Lance Armstrong to compete in USMS meet?
evmo
SydneyAdmin
This discussion was created from comments split from: Drug testing.
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http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/armstrong-to-compete-in-us-masters-swimming-event
I was wondering when someone would mention Lance Armstrong and USMS. So many questions:
What do you think of Lance Armstrong competing in USMS events?
How would you feel if you traveled to a USMS open water championship and he was there?
How would you feel if you did the One-Hour Swim or any other postal national championship, and you did your best, but he beat you?
What do you think about USMS publicly courting him to join the organization and participate its events?
Why is USMS the only sporting organization in the world that would allow him to compete?
I understand why he would want to compete, since that's what he's done his whole adult life. That said, USADA have offered him ways to get the suspension reduced (to probably 8 years or so), but he refuses, saying he'd rather testify to WADA. That's ignoring that USADA has been freely sharing information with other anti-doping agencies. I'm rambling... Anyway, while I'm sure they would gripe about the expenses, I'd gladly pay an extra $5 a year to have the peace of mind that USMS was a WADA signatory organization. I think it's silly that people would cheat in masters swimming, but I'm sure it happens far more than we care to admit.
If Lance showed up at a USMS OW Championship I was competing in, I'd be very disappointed, bordering on angry. The thing that I like about USMS events is that they are low(er) key. Having a bunch of media types roaming around undermines that. If he beat me in a postal swim, that wouldn't bother me. Lance is a faster swimmer than me, drugs or no drugs, and he's not in my age group.
I didn't realize that USMS had openly courted Lance, although I'm less than shocked. Before the suspension, I suppose it was fair, innocent until proven guilty and all that, but I think that the glorified no comment from Rob Butcher is a huge chicken-shit move. Either have some principles, or say that we're letting him swim for the media coverage. Pick a side.
Sadly, USMS isn't the only organization to allow him to compete, although they are far and away the biggest. He has competed in some unsanctioned mountain bike races:
http://www.coloradodaily.com/ci_22768524/usa-cycling-cracking-down-pro-mountain-bikers-unsanctioned?source=most_viewed#axzz2PVs2Hif4
Say what you will about the American Swimming Association, and their strange (but very skilled) director Keith Bell, but they were very quick to uninvite Lance from their events, including the Lake Travis Relay he had swam in a couple times. Why USMS hasn't done the same? That answer would have to come from Sarasota.
Quote from original AP article announcing LA's participation:
Quote from latest AP article announcing LA's withdrawal:
Political "stuff," eh? He didn't have a better prepared quote than that?
How much money are USMS members paying this guy for his leadership? Is it enough to cover the insurance premium for OW events?
I agree that what he did was criminal. If he was Italian instead of American and had done the same thing, he would have been prosecuted for sporting fraud by now (see Ferrari, Michele). I guess part of the reason that I don't get as worked up about it is because of the prevelance of PEDs in a lot of sports. 90's-2000's era cycling especially. (slightly related, my favorite sports nickname probably is Mr. 56%, dubbed to Bjarne Riis, for his apparent hematocrit level when he was winning the Tour de France. This was before the days of the enforced 50% hematocrit leval that's in place today. Coincidentally, Mr. Riis is still a prominent personality in cycling, even after he admitted to having doped as a rider.)
To be fair, I'd be pretty disappointed if I had to swim in a meet with Ryan Lochte or Michael Phelps, too. They are excellent swimmers, but their quality as human beings seems a little...lacking to me.
Given the timing of his suspension, and the fact that he swam a USS meet sometime last year, I'd be willing to guess he was a USMS member before the shit hit the fan when he admitted to doping this January. With all the hubbub surrounding the Open Water sanctioning, and whatever else those folks in Sarasota do, I'm willing to cut them the benefit of the doubt and say they didn't know their membership rolls well enough to know that Lance was a member. If they knew it, they probably figured that it wouldn't be an issue, and that he'd respect his suspension (kind of laughable, since he's raced in unsanctioned mountain bike races since his ban started, but I'm still willing to cut them slack on that part).
What does surprise me is that there weren't other conversations that happened out of the public eye when he entered the meet. If I was a meet director and noticed that he had entered, I'd probably call him up and ask what was going on. I'd alert at least my LMSC chair what was going on, and hope it went up the chain, and something was figured out.
It wouldn't surprise me a bit if Rob Butcher got blindsided by the news when it broke this morning (last night?). But I do agree that, yet again, the public relations side of USMS laid another egg.
(I know you're on the edge of your seats to hear MY opinion, so here it is: NO on Lance.)
www.WaterGirl.co
AZ Open Water Swimming on Facebook
Bear in mind that the general opinion on the USMS forum was for allowing tech suits and adding 25 yard sprints.....
...anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
They knew: http://www.usms.org/hist/oly/olympian.php?oid=993
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
From Julie Heather's blog:
http://lieshurtbutwhocares.blogspot.com/2012/08/usms-and-lance-armstrong-dilemma.html
http://lieshurtbutwhocares.blogspot.com/2012/10/lance-armstrong-and-usms-redux.html
http://lieshurtbutwhocares.blogspot.com/2013/01/butcher-quote-bunch-of-bs.html
Does anyone know how closely USMS's relationship is with FINA. I know that FINA is a WADA signatory.
This seems a tad inconsistent to me. Anyone else?
Yes. While it is "the spirit and purpose of USMS is to encourage adults to swim", it is to do it cleanly and without PEDS. I would hope that any USMS coach who was told by one of his swimmers that he is "juicing" for the season would quickly kick the person out the door.
http://lieshurtbutwhocares.blogspot.com/2013/04/usms-role-in-lance-armstrong-controversy.html
And from Steve:
http://dailynews.openwaterswimming.com/2013/04/lance-armstrong-and-second-acts-in-open.html?m=1
careful what you say here @evmo - you may yet end up as his observer !!
I tried to convince myself, but, orange flavour electrolyte, mixed with hot chocolate,
tastes nothing like Terry's Chocolate Orange ....
I agree with Julie. USMS and Rob Butcher caused the whole thing by repeatedly and publicly inviting Lance Armstrong to compete, and then when others started complaining, Butcher started backpedaling and making things up to avoid taking the blame.
Did Rob Butcher contact Jim Wood, or the other way around? The New York Times, and the rest of us, would like to know.
(I think I know the answer. Jim Wood has no reason whatsoever to lie about something like that).
USMS seems to go into blame avoidance a lot. They seem to be remarkably bad at it.
Are you comfortable with an executive director who lied to the Associated Press?
It would be interesting to know how many of your current SCAR swimmers would be comfortable participating in your event alongside Lance. Or does that figure into your calculation at all?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/video/2013/apr/05/lance-armstrong-withdraws-swimming-event-video
I'm at a time in my life where I value swimming with more than against others. If LA were interested in participating in this or some other open water event... No problem. I think a situation that can potentially have an outcome where an admitted doper wins a race by a few or few hundredths of a second raises people's blood pressure a bit, and it should. If LA were to swim 8 Bridges, his time would be recorded and listed next to his name. I don't imagine anyone viewing those results wouldn't have their own opinion as to how it compares to other participants so to list it under a separate category would have little effect.
I hope to have the good fortune to spend a few hours swimming next to others in the shadows of those beautiful AZ canyons. As long as I don't bump into OJ Simpson out there it should be bliss!
...anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
No. I am not. I feel that USMS has lost a lot of credibility with the way they've handled both this and the open water insurance issues.
That said, the club I train with requires membership. I'm very happy with my club, so I'll stay with them. I'm not thrilled with the LMSC board that I serve on, either, and may back out of that, although I doubt they'd find anyone else to serve as open water chair.
So, I'm pretty unhappy with USMS both locally and nationally, but am stuck for a few reasons.
I think there is a place in open water marathon swimming for people to heal wounds. I feel good about facilitating it - even for those that have drawn heavy duty worldwide criticism. Perhaps it's the 19 years of being a criminal defense attorney that I can't shake. There isn't any calculation involved in saying that Lance would be welcome because I've eliminated two predominately driving forces in many high profile marathon swims - profit and charity. Whether Lance would swim really makes no difference to me - but he is welcome to come sans pseudonym.
I've been surprised by the swimmers who gravitated to Arizona for the SCAR Swim. I hesitate to call the SCAR Swim a "race" because the swimmers might not see or take the time to appreciate the swim. I don't have awards. Everyone gets a swag bag whether you swim one or all four swims. Everyone is entitled to chose between water, Gatorade, coconut water or a local craft beer (Mr. Pineapple) following their swim. The swimmers that come will make of it what they want - whether it's to race, grind, train, thrown in some backstroke or float and stare at the stars on our last swim. I'm the guy that stopped swimming in the Catalina Channel because I wanted to hear the bagpipes - and not just a note or two from Greg Elliot. I wanted to hear ALL the notes and I did. So if Lance chooses to swim - he gets a swag bag like everyone else.
Interestingly enough, there is more than one Triple Crown swimmer coming to simply hang out - but I won't mention names because I don't want to stir (God forbid) the publicity pot Niek.
I'm a bit reluctant to say that I elected to insure the swim - which is contrary to my vision of SCAR. The more red tape involved in a swim the less passion I have for it. SCAR simply grew to the point that it seemed like "insurance" was something I should do. However I remain, as you can probably guess, adamantly independent. And isn't it funny that seeking a "sanctioned" open water event really lost it's luster lately?
I understand both of these arguments, but I think I fall somewhere in the middle. If I had already signed up for a swim, and Mr. Armstrong showed up, I suspect I'd be disappointed. I wouldn't seek out meeting him, and would be annoyed by the extra media scrutiny that it brought with it. Mostly because of the inevitable media coverage, if I knew he was registered in an event, I'd probably not sign up for it.
But, hey, if a race director wants to allow him to swim, and understands that he's going to get some criticism for it, that's the race director's choice. I don't think that all of the criticism on the race director would be fair (really, if Armstrong wants to compete again, he's been offered a chance to get the suspension reduced, and has declined to cooperate), but it would happen.
...anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
How about someone serving a lifetime ban from all sports that signed the WADA code? That is to say all olympic sports plus some others.
I'm not interested in playing that game. Its enough to enforce the rules that we have adopted.
...anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
The problem is, it's organizations that sign their agreement to adhere to the Code, not sports. This has caused some problems, with some banned athletes competing in unsanctioned events, and now some organizations (UCI most notably) enforcing rules not allowing their lisenced athletes to compete in unsanctioned events.
So, if someone I don't like enters a swim I'm doing, I'd be allowed to withdraw and get a full refund? I don't agree with this. I understand that LA would draw a lot more attention than the random person I don't like for whatever reason, but I don't like the precedent that it sets. I can understand avoiding an event because you know it will have more media attention than you like, or because you don't like the cause it supports, or something like that, but if an individual has THAT much pull over your decision making progress, you may be taking things a bit too seriously.
Below a certain level, people have all kinds of reasons for wanting to compete--get fit, have fun, make friends, push their limits, enjoy the outdoors, etc. If LA has developed a longing for those things, he should join the Peace Corps. He's poisoned the well as far as competitive sports are concerned.
www.WaterGirl.co
AZ Open Water Swimming on Facebook
I get that part. If I knew lance was going to be at an event in advance, I probably wouldn't either. But if, say, I find out next week that lance is going to be at the kingdom swim, I'll be disappointed, bit I'm still going to show up. If I decided not to show up, I'm not going to demand my money back from Phil.
I'm all for rehabilitation and redemption, we all need both, but in this case I agree with @Firebah & @Niek. Since his apology includes ignoring people he tried to destroy, LA hasn't shown any remorse that I can see to merit either allowing the WADA ban to be ignored only months after being imposed, or in the case of events outside WADA, to expect other any other athletes to participate with him. USMS' way of handling him seems redolent of UCI's handling of the LA affair first courting him, then feigning innocence, then eventually having their backs forced to the wall.
loneswimmer.com
Keep moving forward.
Since we're using the example of the Kingdom Swim, let's run with it.
When Phil split from USMS (I agree with that decision), he came out of the WADA umbrella, rightly or wrongly. As such, it's up to his discretion who he allows in and who he doesn't. I agree that they probably shouldn't accept his application (if I was in Phil's position, I wouldn't), but there's no reason he wouldn't be allowed to accept his application if he felt so inclined.
I don't think USADA even considered a 2 year ban for LA. The degree to which his conspiracy reached, confession or no, was the reason for the hefty proposed ban, if memory serves. The people who testified against him got pretty light suspensions (6 months in the offseason) for their cooperation. Had Lance gotten caught during his career, or come clean shortly after his comeback, perhaps they would have considered a lighter punishment.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan, but if Kurt, or Phil, or any other race director staging a swim that is not within the USMS/USS/FINA locus of control is still allowed to let Lance swim if they want to. I disagree, but it's not my race, so it's not my decision. Kudos to the likes of Keith Bell for expressly uninviting him.
Clearly so. All I am saying is that, if they aren't under WADA, he's allowed to swim, even if he is a lousy human being.
Strongly agree.
From another angle, would you have a problem with him swimming the English Channel ---without a wetsuit of course ---while raising a huge sum for charity (Cancer, MS, ALS, etc.)?
Keep moving forward.