Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Lost Love
Even though there is a week left, the Tour is over. Lance will win #7 unless he crashes or gets sick which he won't do. It's a bit of a downer--no more excitement, no big stages to look forward to each day, no more white-knuckled vicarious hill climbs. It's been a good ride. I think it will be a long time before we witness an athlete as consistent and dominant as Lance Armstrong.
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4 comments:
I have mixed feelings about Lance. I'm not really into cycling, but I can't help but be impressed with his accomplishments. But I find his "live strong" campaign to be endlessly annoying. It's just evidence of my continuing annoyance with the cancer community really, but it bothers me how he presents the image that he survived cancer from some conscious effort on his part, that he lived strong, rather than just acknowledging that he was damn lucky.
Didn't we all have the same sort of thing for Greg Lemond (sp)? Seems so. But yes, it is sad to see the passing of a great athelete.
And lis, I agree. I didn't realize why I was annoyed by those things. I never set out to analyze it. While I'm no cancer survivor, I have watched my father, the strongest person I have even known either physically or morally, die of it and it really tweaks me that people still think that cancer represents some sort of moral failing or character flaw on that part of the victim.
My passion for Lance isn't as great as Ron's, but I have pretty much unqualified admiration for him, particularly the way he takes his physical gifts and employs them with meticulous and relentless training. It's what I admire about all my favorite athletes--however, _so_ not what I am.
I want to admire Lance (and I do admire his athleticism), but I have a hard time respecting him. I think the message I get from him is that in order to be an amazing athlete you have to be a jerk to your family, ignore your kids, treat your wife badly, etc. And as opposed to Ron, I think Sheryl Crow is one of the things I like best about him.
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