Yesterday, the USDA, the United States Doping Agency, announced that they will place a lifetime ban and strip seven-time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong because they believed that Armstrong have cheated through doping.

They are basing this guilt because Armstrong will not fight it.

Armstrong believed that he shouldn’t fight it because he’s been dealing with these claims that he has cheated since 1999 and that he is tired of fighting all of the no-proof finger pointing.

Internationally, the International Cycling Agency is questioning the USDA’s decision, in which they are asking the question of “Why?” should Armstrong get this ban and be stripped of his titles.

Since 1999, Armstrong has been the figure of inspiration; battling testicular cancer and became a cancer survivor.  Has became a voice of hope through his actions on the race course and off it with his public speaking and the Livestrong campaign.  These reports of cheating have damper his reputation and what he has done during the past decade-plus.

Our nation and our agencies are firm believers of innocent until proven guilty.  But the saying doesn’t necessarily mean we will follow it.  The moment we hear someone has cheated, we throw out all doubt; with or without evidence to back it up.

With something like a drug test would prove that someone has done something illegal, why would assuming that someone who won’t fight it every time you call them out would do the same?  Or finger pointing as we saw with Jose Canseco in his book, “Juiced”, as the prime example of finger pointing in sports.

Let’s look at this.  In baseball, we saw Mark McGuire tell Congress that “I’m not here to talk about the past”; one would presume guilt right?  But without proof that he has taken an illegal substance, it is difficult to prove his guilt.

In Armstrong’s case, he’s been fighting these accusations since he retired both times.  People have said he’s cheated, and he’s asking where’s the proof?  Yet no one has came forward with a positive test of his.

Look at this as well, any big organizational event; either being the Olympics or the Tour De France; requires it’s participants to take a drug screening test to see if they are on something; in every race Armstrong has been in, his test has came clean.

Steroids take weeks or even months to be totally flushed out of your system,  HGH stays in your system for three hours.  Test can detect any spike in testosterone levels.  One would expect an athlete trying to cheat to take either on the day of the event or a day or two prior.

To assume guilt is human, but at the same time too, as human, we look for details and evidence to prove such guilt at any level of assumption.

Sources:

https://www.healthtap.com/topics/how-long-does-hgh-stay-in-your-system

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081004052838AAgWwwM