Lance Armstong Cancer Survivor Essay, Research Paper
Some of the most successful people in life have had to overcome disadvantages and obstacles that most others take for granted. I think Lance Armstrong is one of those successful people. Lisa, Lance’s mother, knew things wouldn’t be easy for him because she was only 17 when he was born and his father was never in the picture. She raised him enforcing an unbending rule: ” make every obstacle an opportunity.”
Lance developed a love for endurance sports at an early age. He joined a local swim club when he was in the fifth grade and he trained with a coach that Lance says to this day is one of the best coaches he has ever had. When Lance was 13, he started riding a bike to swim practice. His daily workout routine consisted of 6 miles in the water and 20 miles on the bike. Pretty soon Lance became known all around the country because he was already a professional triathlete at the age of fifteen. Lance and his mom would travel all over Texas and other southern states entering as many races as possible. When he was sixteen years old he was making about $20,000 a year racing.
By the time he was a senior in high school his main interest was cycling. That year he was named to the U.S. national cycling team and he left home to go to Europe and race. Cycling is huge in Europe and it s where the best riders in the world are. He was racing as an amateur and became notorious for riding races on pure strength and not relying heavily on team tactics. Riding without relying on team tactics wasn t the smartest way to ride but he was unusually strong and coaches were saying he was one of the best young cyclists they have seen in years.
As most elite athletes do, Lance underwent physiological scientific tests to analyze his level of fitness. The tests determine how your body reacts to the stress of exercise. At only sixteen years old, He already had the highest VO2 Max the Texas Sports Research Facility has ever recorded. VO2 Max is a measure of how much oxygen your body uses during exercise. It increases with strenuous training and it s the best indicator of how fast a rider will be. They also found that his body produces an abnormal amount of endorphins during exercise. This enables him to endure more pain than the average person.
Lance was twenty-one when he turned professional. In his first year as a pro he won the world championships in Spain and became the youngest world champion in history. This was an unbelievable feat considering his age. Armstrong says “cycling is a sport that embarrasses the youth”, but even at his age he was having a great first season as a professional. However, Armstrong s performances in 1994-95 were less spectacular.
In 1996 things started to come together for Lance. He says he felt like he was finally coming into his prime. Armstrong won a race called the Fleche-Wallonne, a grueling race through the Ardennes that no American had ever conquered. He also had five second place finishes and finished the spring season with a win at the Tour Du Pont, a 12-day, 1,225-mile race through the Carolina Mountains. He was about to break into the top five international rankings for the first time in his career. However, something wasn’t right about his body that particular year. After his win at the Tour Du Pont he was too exhausted to pump his fist in the air as he usually did at the finish line. His eyes were blood shot and his face was flush and pale. After the spring races he was run down and had sore nipples, a sign of illness. He also had a slightly swollen testicle.
Armstrong says Cycling is a sport of self-punishment. In a race, everything hurts, your legs, your lungs, your feet, your back, your hands and arms, everything.” A rider has to get use to dealing with pain. This is one reason he says he ignored the symptoms of illness. He figured his body was just exhausted from a hard season, but the Olympics and the Tour De France were still to come later that year and he couldn t slow down now. After finishing a disappointing, 4th and 12th place in the Olympics, he went on to race in the 1996 Tour De France. After only five days he had to abandon the race. He was physically run down and had become sick with bronchitis. A couple of weeks after he dropped out of the race he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
Armstrong’s condition went from bad to worse. The doctor s found that the cancer had spread to his abdomen and lungs. At first Armstrong s main concern was that he would never race again. But before long he was just worried about not surviving. They had scheduled him for surgery as soon as possible, but he still had to go in for some more tests. His last test results revealed that the cancer had spread to his brain. The doctors scheduled his surgery for the next day. He had one testicle removed, tumors in his brain removed, and a catheter placed in his chest for him to receive Chemo treatments.
Lance s condition was not looking good. Even the doctors said that they would have only given him a 3% chance of survival. One of Lance s doctors said that he has never seen a case as bad as his. Of course, Nobody told him this during his Chemo treatments, but his grim condition was becoming apparent to everyone. Lance and the doctors chose to use special treatments in the Chemo cycle that wouldn t do as much damage to his lungs.
He was under a 2-year contract with Team Confidis at the time. Even after they had announced publicly that they would stand by him through his illness, half way through his Chemo cycle his team said that they were forced to renegotiate his 2-year $2.5 million contract. Team Confidis felt that Lance was a dead man. His condition was a lot worse than any body had expected.
He started making improvements during the Chemotherapy. In December of 1996 he had his last treatment and was able to get the catheter removed from his chest. However, There was a complication, the catheter had been in his chest for almost 4-months and his skin had grown to it. They had to get a special doctor to remove it. Lance says they practically just ripped it out. Next, the gash it left had become infected and they had to perform a day surgery to clean it out and sew him back up.
He returned home in pitiful shape. He couldn t even climb a small hill without getting off the bike and catching his breath. His VO2 Max had dropped from the high 80 s into the 50 s and his muscles had atrophied. He went home to Texas to recover. He would start a training routine later the next year. In January of 1998 Lance engaged a woman named kik that he met during his Chemo treatments and they moved to Spain to restart his Career. He started racing again and was doing pretty well. He placed top 15 in several stage races but he wasn t happy about it. He was use to leading those races. Later in the spring he entered the Paris-Nice, a brutal two week stage race that is known for taking place in cold, wet weather. He dropped out; told the team he was done and called his wife to tell her to pack her bags. They moved back to Texas. Lance was sick of racing, he hated it, and he said he couldn t imagine doing it any longer.
When he got to Texas he said he became a bum. He started thinking about going to college and pursuing an education but all he did was drink beer, watch TV, water-ski, and play golf. His friends and fianc were getting very concerned about him. After a while his coach convinced him to race in an upcoming national race. He told Lance he was sure he could win but he needed a good ten days of training. He convinced Lance and they both agreed that he would have to get away from Texas, where he had too many distractions. He chose to train in Boone, North Carolina. He always loved those Mountains, and it was the home of the Tour Du Pont that he won in 1996.
The two weeks he spent in Boone were one of Armstrong s best experiences he has ever had. He said something happened to him out there that was almost spiritual. One afternoon he was climbing the same mountain where he had won the race in 1996 and he could still see the faded paint where his fans had spray painted on the road in big letters, Go Armstrong! He stood up on the pedals and climbed the mountain with everything he had. His coach was following him in a car, keeping track of his heart rate, pedal cadence, power output etc. When he reached the top his coach was in awe and he new Armstrong was ready to win races again. After 140 miles in the saddle, the plan was to pick Lance up at the top of the mountain and give him a ride, but he chose to ride until dark instead. His total outlook about cycling changed. He loved being on the bike again.
He won the national race that he was training for in Boone and started winning many more races. Believe it not, There was something that the cancer had done to him that made him a better rider. He was a 175-pound rider before the cancer, relatively heavy for a professional cyclist, but now he is down around 155-160 pounds. The Chemo had deteriorated his muscles. When he started training and racing again, he had developed strength without having any unnecessary upper body bulk. The great champion, Miguel Induran told Lance earlier in his career that he could win the Tour De France one day, but he would have to lose weight. Now that he was back in racing form and 15 pounds lighter, His plan was to win the 99 Tour.
Kik and Lance moved to France to get prepared for the race. He did all his training and racing over there to prepare. He would train in the mountains for six to seven hours a day, six days a week. His new physique, cycling background and intensive training routine had turned him into an even a better climber than before he had cancer. He was a huge threat to the worlds strongest tour riders. However, most people didn t think so. He was racing great early in the year but people still didn t believe he had what it would take to be a top contender in the tour.
Lance led the 1999 Tour De France from the first week of the race! He was given random drug test almost every day. No one could believe what was happening. The French press still accused him of using drugs, even after he kept testing negative. Reporters and coaches of other teams were saying there has to be some other explanation. He won the 1999 tour by a sizable margin. He was over seven minutes ahead of the second place finisher.
He went on to win the 2000 Tour De France also, and while many still accuse him of doping he has never failed a drug test. Many people will never accept that he won the past two Tour De France s drug free. Former team Festina trainer, Antoine Vayer testified last month in a doping investigation trial. Armstrong rides at an average speed of 33 1/2 mph. I find that scandalous. – Los Angeles Times 28 Oct. 2000. It does seem impossible, but Armstrong says you can’t pay attention to the odds. You have to believe and fight, and what I mean by fight is to arm yourself with as much knowledge as possible. Lance’s mother says He has been against the all of his life. The odds of him living were about 3%. Lance says if he would have known and feared those odds he probably wouldn’t be here today. He says cancer made him a better person and he wants to be known first as a cancer survivor and secondly as cycling champion.