thinking, “No way”.

[LegendHasIt]

Wait... Did Armstrong vote Republican or something?

[DSH]

USADA brought charges against Armstrong, who had the opportunity to go to an arbitration hearing before a three-person panel of arbitrators (one of whom Armstrong could select, the second USADA could select, and third who would have been chosen by agreement among the other two arbitrators). At this arbitration hearing, USADA would have put on its evidence (said to consist of as least as many as 10 witnesses (former Armstrong teammates, etc., as well as so-called "bio-passport" data derived from blood tests done on Armstrong during races, including the last Tours de France he rode, after he came out of retirement in 2009). Armstrong and/or his counsel could have cross-examined those witnesses, put on their own witnesses (including rebuttal experts, etc.)).

The panel of arbitrators would have heard the evidence and then given its verdict. If Armstrong had lost at that stage, he would have had an opportunity to appeal the adverse decision to the international Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Armstrong chose not to pursue arbitration at all. What USADA is now prepared to do is akin to what happens when one gets sued in a civil action, and one chooses not to answer the complaint. One can have a "default judgment" rendered against him.

By the way, by virtue of holding a professional license from USA Cycling, which recognizes USADA's authority to enforce anti-doping rules to which cyclists are subject in the U.S., Armstrong acquiesced in the legitimacy of the aforementioned process. That is one reason a federal district court threw out Armstrong's own lawsuit the other day, in which Armstrong had challenged USADA's jurisdiction and authority over him.