Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The Fall of Lance Armstrong

I don't know about you, but I was fascinated by the Lance Armstrong case.

I was one that supported him and his assertion that he wasn't involved in anything nefarious. I know, call me gullible because I guess I have been proved seriously wrong.

What I couldn't wrap my head around was how he passed hundreds of drug tests/doping tests and they were all negative.

Wikipedia
It was only in Lance's recent interview with Oprah did it become clear that his undoing was the biological passport.

A biological passport is essentially a baseline of an athlete's normal biological markers that is created over the testing of several specimens. This is then compared to data that is taken near the time of racing. If there is any strange spikes than the athlete is suspected of doping.

And this is what happened to Lance.

Evidently, they compared data of some later races (those in the late 2000's) to his data from the Tour de France and that's how he was first suspected.

The testing around his original Tour de France wins had much more lax testing. There were no surprise visits to the athletes home so Lance and others got very good at timing when drugs would clear their symptoms.

However, the biological passport was something they could not surpass.

Here are a few links to information about the biological passport:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_passport

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20020371

http://mashable.com/2013/01/22/biological-passport-sports-doping/

So of course, my suspense authorly mind began to consider ways the biological passport could be used for nefarious puposes. What do you think about Lance Armstrong? How do you think the biological passport could create a suspense plot?


3 comments:

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  2. I was shocked too. SO I guess I am as gullible as you. Beyond him cheating was the lengths he went to smearing those who told the truth. The active campaigns he waged against people personally just because they were telling the truth. And even when it all came out, he still didn't seem to "get" the cost of his lies. I think there was a meeting with PR people and even an actuary that calculated how to deal with the tightening circle that had him caught and they all just worked the numbers to see a few tears with Oprah and a few years and a bigger story will make this all fade away...

    As for suspense plot, what about mind control drugs that someone is using to amass money, power and allies AND able to hide for a long time until the "biological passport" catches up with them. So you have CEOs selling their stocks and losing their companies and politicians changing their votes, Governors pardoning criminals due to these drugs that no one can trace until the dedicated (and, of course, stunningly beautiful) medical professional puts it all together with the biological passport... The individuals feel crazy but no one believes them because there's no trace of the drug or other medical explanation so they just lose what they lose...you know, until the stunningly beautiful medical professional puts the whole thing together... (and one of the victims could be single and male to add to the mix) Okay that's it for me. :)))

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  3. Charise,

    I'm glad I'm not the only one who believed in his innocence for a LONG time. Sadly, I think he was a bully and appearing on Oprah likely has opened him up to many more lawsuits. Just goes to show it's the cover up that get's you in trouble the most.

    And nice suspense plot too I might add. Can I be the stunning medical professional that works it all out?!?

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