MSNBC’s Mike Celizic says – Armstrong looks like a drama queen on wheels

November

Ex-Tour king’s comments, concerns cement him as overexposed narcissist
OPINION
By Mike Celizic
updated 9:55 p.m. ET, Tues., Nov. 18, 2008

If Lance Armstrong wants to ride in the Tour de France again at the age of 37, I’ve got no problem with it. But for the love of derailleur gears, does he have to make such a mess of it?

I understand why he wants to get back in the saddle. He’s a racer. After winning seven straight Tour de France titles, he thought he’d gotten over it. He thought he was sick of the scrutiny and allegations and all the grief that came with being the American champion of a French institution. And after a couple years of retirement, he found out he was wrong.

He’s not the first great athlete who thought he was going to be happy with all his retirement activities only to find out that there was an enormous hole in his life that no amount of fishing, hunting, motivational speeches, charitable activities and golf could fill. There was no thrill that could replace winning a mountain stage and wearing the yellow jersey. There was no activity that could utterly consume him, that he could build his entire year — his entire life — around.

So he decided to go back, because that’s who he is and what he does.

Fine. Go back. Ride the race. Finish first or finish last, I don’t care. Just try to do it with a little dignity, OK?

Armstrong is the new Exhibit A for everything that drives us nuts about old heroes who can’t deal with retirement. From the get-go, when he first said he was coming back, it’s been one manufactured crisis after another.

That’s the top of Celizic’s column on MSNBC, here’s a link for the rest.

But here’s the last paragragh.

Once, he was Lance Armstrong, the greatest athlete who ever lived. Now, he’s a caricature of Lance Armstrong, a figure in a cartoon that we are forced to watch without knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Great column Mr. Celizic.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 4:52 PM by Randall Wolf. Print This Post | Email This Post

One Response to “MSNBC’s Mike Celizic says – Armstrong looks like a drama queen on wheels”

JD November 24th, 2008 at 11:52 AM
Randall,

Here’s the text of Lance’s interview which seems to have lent itself to the comments from Mr. Celizic among others. Eddy Merckx had his name misspelled again.
Link was found on “Bicycling” magazine.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/nov/18/lancearmstrong-cycling-tourdefrance-donaldmcrae

JD

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