Lance Armstrong

Lance Edward Armstrong (né Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road racing cyclist.

Armstrong was born Lance Edward Gunderson on September 18, 1971, at Methodist Hospital in Richardson, Texas.

His mother, Linda Armstrong Kelly grew up in Oak Cliff.

He was named after Lance Rentzel, a Dallas Cowboys wide receiver.

His parents divorced in 1973 when Lance was two.

He attended Plano East Senior High School.

In the 1987–1988 Tri-Fed/Texas ("Tri-Fed" was the former name of USA Triathlon), Armstrong was ranked the number-one triathlete in the 19-and-under group; second place was Chann McRae, who became a US Postal Service cycling teammate and the 2002 USPRO national champion.

Armstrong's total points in 1987 as an amateur were better than those of five professionals ranked higher than he was that year.

At age 16, Armstrong began competing as a triathlete and was a national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990.

At 16, Lance Armstrong became a professional triathlete and became national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990 at 18 and 19, respectively.

In 1992, he began his career as a professional cyclist with the Motorola team.

In 1992, Armstrong turned professional with the Motorola Cycling Team, the successor of 7-Eleven team.

He had success between 1993 and 1996 with the World Championship in 1993, the Clásica de San Sebastián in 1995, Tour DuPont in 1995 and 1996, and a handful of stage victories in Europe, including stage 8 of the 1993 Tour de France and stage 18 of the 1995 Tour de France.

In 1993, Armstrong won 10 one-day events and stage races, but his breakthrough victory was the World Road Race Championship held in Norway.

Before his World Championships win, he took his first win at the Tour de France, in the stage from Châlons-sur-Marne to Verdun.

In 1994, he again won the Thrift Drug Classic and came second in the Tour DuPont in the United States.

His successes in Europe occurred when he placed second in Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Clásica de San Sebastián, where just two years before, he had finished in last place at his first all-pro event in Europe.

He finished the year strongly at the World Championships in Agrigento, finishing in 7th place less than a minute behind winner Luc Leblanc.

He won the Clásica de San Sebastián in 1995, followed by an overall victory in the penultimate Tour DuPont and a handful of stage victories in Europe, including the stage to Limoges in the Tour de France, three days after the death of his teammate Fabio Casartelli, who crashed on the descent of the Col de Portet d'Aspet on the 15th stage.

After winning the stage, Armstrong pointed to the sky in honor of Casartelli.

In 1996, he was diagnosed with a potentially fatal metastatic testicular cancer.

After his recovery, he founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation (now the Livestrong Foundation) to assist other cancer survivors.

Armstrong's successes were much the same in 1996.

He was 97th in the general classification when he retired after stage 12.

He collected the Thrift Drug Triple Crown of Cycling: the Thrift Drug Classic in Pittsburgh, the K-Mart West Virginia Classic, and the CoreStates USPRO national championship in Philadelphia.

He is alleged by another cyclist competing in the CoreStates Road Race to have bribed that cyclist so that he would not compete with Armstrong for the win.

Returning to cycling in 1998, Armstrong was a member of the US Postal/Discovery team between 1998 and 2005 when he won his seven Tour de France titles.

He achieved international fame for winning the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005, but was stripped of his titles after an investigation into doping allegations, called the Lance Armstrong doping case, found he used performance-enhancing drugs over his career.

He is currently banned for life from all sanctioned bicycling events.

Armstrong became the subject of doping allegations after he won the 1999 Tour de France.

For years, he denied involvement in doping.

Armstrong retired from racing at the end of the 2005 Tour de France, but returned to competitive cycling with the Astana team in January 2009, finishing third in the 2009 Tour de France later that year.

Between 2010 and 2011, he raced with Team Radio Shack, and retired for a second time in 2011.

In 2012, a United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) investigation concluded that Armstrong had used performance-enhancing drugs over the course of his career and named him as the ringleader of "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen".

While maintaining his innocence, Armstrong chose not to contest the charges, citing the potential toll on his family.

He received a lifetime ban from all sports that follow the World Anti-Doping Code, ending his competitive cycling career.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) upheld USADA's decision and decided that his stripped wins would not be allocated to other riders.

In January 2013, Armstrong publicly admitted his involvement in doping.

In a 2016 speech to University of Colorado, Boulder professor Roger A. Pielke Jr.'s Introduction to Sports Governance class, Armstrong stated he began doping in "late spring of 1995".

In April 2018, Armstrong settled a civil lawsuit with the United States Department of Justice and agreed to pay US$5 million to the U.S. government after whistleblower proceedings were commenced by Floyd Landis, a former team member.