Watch Live: Congressional Hearing on IRS Scandal

Live Now on TheBlaze Radio: ‘The Buck Sexton Show’

Sports

Nike Drops Lance Armstrong as Embattled Athlete Resigns From His Own Foundation

Oct. 17, 2012 9:32am Jonathon M. Seidl

Nike Drops Lance Armstrong; Armstrong Resigns from Livestrong

NEW YORK (TheBlaze/AP) — Nike has severed ties with famed cyclist Lance Armstrong, citing insurmountable evidence that he participated in doping and misled the company about those activities for more than a decade.

The clothing and footwear company said Wednesday that it terminated Armstrong’s contract “with great sadness.”

“Nike does not condone the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in any manner,” it said in a statement.

Armstrong said Wednesday, just minutes before the announcement from Nike, that he was stepping down as chairman of his Livestrong cancer-fighting charity so that the organization can steer clear of the whirlwind surrounding its founder.

Nike Inc., based in Beaverton, Ore., said it plans to continue its support for Livestrong.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released a massive report last week detailing allegations of widespread doping by Armstrong and his teams when he won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005. Business Insider details the allegations in an extensive post here.

Nike has stuck by the athletes that it has endorsed in the past during tumultuous times in their lives, including Tiger Woods.

The company distanced itself from NFL quarterback Michael Vick following a dog-fighting scandal, but by last year, it was backing Vick once again.

Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

Back to The Blaze »

Comments (30)

dpmo63
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 8:47pm
WHO GIVES A DARN about performance enhancing drugs? If you take them maybe later you suffer and die. Oh well, know the risks. The more they are used and begin to affect our DNA we may evolve. The main thing is, the organizations test for drugs they don’t want. If you find or make something not on thew list and keep a total secret from the world for ten years and crush your competition, more power to you. Just think about it. What person would create a totally new enhancing solution and not sell it to the world and become stupidly rich. Please. Not that I care, but the USADA may want to keep about a billion dollars set aside if they can’t prove he doped.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Git-R-Done
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 4:04pm
What about the actual evidence that he used steroids in the first place? It doesn’t matter what kind of personality he has. What matters is the evidence that he doped. And the USADA hasn’t provided any proof. And allegations are not proof.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- VRW Conspirator
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 5:38pm
  Right…no proof and no jurisdiction over the event.
  Lance Armstrong was tested during every race he competed in, as most of the riders are. His stage wins, before his cancer showed NO signs of doping, he passed all the tests, the French Cycling authority and International Cycling authority even were going after him for years and never found proof, only someone said he say or heard this…no proof…
  Lance gets cancer…misses a year…
  Lance comes back…with all meds in his system pre-approved and administered by a doctor and watched over by the Tour’s governing doctor…STILL nothing but allegations, conjecture, and speculation..but NO PROOF!..
  For the next 7 years Lance destroys the field…WHY..because he built the best team of cyclist in the world around him to help him and he trained his ARSE off….during that time still more allegations, speculation, complaints about the medications he took due to his cancer (he has no testicles so the hormones normal men make he took as injections – again regulated heavily), but nothing sticks.. they test and retest and retest the retest and still NOTHING is proven…
  eventually Lance retires…all goes back to normal…the next American to win is busted for doping..
  Lance comes back 3 years ago…nearly wins but does his job to help his teammate instead..crashes out the next year but still proves he has the chops..
  now..the USDA butts in and poof..yanks it all..
  
  Report this comment
rangerskippy
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 2:36pm
When he ditched his wife for singer Sheryl Crow, I knew bad things were in his future. You reap what you sew.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
valleyfever
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 1:41pm
There has got to be a physical limit to performance enhancement by doping. Let these people take whatever they want in any quantities they want so they can eventually destroy the sport and their bodies. This is after all just entertainment. Suspend record taking so that record breaking performances are not a part of sport history. When enough of them die for nothing, they will get the message and drug cheating will be a thing of the past.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
DrIvey
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 1:06pm
Liar Liar, Lance on Fire!!!!!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
houx
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 12:14pm
With or without doping he is still and amazing guy to survive cancer and ride as well. I assume all the riders where doping then, but he is still the best. Lance will livestrong forever still a #1 winner in my book.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- bobdiamond
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 12:25pm
  It’s too bad that a man with such an inspirational story has fallen so hard. Read political commentary at: http://smallcraftadvisorychronicles.blogspot.com/
  
  Report this comment
SocialistSlayer
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 12:11pm
Good Riddance ! Armstrong is so full of Baloney they should call him Oscar Myer !

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Smoke Ranch
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 11:51am
Lance Armstrong is a quite a prima dona. And now the whiplash of his arrogant attitude is coming around to haunt him. The old saying holds true that when you are going to the top, you treat those you pass by good. Because when you fall, you will see them again when you go back. The fact is cycling is a dirty sport dominated by those who cheat. Those people Armstrong should have been good to are now his worst nightmare. To bad Lance.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
flaboater1
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 11:17am
Every Sponsor should go back and sue this guy for all the financing and support they gave him over the past…his whole life and being an athlete is a fraud. While I admire his support of cancer research and his “bouncing back” form it, how are we to know his doping did not cause his health issues?

Between his abuse and denial;s, this guy is just pathetic. He should live with his decisions and fruadulent activities. Take it away and let him live with the consequences like all of us have to do.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Amarath01
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 2:01pm
  The ignorance here on the blaze is outstanding.
  Please inform yourselves before debasing someone’s name.
  MR. Armstrong has taken more drug tests than 99% of professional athelites and has always been found to be clean, thats 100% OF THE TIME. They have shown up at his doorstep at 2am to “catch” him .. he was clean.
  
  He was and always has been clean these are the FACTS of the case. Yet after being harassed legally, somehow, for decades he is done he retired and left sports… but they kept coming. He said enough is enough leave me alone, they said no we rule you we can take everything from you and you can never be free of us…. WHAT? Hes out hes no longer in the sport.. too bad forever we can harass you. Or we can take away all your PAST accomplishments and harass your sponsors etc. And that id what the US federal government has done. With the only evidence proving him clean.
  
  So yeah good job blaze readers (not all of you but a good number) for being ignorant tyrant loving evil people (what i consider evil).
  
  Report this comment
- DrFrost
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 6:14pm
  @AMARATH01
  
  Not fighting a charge means a lot of people are going to assume he’s guilty. It’s certainly not fair, but it’s also not surprising.
  
  Personally there are three things about this situation that really bother me:
  
  1) Lance decided not to fight this. Of course this doesn’t prove guilt but I think if we understood the reasons behind this we’d be a lot closer to knowing the truth.
  2) To my knowledge, the USADA still hasn’t released its findings to UCI or WADA.
  3) All the allegations are based on testimony. To my knowledge there’s no hard evidence. This bothers me more than anything else.
  
  Call me paranoid but this is not the sort of action you take against a national hero without proof. So if they have real proof, why haven’t they shared it? If they don’t have proof, what’s driven them to do this? What’s driven Lance to not fight it?
  
  Lance is one of my heros and until they present some real evidence I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
  
  Report this comment
Naram-Sin
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 10:57am
Lots of allegatios about doping, decades after the fact. Most of them had been defended numerous times before, but just keep up the never ending attacks. So, exactly how did he manage to pass 600 drug tests over the years? Are drug tests worthess? If so, why bother? What’s the scientific explanation? This needs to be answered. Armstrong must have been a genius in biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine. He should get the Nobel prize in Science for pulling this off when everyone else failed.

Armstrong was forced to defend himself at great cost, over and over agian, and win over and over again. At some point enveryone will say enough is enough. Maybe he should have fugh this one more time. Maybe then they would have stopped after this one, but I doubt it. And how do you defend againt agaist allegations if the 600 drug tests mean nothing? All you can do is say, “No I didn’t”. Armstong has already said that repeatedly, saying it again in another hearing would have made no difference.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
DavidInStLouis
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 10:34am
“Who cares about NIKE (CHILD LABOR SLAVE) products.”

Good point, RIGS! :) VERY good point.

If this was the America of 30 years ago we wouldn’t STAND for it! >: ( What a sad commentary on this nation and the world.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- happygranny
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 10:40am
  The US Doping Agency found “massive allegations” of …….. since when is allegations become proof?
  
  Report this comment
lembrandt
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 10:32am
I’ve gotten such horrible responses in the past for saying this: but Lance Armstrong has *always* been an arrogant, smug, elitist creep.

This latest round of seemingly proof positive just confirms that he was also a cheater. A big time cheater – one of the biggest cheaters in the history of sport.

Its not sad – it’s karma coming back to bite him in the butt…he has lost his reputation, and he has lost his biggest sponsor. I’ll be waiting to find out he lost his money too – if that ever happens.

I wonder what Nike would do if somebody has *proof* that Tiger Woods used PEDs – which he clearly did. It will be interesting to see what would happen then.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- DrIvey
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 1:13pm
  You only get a horrible response to it because Livestrong spends hundreds of millions of dollars telling everyone what a Swell Guy Lance is. That’s what they do. They donate ZERO dollars to cancer research…did you know that?
  Armstrong got testicular cancer most likely because of the massive amounts of human growth hormone he was taking. Cancer allowed him to legally take drugs that would otherwise be forbidden for any pro cyclist. He was even taking experimental drugs which are highly controlled. The cover-up was massive and went to the highest levels of the sport-the UCI. Basically, he fell into a vat of excrement and came out smelling like a rose. Then he left his wife and children, began living like a rock star, fathering children out of wedlock, and terrorizing everyone in his life that he thought was about to tell the truth about him. He’s not a nice guy. Livestrong is a huge tax dodge for him and riddled with ethics problems (e.g. a Livestrong.org and a Livestrong.com. How many people think they’re buying products that “support cancer” when they’re actually just lining Lance’s already bulging pockets?).
  Nobody excels at pro cycling without using PEDS, but it’s far from a level playing field. Armstrong conducted the biggest drug ring in sports history AND HE DID It WITH YOUR TAX DOLLARS. I see today that the U.S. Postal Service is at their borrowing limit. Perhaps they shouldn’t have spent so much on Lance’s drugs.
  
  Report this comment
D-Fence
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 10:10am
It’s a shame. He had grown to almost idyllic proportions. To know that this remarkable athlete, cancer survivor & fighter, Cheryl Crow dating, man is not infalible, shouldn’t be a surprise. Sign of the times.

SOL

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Melika
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 10:27am
  There is no proof he doped, you dopes. There are wild accusations that have NEVER been proven. He simply decided he didn’t feel like fighting this crap anymore. This is typical character assassination and you people have fallen for it. Great job Beckites. Too bad you can’t think on your own. Maybe Beck should have a special segment with a few tears talking about this so you all know what is going on.
  
  Report this comment
- thop1960
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 10:43am
  @melika
  
  Because I agree with the first half of your statement I’ll try to ignore to stupidity of the second half. You’re right, there is no proof Lance has cheated except for testimony of a bunch of losers trying to save their own skin by making deals with the USADA. Until there is ONE (1) positive test put forward, I will continue to believe his account. Oh heck, I can’t ignore your idiotic comments; People are allowed to have an opinion, just like you. Just because it is voiced here does not make it some kind of Beckian conspiracy. Stop drinking the leftist cool-aid and open your mind to obvious facts about your glorious anointed one BHO. He is going to lose big, get your box of kleenex ready, it’s going to be a long sad night for you losers…ha!
  
  Report this comment
Neesey
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 10:04am
I still support Armstrong and here’s why. In a sport that has lomg been dominated by doping, they have never solved the problem. And, although I would prefer the blood, sweat and tears to the drugs, Armstrong still trained longer and harder in his years as champion. Not withstanding, many were caught doping and he was not, until the testifying of his teammates. So, here we have nothing but cheaters, and the best cheater won. Period. Do I like that he cheated? Nope. It seems to have been a level playing field then, does it not? The French will never be able to change that and I won’t see it any differently until the doping can be physically proven. Thus far, all there is are words.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Midwestgirl1116
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 10:12am
  Whatever. He cheated. Pure and simple.
  
  Report this comment
- stumpy68
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 10:33am
  Midwestgirl1116
  
  Really you saw him do it or are you privy to a test or report
  no one else is?? This man has been hounded out of something
  he loved with no convincing proof just unproven allegations.
  
  Report this comment
- DrIvey
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 1:38pm
  It wasn’t a level playing field. Just ask Hamilton and Landis and Pantani. That’s the whole point. That, and the fact that Lance parlayed his untouchability into a vast fortune by peddling a lie.
  
  Report this comment
- DrIvey
  Posted on October 17, 2012 at 1:42pm
  To say that everyone in cycling uses drugs is like saying everyone in government lies. That may be so, but there’s a big difference between Heinrich Himmler and Ronald Reagan. Guess what? Lance is no Ronald Reagan.
  
  Report this comment
scrudge
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 10:02am
Ah Yes…. another looser… all that doping for pedaling a bicycle…what a JERK this idiot is

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Gonzo
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 9:48am
The world of bicycle racing will never be the same…not that anyone outside of France will notice.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
RIGS
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 9:47am
Who cares about NIKE (CHILD LABOR SLAVE) products.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
KickinBack
Posted on October 17, 2012 at 9:45am
Cheaters never win. And karma is a b***h. So sad.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply

It appears that you have Javascript Disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser preferences for a better user experience on TheBlaze. You can not comment without Javascript enabled.