Last week, there was a lot of sadness surrounding two Americans, both called Armstrong.
One, Neil Armstrong (August 5, 1930-August 25, 2012), was a real life hero, the first person to walk on the moon, on July 21, 1969. Even though he was acclaimed as possessing the “right stuff,” the leader of the Apollo 11 mission was, in the words of his widow, a “reluctant hero.”
In spite of the fact that he became a symbol of not only the USA’s victory over the USSR in the space race and, by extension, of American predominance in the second half of the 20th century, but also of mankind’s aspirations to reach literally and figuratively for the stars, Neil Armstrong shunned celebrity and preferred to live far from the glare of publicity.
Neil Armstrong was an exceptional and heroic astronaut but because of his unassuming, reticent nature, he will probably be more fittingly remembered as a modest man who achieved extraordinary things. His death was mourned across America and across the world – a world which he had observed from a perspective granted to few members of the human race. Perhaps it was this perspective that explained in part his aversion to the limelight and the fact that he chose to devote his post-NASA life to education, as a professor of engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
The other Armstrong, Lance, born on September 18, 1971, two years after the moon landing, is obviously of a different generation and is a very different kettle of fish altogether. Winner of the world’s greatest cycling race, the Tour de France, a record seven successive times from 1999 to 2005, after having survived testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs in 1996, he was until August 23 last, another bona fide hero, albeit one touched by a certain arrogance.
On August 23, Lance Armstrong announced that he would no longer be fighting the charges brought by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) that he had used illicit performance enhancing drugs. He has since been banned from competitive cycling for life and the USADA is moving to have his Tour triumphs and other titles forfeited.
In the court of law, one is presumed innocent until proven guilty. In the court of public opinion, if one refuses to defend oneself to assert one’s innocence, then one is presumed to be guilty. This is the sorry state of affairs in which Lance Armstrong finds himself and the source of all the sadness in this saga of courage in the face of a life-threatening disease, indomitable will and, seemingly, the all too human tragic flaw of vaulting ambition.
In overcoming the dreaded cancer to get back on his bike to win the Tour an unprecedented and as yet unmatched seven times, Lance Armstrong became arguably one of the greatest champions of any sport and a living symbol of all that was powerful about the human will to live and to win.
Never really universally liked in his sport, though respected and even feared by his colleagues because of his driven single-mindedness, he was certainly admired for his heroic fight against cancer and his eponymous foundation which supports people affected by cancer and is one of the top ten groups funding cancer research in the USA.
Last week, however, the poster boy for fighting the good fight and dreaming the impossible dream, walked away from arguably the second greatest battle of his life, thereby giving credence to the years of innuendo, rumour and allegations that he was not only a serial doper but also the leader of a compromised team drawn into a tangled web of intimidation, intrigue and immorality.
It was a sad day for cycling, for sport in general and for everyone who had been inspired by Lance Armstrong’s triumphs over extreme adversity and his record-breaking deeds.
It is difficult to know whether his is the posture of the supremely arrogant man who refuses to lower himself to satisfy the baying crowd or whether he has chosen the escape route of the cheat who would prefer not to be further humiliated in court. Unfortunately, whatever the reason, most observers now believe that the truth has finally caught up with Lance Armstrong.
Neil Armstrong slipped these earthly bonds for a while and achieved heights experienced by few people, through the possibilities of science, technology, human inventiveness and personal heroism. But he kept his feet firmly planted on the ground. Lance Armstrong will always be a hero in the fight against cancer. But after taking flight in the popular imagination, aided it seems by the science of doping and a cult of complicity that reached extraordinary heights in the cycling world, he would now appear to have been irreconcilably brought down to earth.
