For a number of years, a feel-good story of a cyclist transfixed us.  First, doctors diagnosed a twenty-five-year-old Lance Armstrong with testicular cancer in 1996.  That’s not uncommon, many young athletes become afflicted with serious illnesses.  Second, after he completes his recovery, he proceeds to win the Tour de France, the epitome of bicycle races, in 1999.  Third, he repeated this victory, winning the twenty-plus day bicycle race, six more times.  It had never been done before.

I did not know the name before these victories began.  In fact, I had only a vague familiarity of the Tour de France and really knew nothing about it.  I certainly knew of no names that had won that event.  However, I’ll admit that even I was seduced by the allure of that story.  I started to learn about the event, which includes the types of stages, the different awards, etc.  I learned that Armstrong excelled at the mountain stages; he passed other riders and grew his lead during these stages.

Like any other athlete, Lance Armstrong had his competitors and rivals.  When allegations of cheating and doping first surfaced, I assumed that they were unfounded.  Any athlete with historic achievements will naturally have a healthy number of skeptics and deniers.  While Armstrong’s demeanor lacked a certain humility for my taste, I had no reason to question those Yellow Jerseys.

Lance Armstrong exposed!

Years after Armstrong ran his last race, they finally exposed him in 2013.  They stored his samples for subsequent testing, long after the race finished.  The technology had finally caught up with his method of cheating.  The authorities had him dead to rights; they simply needed to dot every “i” and cross every “t” to make it stick.  They eventually did.

They presented enough evidence to vacate his seven Tour de France victories.  Every plausible explanation for a positive test had been effectively debunked.  I’m sure he felt the walls closing in around him.  In one last act of defiance, he tweets a picture of himself at home with the seven Yellow Jerseys.  Lance Armstrong, as the ultimate showman, arranged for an interview with Oprah, where they hinted at a tell-all confession.  Unfortunately, he could not even conduct a confession without cheating; Oprah asked some questions which he refused to answer.

However, cyclists doping isn’t especially noteworthy.  For instance, George Hincapie, one of Armstrong’s own teammates, confessed to doping.  There have been many instances of this occurring.  What makes this particular case noteworthy is not that he did it, it’s how he did it.

How Armstrong was different

As mentioned above, cyclists had doped before Lance Armstrong, and I’m sure there will be instances in the future.  For most people, getting their figurative hand caught in the cookie jar meant owning up to what they did, apologizing, and making amends.  Armstrong went down the path of gaslighting everyone.  Specifically, he deviated from everyone else in two instrumental ways:

• Upon getting caught, he doubled down on the lie.  With each allegation, he only denied them.  He even had doctors produce a prescription of medication that may explain a positive test for cortisone.
• Upon accounts of his doping, he didn’t merely deny those allegations.  He bullied people like Betsy Andreu (the wife of a former teammate) for merely telling the truth; you could even say he tried to destroy all whistleblowers.

I understand a certain degree of ambition, after all we each want affirmation that we excel at what we do.  However, I don’t understand the disposition to win at all costs, even by unfair means.  Furthermore, the instinct to not just defeat, but to absolutely destroy those who stand in your way, elevates his behavior from understandable to nauseating.

Lance Armstrong’s fall from grace had little to do with his doping, or even the extent to how much (or frequently) he doped.  No, what turned us against him is the degree to which he’d go to protect his ill-gotten legacy.  He exhibited a disproportionate amount of venom.

Parallels to Armstrong

While Armstrong inspired many, including myself, our opinions soured once we realized that the impression of the man that we admired did not resemble the actual person.  Others’ admiration may be as addictive of a narcotic as anything else we know, and to use an old adage, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”  And Armstrong was big; in fact, the biggest in cycling history.  His fall was similarly historic.

That said, can we draw parallels between that disgraced Armstrong and other people, like Donald Trump?  While I’ll fully admit that I have no love lost for Trump, let’s examine the empirical evidence.  We’ll make a case for how Trump mirrored Armstrong in similar ways, and perhaps how he may suffer the same fate.

Let’s break it down into the two behaviors above.  The disposition to deny and the thirst for vengeance.

The disposition to deny

I’m not naïve; I understand that most politicians will lie in order to avoid inconvenient truths.  Who can forget responses like, “I didn’t inhale” or “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”?  However, there’s lying about smoking pot (which is now legal in many states) or having consensual sex with an intern, and there’s lying about fraud and sexual assault.  The press has repeatedly quoted Trump as, “I have done nothing wrong” on a number of issues.  I’ll give you a modest list of Trump’s denials:

• While he couldn’t deny that he boasted about “grabbing women by the pussy”, since they recorded him on a hot mic.  He effectively denied that he ever did it (or meant it) by calling it “locker room” talk.
• He denied knowing E. Jean Carroll, even after presented with a picture of the two of them together, where he claimed that it was a picture of former wife Marla Maples.  Do any of us really believe that he doesn’t remember her?
• He settled a Trump University suit where he ‘duped’ students for $25 million, yet he did nothing wrong?
• They found him liable or guilty on several other suits.  Including for inflating NY real estate properties, E. Jean Carroll sexual assault, and the NY state hush money trial.  The latter two involved jury judgements (not a ‘biased’ judge).

“I did nothing wrong.”  Really?!  A number of these presided over a jury (hint: the defense can dismiss some jurists).  Yet not one person from a ‘reasonable’ set of jurists from all walks of life, voted to acquit.  A much simpler explanation is that the evidence convinced them of his guilt.

The thirst for vengeance

Honestly, he doesn’t even try to hide this one, though it doesn’t make it any more palatable.  Sometimes he does it himself, but often he simply gives a vague direction and that’s enough.  He demands absolute loyalty.  For instance:

• He targeted every Republican who voted to impeach him.  A Trump-backed challenger primaried Liz Cheney from her seat.  Adam Kinzinger decided not to run again.  Similarly, Fred Upton retired from politics.
• People plotted to kidnap (and presumably kill) Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer on his behalf.
• Secretaries of state that Trump lost got credible death threats (with pictures of their homes and names of their kids) for certifying the election.
• People called in death threats against the Geogia election workers for simply counting ballots when Trump lost Georgia.  They won a law suit against Rudy Guiliani.
• People swatted the mother of Michael Fanone, former January 6th police officer and Trump critic.

For goodness’s sake, Trump literally said “I am your retribution” during a rally.  Is this really who we want for president?

Trump’s striking similarities to Armstrong

Lance Armstrong embodied success and hope; people idolized him.  Fans ardently defended him when the doping allegations first emerged.  Abruptly, they flipped the switch.  Those he deceived felt the sting of his dishonesty.  They felt like the fools that they were.  We asked ourselves, “How did we so easily believe?”  Armstrong continued to deny the allegations and crush anyone that challenged his legacy.  The tests results proved beyond contestation that he cheated his way through those Tours.  We finally crossed that threshold.

Trump follows the same playbook.  He continues to deny every allegation and proceeds to target each dissenter.  And similarly, the walls continue to close in.  He owes hundreds of millions in civil lawsuits, deferred until appeal.  He faces potential prison time for the 34 felonies.  Moreover, Trump seeks reelection to avoid accountability more so than to run our country.

Perhaps we’ll collectively cross this threshold upon seeing him in handcuffs and a matching orange jumpsuit.  Maybe it’ll feel like a hypnotist snapping their fingers.  Hopefully, we’ll collectively develop an allergy to all his nonsense.  Perhaps we’ll all finally see the name calling for what it is… childish and uncouth.

With a bit of luck, the word ‘Trump’ becomes a word that we avoid that elicits great embarrassment, like ‘disco’, ‘parachute pants’, and ‘Milli Vanilli’.