Linkey
7th Tour win gives Lance immortality
Cyclist will forever be remembered alongside greats like Babe, Jordan
By Mike Celizic
Lance.
Thats all you have to say today and all youll have to say 30 years from now. Everything else will fill in by itself: the last name, the incredible record in the Tour de France, the enormous strength, the unquenchable competitive spirit, the sheer greatness of his career and accomplishments.
The greatest tribute in sports today is to be known by a single name or nickname. Say Tiger, Barry, Michael, Magic, Rocket, Ali, Emmitt, Sweetness, Pele or A-Rod and everyone knows about whom you are speaking. You are talking about the best.
Lance Armstrong is retiring with his unprecedented seventh straight Tour de France victory. The final one, which should have been the hardest, was absurdly easy. He took the lead early, fought off a few puny challenges, and spent his final week not threatened in the race he has come to define. His pursuers said they had given it their all and admitted it wasnt nearly enough.
Lance wasnt just a little bit better than the best of his generation; He was a lot better. He dominated his sport like Babe Ruth dominated baseball 80 years ago. No one before was better at this one consummate test of cycling and it will be a long time before anyone is as good again.
Weve been through a remarkable era in sports, an era that rivals the Roaring 20s for producing heroes. Back then it was the Galloping Ghost, Red Grange; The Manassa Mauler, Jack Dempsey; the Babe; Big Bill Tilden, the tennis great; Bobby Jones, winner of golfs Grand Slam. Some say it was the greatest era ever.
We have some right to say were not far behind, if were behind at all. In the past decade, weve been able to watch Roger Clemens, who is arguably the best right-handed pitcher ever; Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player who ever lived; Emmitt Smith, footballs all-time rushing leader; a crop of NFL quarterbacks that includes Dan Marino, Joe Montana, John Elway and Brett Favre; Shaq, the greatest center of his generation and one of the greatest ever; Pete Sampras, who won more Grand Slams than any other man; Barry Bonds, with his seven MVPs; and Jerry Rice, without question the greatest receiver in NFL history.
We didnt have a great heavyweight champion; Ali was the last who truly fit that description. But Iron Mike Tyson was as compelling a personality as anyone who has ever held the title.
We also have a some stars who are approaching their primes, including Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Anika Sorenstam and Tiger Woods. All could one day be the best ever.
Lance Armstrong fits right in there, an athlete identifiable by a single name who dominated the signature event of multiple-stage bike racing like no one ever has. His accomplishment has to stand with those of Rice and Emmitt and Marino and Sampras and Bonds. It stands with any achievement by anyone.
And lets hear no more debates about whether Lance is truly an athlete and whether bike racing is truly a sport. The Greeks invented athletic competition nearly 2,500 years ago. In the first recorded Olympic games, there was one event a sprint of approximately 200 meters. The distance was called a stade, and its the word from which we get the word stadium.
For the Greeks, athleticism wasnt about hand-eye coordination; it was about speed and power. To this day, the most celebrated Olympic champion in track and field is the winner of the shortest race, the 100-meter dash.
Sports are contests in which people compete physically, matching a skill or skill set against others. Thats my definition, at least. My cut-off line is anything you can do better while drinking beer. So billiards doesnt make it. Nor does darts. Those are games.
Bike racing qualifies on multiple levels. It requires strength and power and incredible cardiovascular fitness. On the Tour, it calls for teamwork. And if you dont think you have to be coordinated or athletic to ride a few pounds of alloy at 60 mph down a mountain festooned with switchbacks on a couple of millimeters of rubber thats hanging on for your dear life to the pavement, think again.
And if you remember being a kid and racing other kids on bikes, youll also remember that the kids who beat you were almost always better athletes than you in other sports.
To say that bike racing isnt a real sport is merely a way of justifying the fact that you dont pay attention to it or find it important. But you dont have to like cycling or ever watch it to appreciate it. Not many people watch triathlons, either, but its impossible to deny the athletic ability of those who excel at them.
Lance is an athlete and a champion for the ages. He was that before the 2005 Tour de France began. Now that its over, and the best riders in the world couldnt even challenge him, his greatness stands out even more starkly than before.
Dont argue about what he does. Appreciate what hes accomplished, because its likely youll never see it equaled again.
7th Tour win gives Lance immortality
Cyclist will forever be remembered alongside greats like Babe, Jordan
By Mike Celizic
Lance.
Thats all you have to say today and all youll have to say 30 years from now. Everything else will fill in by itself: the last name, the incredible record in the Tour de France, the enormous strength, the unquenchable competitive spirit, the sheer greatness of his career and accomplishments.
The greatest tribute in sports today is to be known by a single name or nickname. Say Tiger, Barry, Michael, Magic, Rocket, Ali, Emmitt, Sweetness, Pele or A-Rod and everyone knows about whom you are speaking. You are talking about the best.
Lance Armstrong is retiring with his unprecedented seventh straight Tour de France victory. The final one, which should have been the hardest, was absurdly easy. He took the lead early, fought off a few puny challenges, and spent his final week not threatened in the race he has come to define. His pursuers said they had given it their all and admitted it wasnt nearly enough.
Lance wasnt just a little bit better than the best of his generation; He was a lot better. He dominated his sport like Babe Ruth dominated baseball 80 years ago. No one before was better at this one consummate test of cycling and it will be a long time before anyone is as good again.
Weve been through a remarkable era in sports, an era that rivals the Roaring 20s for producing heroes. Back then it was the Galloping Ghost, Red Grange; The Manassa Mauler, Jack Dempsey; the Babe; Big Bill Tilden, the tennis great; Bobby Jones, winner of golfs Grand Slam. Some say it was the greatest era ever.
We have some right to say were not far behind, if were behind at all. In the past decade, weve been able to watch Roger Clemens, who is arguably the best right-handed pitcher ever; Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player who ever lived; Emmitt Smith, footballs all-time rushing leader; a crop of NFL quarterbacks that includes Dan Marino, Joe Montana, John Elway and Brett Favre; Shaq, the greatest center of his generation and one of the greatest ever; Pete Sampras, who won more Grand Slams than any other man; Barry Bonds, with his seven MVPs; and Jerry Rice, without question the greatest receiver in NFL history.
We didnt have a great heavyweight champion; Ali was the last who truly fit that description. But Iron Mike Tyson was as compelling a personality as anyone who has ever held the title.
We also have a some stars who are approaching their primes, including Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Anika Sorenstam and Tiger Woods. All could one day be the best ever.
Lance Armstrong fits right in there, an athlete identifiable by a single name who dominated the signature event of multiple-stage bike racing like no one ever has. His accomplishment has to stand with those of Rice and Emmitt and Marino and Sampras and Bonds. It stands with any achievement by anyone.
And lets hear no more debates about whether Lance is truly an athlete and whether bike racing is truly a sport. The Greeks invented athletic competition nearly 2,500 years ago. In the first recorded Olympic games, there was one event a sprint of approximately 200 meters. The distance was called a stade, and its the word from which we get the word stadium.
For the Greeks, athleticism wasnt about hand-eye coordination; it was about speed and power. To this day, the most celebrated Olympic champion in track and field is the winner of the shortest race, the 100-meter dash.
Sports are contests in which people compete physically, matching a skill or skill set against others. Thats my definition, at least. My cut-off line is anything you can do better while drinking beer. So billiards doesnt make it. Nor does darts. Those are games.
Bike racing qualifies on multiple levels. It requires strength and power and incredible cardiovascular fitness. On the Tour, it calls for teamwork. And if you dont think you have to be coordinated or athletic to ride a few pounds of alloy at 60 mph down a mountain festooned with switchbacks on a couple of millimeters of rubber thats hanging on for your dear life to the pavement, think again.
And if you remember being a kid and racing other kids on bikes, youll also remember that the kids who beat you were almost always better athletes than you in other sports.
To say that bike racing isnt a real sport is merely a way of justifying the fact that you dont pay attention to it or find it important. But you dont have to like cycling or ever watch it to appreciate it. Not many people watch triathlons, either, but its impossible to deny the athletic ability of those who excel at them.
Lance is an athlete and a champion for the ages. He was that before the 2005 Tour de France began. Now that its over, and the best riders in the world couldnt even challenge him, his greatness stands out even more starkly than before.
Dont argue about what he does. Appreciate what hes accomplished, because its likely youll never see it equaled again.
