Should Lance be forgiven?

Give Lance another chance?

The main idea of this article is that people are accusing Lance Armstrong of cheating through out his whole legacy of bicycling. Lance was a professional bicyclist who'd broken many records while performing in the sport and people looked to him as a great inspirational human being and many people loved him. However there are recent rumors that he has been cheating the whole time and also has been lying for about a decade.

Details or evidence I have from the article is when Frida Ghitis says  "Lance Armstrong's story of triumph over adversity captured the imagination of millions around the world, including people like me, who don't usually spend a lot of time absorbed in following sports news. That's because Armstrong's achievements recovering from cancer and then breaking records in the cycling world made him a source of inspiration, and an icon of hope." While Ghitis is giving him praise the columnist also says "They also made his lies all the more disappointing. Over the years we heard the accusations that he was cheating, and we heard his denials We wanted to believe him. We wanted to believe that a man, a person, can soar above physical obstacles on the strength of sheer determination. We wanted to believe above physical obstacles on the strength of sheer determination. We wanted to believe that if it was true for him, it could be true for us and for our loved ones." This piece of evidence from Ghitis indicates that she knows of the rumors and accusals of Armstrong cheating and lying.

In my opinion if Lance did cheat then he should probably get a second chance to fix what he broke. Meaning that he should get another chance to prove that he has earned the respect and praise he's earned of the years as a bicyclist. However if he cannot prove that he wasn't cheating then he should be ashamed of lying to so many people for so many years and all the records he broke should rightfully go back to the people who set them in the first place because it isn't fair to them since they actually did the training and dedicated themselves to bicycling to earn those records and like I said that should only happen if he did really cheat.

A connection i can make to this is from when I was in Middle School (4th grade) I remember that we used to play Freeze Tag. I remember that when this one person was "It" he would always try to cheat and hide somewhere to wait for people to come pass so he can easily tag them without them being aware of where he is. Now I don't know if this can be considered as cheating but I sure did see it as not fair gameplay.

This article has clearly helped me to think more deeply of this topic because I have a lot more to say about it as you can see by this blog. It's helped me to realize that there actually can be role models who earn the fame and earn many titles from people and become an inspirational figure but they cheat there whole way to get to that ranking in the first place.

Questions I may have is why if you claim that you put dedication and time into what you love.. Why do you have to cheat? Another question I have however is if Lance really is what he claims to be why is there such debate about it? If he knows he's a great man he should prove it to everyone who says otherwise.