Lance Armstrong, my hero for life!

Since Lance Armstrong is going to feature on Oprah Winfrey’s show, I thought this would be right time to write about Lance Armstrong and, in a way, show my loyalty for one of my heroes no matter what he says on the show.

Lance Armstrong is a hero for some and a villain for others. He was the winner of 7 Tour de France titles between 1999 and 2005, until he was stripped of all his titles in 2012; a ridiculous decision if you ask me. In 1996, he was diagnosed with cancer, that too stage three, which had spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain, and was only given a 40 percent chance of living. To overcome this and achieve so much was, is and hopefully will be a great story and will not be affected by all the controversies that transpired later.

I was fascinated by his life and his achievements inspite of a big setback like cancer, so I had this curiosity to know more about him. Thus I decided to read his autobiography “Its Not About The Bike”. That book shook me and did change my perspective about life. It’s a great book even if he wouldn’t have been such great sportsman, as his fight against cancer is greatly inspiring all the same. After overcoming cancer, he founded the Livestrong Foundation, which provides support to those affected by cancer. I am not going to go into the details of his cycling career because I want to focus on him as an individual. He, for me, is a winner in many ways, titles or no titles and I feel he should be respected no matter what.

Even in cricket, our very own Yuvraj Singh took inspiration from Lance Armstrong in his own fight against cancer. You can imagine how many others suffering in life, not only from cancer but other deadly diseases as well, must have been inspired from his story and developed the will to fight and never give up. In his defense, Lance Armstrong never failed any doping test in his cycling career and even after being disqualified by USADA, he has maintained that he did not cheat.

In the latest news regarding him, he will be featuring on Oprah Winfrey’s show and many are saying that he will be making a confession of doping. No matter what he says on the show, he will always be my hero.