THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012
PAGE 9
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Armstrong stripped of racing medals
ASSOCIATED PRESS
GENEVA — Seven lines of blanks. From 1999 to 2005. There will be no Tour de France winner in the record book for those years.
10:30 p.m.
Once the toast of the Champs-lysees, Lance Armstrong was formally stripped of his seven Tour titles Monday and banned for life for doping.
As far as the Tour is concerned, his victories never happened. He was never on the top step of the podium. The winner's yellow jersey was never on his back.
The decision by the international Cycling Union marked an end to the saga that brought down the most decorated rider in Tour history and exposed widespread cheating in the sport.
"Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling, and he deserves to be forgotten in cycling," said Pat McQuaid, president of the governing body. "Make no mistake, it's a catastrophe for him, and he has to face up to that."
Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong riding down the Champs Elysees with an American flag after the 21st and final stage of the cycling race in Paris, France. Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life by cycling's governing body Monday, following a report from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that accused him of leading a massive doping program on his teams. UCI President Pat McQuaid announced that the federation accepted the USADA's report on Armstrong and would not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO
It's also devastating for Tour de France organizers, who have to curve seven gaping holes from the honor roll of the sport's biggest event and airbrush Armstrong's image from a sun-baked podium on the Champs-Elysees.
No more rides through Paris for the grim-faced cancer survivor bearing the American flag. No champagne. From the sport's perspective, it's all gone.
"We wish that there is no winner for this period," Tour director Christian Prudhomme said Monday in Paris. "For us, very clearly, the titles should remain blank. Effectively, we wish for these years to remain without winners."
Armstrong's fiercely defended reputation as a clean athlete was shattered by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency two weeks ago, when it detailed evidence of drug use and trafficking by his Tour-winning teams. USADA released its report to show why it ordered Armstrong banned from competition back in August. Monday's judgment by the UCI was just the necessary next legal step to formalize the loss of his titles and expel him from the sport.
It will likely also trigger painful financial hits for Armstrong as race organizers and former sponsors line up to reclaim what are now viewed as his ill-gotten rewards, though the cyclist maintains he never doped.
Prudhomme wants Armstrong to pay back prize money from his seven wins, which the French cycling federation tallied at €2.95 million ($3.85 million). Armstrong also once was awarded $7.5 million plus legal fees from Dallas-based SCA Promotions Inc., which tried to withhold paying a bonus for the rider's 2004 Tour victory after it alleged he doped to win.
The U.S. government could also get involved in a case brought by Floyd Landis, who was key to taking down his illustrious former teammate by turning whistleblower in 2010.
The losses pile up for a man who dedicated himself to victory, over other cyclists and the cancer that almost killed him in 1996.
Neither Armstrong nor his representatives had any comment about Monday's decision, but the rider was defiant in August when he chose not to fight USADA in one of the agency's arbitration hearings. He argued the process was rigged against him.
"I know who won those seven Tours, my teammates know who won those seven Tours, and everyone I competed against knows who won those seven Tours," Armstrong said then. "The toughest event in the world where the strongest man wins. Nobody can ever change that."
The condemnation by McQuaid, cycling's most senior official, confirmed Armstrong's pariah status, after the UCI had backed him at times in trying to seize control of the doping investigation from USADA.
McQuaid announced that the UCI accepted the sanctions imposed by USADA and would not appeal them to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. His board will meet Friday to discuss going after Armstrong's 2000 Olympic bronze medal and the possibility of setting up a "truth and reconciliation" commission to air the sport's remaining secrets.
The International Olympic
Committee said it would study the UCI's response and wait to receive its full decision before possibly taking away Armstrong's medal from the Sydney Games time trial.
"It is good to see that all parties involved in this case are working together to tackle this issue," the IOC said. McQuaid said he was "sickened" by some of the evidence detailed by USADA in its 200-page report and hundreds of pages of supporting testimony and documents.
USADA said Armstrong was at the center of "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen" within his U.S. Postal Service and Discovery Channel teams.
The American agency welcomed the decision by UCI.
"Today, the UCI made the right decision in the Lance Armstrong case," USADA CEO Travis Tygart said in a statement, which called on cycling to continue to fight doping. "There are many more details of doping that are
hidden, many more doping doctors, and corrupt team directors and the omerta has not yet been fully broken."
The USADA report said Armstrong and his teams used steroids, the blood booster EPO and blood transfusions. The report included statements from 11 former teammates who testified against Armstrong, including that he pressured them to take banned drugs.
In all, 26 people — including 15 riders — testified to USADA that Armstrong and his teams used and trafficked banned substances and routinely used blood transfusions. Among the witnesses were loyal sidekick George Hincapie and admitted dopers Landis and Tyler Hamilton.
McQuaid singled out former teammate David Zabriskie, saying: "The story he told of how he was coerced and to some extent forced into doping is just mind-boggling."
BIG 12
K-State in national title contention
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two more Big 12 games were decided late by teams that scored more than 50 points apiece. National title talk faded for good in West Virginia, replaced by similar chatter at Kansas State.
Intrigue is building as the Big 12 essentially hits the halfway point of the season, and the 10-team league looks like it's going nine deep. Nobody wants to dismiss the one outcast — Kansas — because coach Charlie Weis is a former NFL offensive whiz who has the experience of being the head coach at Notre Dame.
"I'm almost tentative to say 'I told you so' or give you that story," Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said. "For three 'or four years, I've been saying that with the skill players that are coming out now, the spread offenses, the fast pace, the blitzing style of defenses, the parity is greater than it's ever been in college football. There's not any question the parity in this league is more than ever."
Three weeks ago, West Virginia was entering the national title picture and had the Heisman Trophy front-runner in quarterback Geno Smith. That has vanished in blowout losses to Texas Tech and Kansas State.
Kansas State was getting patted on the head as a good little team before going to Oklahoma and knocking off the Sooners in a
tense game that declared the race was on. Now coaches are quick to call the Wildcats the big dogs.
For now.
"What you're having to do now unlike the early years is you're having to play every week," said Texas coach Mack Brown, whose Longhorns suffered consecutive losses to West Virginia and Oklahoma. "It did not surprise me when West Virginia left here and went out to Lubbock and got beat."
"We play in a good league. I think everybody understands that," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. "We got off to a hot start, but a pretty good Texas Tech team and a real good Kansas State team exposed us a little bit."
No. 4 Kansas State doesn't have to go to Lubbock, but the Wildcats are catching Texas Tech at possibly its highest point in three years under coach Tommy Tuberville. The Red Raiders bounced back from a lopsided loss to Oklahoma with the win over West Virginia, then survived three overtimes at TCU for a 56-53 victory after letting a late 10-point lead slip away.
The No. 15 Red Raiders can scramble the top of the standings with a win Saturday in Manhattan, Kan., but it won't be the last time an underdog has a chance to reshape the Big 12 race.
Baylor is back near the bottom of the league without Robert Griffin III because the Bears have
one of the worst defenses in the country. But these aren't the same Bears who were doormats for most of the first decade of the Big 12 because they still have a quarterback.
The puzzling game for Baylor was the one in between — a 49-21 home loss to TCU a week after the Horned Frogs lost 37-23 to Iowa State in their first Big 12 home game.
Griffin's replacement, Nick Florence, threw for 933 yards and seven touchdowns combined in losses of 70-63 to West Virginia and 56-50 to Texas, both on the road. Florence leads the nation in total offense.
"I think it it's been deep the last two or three years," Baylor coach Art Briles said. "I think you could just go back through and look at the so-called upsets over the last
That's the only league win for the Cyclones, who will try to keep the Bears winless in the Big 12 on Saturday.
couple of years late in the season. It's a tough battle, and that's why it's such a great league."
Along with Kansas State-Texas Tech, most of the Big 12 attention this week will focus on No. 8 Oklahoma's effort to re-enter the national title picture in a home game against fifth-ranked Notre Dame. But the other game in Oklahoma — TCU's visit to Oklahoma State — is big for the Cowboys, who are trying to avoid a second league losses.
Texas is taking one of the nation's worst defenses to Kansas, where Weis has quarterback issues as he tries to use his Super Bowl-winning pedigree to get up to speed in a pass-happy, high-scoring league.
"I'm new to the Big 12, and I'm just into the grind of going through this schedule," Weis said. "It doesn't make any difference who you're playing. It's a new set of problems each week."
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Freshman Maria Jose Cardona returns the ball in her singles against a Kansas State opponent at the KU Invitational at the Jayhawk Tennis Center on Sept. 22. Cardona defeated her opponent 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.
2112 W 25th St Lawrence, KS | 785-838-3500
Tennis competes in two tournaments
TARA BRYANT/KANSAN
TYLER CONOVER
tconover@kansan.com
The Kansas tennis team was divided between two states this weekend as its players competed in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Regional Championships in Tulsa, Okla. and the KU Tournament in Lawrence.
Freshman Maria Jose Cardona made it to the quarterfinals of the main singles draw but was bested 6-4 and 6-1 by Hermon Bhane of Oklahoma. Sophomore Maria Belen Luduena notched the only other victory in singles match play as she defeated Izabella Zgierska of Nebraska 6-1 and 6-0 in the first round before falling to third-seed Whitney Ritchie of Oklahoma.
The players that participated in the ITA Regional Championships showed a lot of potential, but only a only one player made it past the second round in singles play.
In doubles competition at the ITA, Luduena and Cardona made it out of the first round of the main doubles draw but were unable to get past the second round after losing 8-5 against the top-seeded Oklahoma State duo Kanyapat Narrattana and Malika Rosa.
After the ITA tournament, coach Amy Hall-Holt said she is excited for the future of the program. She said the two freshmen are playing well and the rest of the team is showing the will to compete.
Only Victoria Khanevskaya; Claire Dreyer and Anastasija Trubica stayed in Lawrence for the KU Tournament.
The Jayhaws' next competition is the San Diego Invitational; which starts Nov. 9.
Trubica won her singles draw, beating Amina St. Hill of Kansas State in the final round 6-3, 1-6 and 6-3. Trubica also won against Ali Patterson of Drake in the semifinals 7-5 and 6-1.
Khanevskaya finished third in her singles draw and Dreyer finished fifth in her singles draw.
- Edited by Emma McElhaney
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- Experiencing RLS symptoms for at least 15 nights in the month before beginning the study or, if currently receiving RLS treatment, 15 nights in the month before beginning treatment
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