Is Lance Armstrong the biggest fraud in the history of sports?

To answer my own question, I'd argue yes.

I know naysayers will argue that he was only doing what everyone else was doing...but no one was doing it as much, or demanding others doing it, or, more importantly, crushing the competition while doing it, as Lance was. And that's just on the "field of play." Off the bike, he became an icon, a brand name, and massively wealthy.

And now, it's all come crashing down.

There has never been anyone in sports who achieved bigger heights more fraudulently.

 

Votes Lance all the way

 

I think TigerVols is right.

The difference being that Armstrong was universally loved, for the most part. (Save for a few cynics.)

Maybe Tiger Woods?

But I think that infidelity is a completely different ballgame than PED's. Plus, the Tiger infidelity story was a shocker to exactly nobody at this corner of the Internet, right?

What about Kirby Puckett? Still not even close to Armstrong, though.

 

Wait til the Tiger PED story comes out.

 

If Lance hadn't been so adamant about not being a doper, the uproar would be far less.

This guy is in the running, too.

 

There would honestly be a not insignificant percentage of the country - a lot of casual type fans - who might never watch another sporting event after that.

 

Interesting, I can't see that happening at all. Tiger's Dr has been linked to HGH would you really be surprised if he took something? He might be the most competetive man in sports, if I had to bet on it I would definitely bet he has used. No OOP, I have no proof.

 

All of the baseball players noted above were great ballplayers BEFORE they PED'ed out.

Lance was a middle-to-back of the pack cyclist who took cancer-causing PEDS, got cancer, lost 40 pounds as a result, came back while using state of the art PEDs...and suddenly crushed the field in ways no one ever had before.

 

But he was also a cyclist. We didn't care in 1998 and we again didn't care in 2006.

 

No, I wouldn't be surprised.

But you're talking about a populace that was shocked that a professional athlete cheated on his wife.

I just think a major Woods PED scandal, after people finished blaming "the media," would turn away a large amount of casual sports fans. Essentially - and we already know this is the case, but not everyone does - every major sports accomplishment of the last two decades would feel tainted, or potentially tainted. I think a large, "What's the point?" feeling would set in.