U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame Announces New Policy to Automatically Exclude Athletes with Doping Violations – The U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame Board of Directors has announced the creation of a new policy, effective immediately, that will impose a lifetime ban on admission to the Hall of Fame for any athlete or contributor with an admission or a conviction of violating anti-doping/PED rules and regulations during their career.
The new policy includes a requirement for evidence-based decision-making and a reliance on multiple sources including the national and world governing bodies of cycling and anti-doping agencies to substantiate claims. The policy also includes a provision whereby current inductees will be reviewed in cases where evidence of the use of performance enhancing drugs may have come to light only after the athlete or contributor has been inducted to the Hall of Fame.
“Induction into the US Bicycling Hall of Fame is reserved for only the most qualified athletes and contributors in our sport and inductees have made huge sacrifices throughout their careers to achieve a special level of dedication and success,” said Anthony Costello, board president. “It’s sad that things have come to this but we want to send a clear message that one cannot be simultaneously doping and competing fairly. It’s fair competition and earned success that we value and this policy aims to ensure the Hall of Fame will continue to be decorated only with the athletes that have chosen to play by the rules of the sport.”
In light of the ongoing shake-up related to the use of PEDs by prominent cyclists such as Lance Armstrong and many others associated with his long-standing USADA investigation, the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors began work in late 2012 to clarify the scope of qualification requirements for potential inductees. Historically the Hall of Fame induction process allows an organizational committee called the ‘Nominations and Selection Committee’ to review all nominees and choose an official ballot to be voted on by over 150 voters comprised of current inductees, cycling professionals, industry experts and historians.
The new policy will define the scope of qualifications such that no athlete with a clear or confessed history of PED violations may be considered for inclusion on the official ballot. Athletes subject to ambiguous in their correspondence about the new policy that they view this as an important step in the ongoing effort of many in the industry to clean up the sport of competitive cycling before any more generations of athletes or contributors are exposed to doping as an unsafe and unfair competitive tactic.
Founded in 1985, The U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame is a 501c3 non-profit organization located in Davis, California. The USBHOF is dedicated to recognizing American competitive cyclists and contributors to the sport for their significant achievements. Its mission is to preserve the history of American cycling in order to educate people about the past and encourage them to participate in the future of the sport. Encouraging all levels of cycling, the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame promotes cycling development and fitness.
The following piece was a press release from the US Bicycling Hall of Fame located on B Street and 3rd Street in Davis.
Maybe they should add a hall of shame section to help educate kids about the downside health effects of steroids on people.
Mr. Toad wrote:
> Maybe they should add a hall of shame section to help
> educate kids about the downside health effects of
> steroids on people.
I’ve been racing bikes my entire life (my first BMW race was on a modified Schwinn Stingray in the 70’s). I didn’t race in college but I lived with guys who did. It is sad to say, but since ~1985 close to 99% of the adult winners of cycling races (pro, college and amateur) have been PED users (and probably half the kids over 15 since everyone knows you can’t “win” without PEDs).
Steroids are not new and in the 80’s half the guys on my High School cross country team were using them (and ALL the guys on my High School football team). In college I knew a bunch of guys that used steroids just to “look better at the beach”. I never did them but I have not seen any long term “downside health effects” (the zits on your back go away) to the people that “did a few cycles of d-ball to add muscle mass”.
Back in the 80’s there was ONE (1) NFL player that weighed over 300 pounds (“The Fridge”) now EVERY NFL lineman and MOST NCAA Division 1 lineman weigh over 300 pounds. These (300+) guys are going to have some health problems, but I have not seen any problems with (many) guys I personally know in their 50s who have been using steroids off and on for 30+ years because it makes them feel good to look more cut than me (and most college kids) at the pool and to be faster than me (and most college kids) to Lake Berreyessa on a bike…
Interesting. I had a dream last night about Lance Armstrong and the destruction of his reputation and his fortune.
The use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs is just another example of a decay of our individual and collective moral compass. In our liberal-dominated social, media and political spheres we demand a complete freedom to behave how we want to (except for some chosen non-protected people and groups and are subjects of pop culture scorn and demonization) and then we freak out when people demonstrate bad behavior.
We are really talking about a decay of our culture… a culture that previously demanded moral behavior to an extreme that led to an abundance of damaging intolerance. But instead of fixing what was broken we have over-steered to extreme… rejecting even the beneficial basis of cultural norms that bind a people and provide a framework for a moral life. According to liberals there is no American culture worth protecting. According to liberals everything about the history of American is too white and too male. Never mind the fact that it was 98% white males that did all the thinking and work to create the greatest country ever on God’s green earth.
This decay all started with the baby boomers… the great embarrassment generation produced by the greatest generation. The “me” generation. The “it makes me feel good so it is moral” generation. The generation that exploded the number of psychologists, therapists and counselors. The generation that spent trillions more than it could afford, and practically destroyed the economy. The generation that doubled-down producing children even more narcissistic and self-centered than their parents… and lacking both economic opportunity and the drive to pursue it.
Millions of adult-aged humans that are still fundamentally still children.
We elect a man-child in our own image. Someone lacking any executive or business experience to lead the most powerful and complex national enterprise in the history of humans. He is only an American Idol… a pop-star. Moving on we will likely elect a matriarch to compensate for the mother that never loved us enough, or that coddled us so much that we never learned to separate from her motherly bonds.
This country needs a metaphorical spanking and a stern lecture. We all need to stop acting like children and start acting like moral adults in the image of the great people that founded the country. A history of groupism, bias, discrimination, intolerance where never reasons to abandon what has worked… only problems to repair.
When I think of the career of Lance Armstrong sitting in a training room by himself with his initial crucible decision to dope or not to dope. It was at that moment that a stronger framework of morality might have saved him. It was the image of the loving, but stern, parent… a culture of high moral expectations… a community of adults dispensing compassionate and reasoned judgmental-ism about material choice and not superficial circumstances.
It isn’t the pursuit of profit that is at the root of this bad behavior. It is simply our inadequate moral compass at work. We can continue to layer on rule and law after rule and law. It begets and perpetuates a cat and mouse game that will always end with the mouse finding another hole that leads to trouble. The REAL solution is to reinvigorate and respect a culture of expected behavior so more of the mice behave and stay out of trouble in the first place.
But being told you can’t do something is a real bummer man. Real adults can really cramp a person’s style.
There are a couple of valuable nuggets in there, Frankly. I had to wade through an awful lot of hogwash to find them, but they’re there.
I appreciate your ability to wade through a bunch of hogwash to find valuable nuggets. I strive to do the same.
Performance enhancing drug abuse is not just in sports competition. Various studies have found that up to 35% of current college students abuse ADHD medication. This was also quite common among classmates back in the 80s. ADHD meds (Ritilin, Aderrall, and others) allow you to stay very focused and study for prolonged periods of time. Given the intense competition to get into medical, law, and other professional schools, I think the odds that your own personal MD and/or attorney got where they are in part due to the assistance of performance enhancing ADHD meds is pretty good.
WesC, that is a valid point. Should we start drug-testing students before they take a test?
Considering this broader point, should we consider caffeine a performance enhancing drug? It is?
What about all those artists that took LSD to enhance their creativity?
I read that there are female Olympic athletes owning male genitalia. What about that? How can we develop a line with respect to sexuality to keep competition fair.
Interesting too is the femininization of education over the last few decades… it has led to an explosion in ADD medication being prescribed to boys. Is ADD medication a performance enhancing drug in this case? It could be considered a performance enhancing drug for teachers being administered to their students.
Again, the issues get so complex and convoluted that it is clear we will never be able to address it with rules and enforcement. I vote for a moral code and the acceptance of public humiliation as a favored method to help motivate those away from demanding or using any drug other than what is necessary to correct for real health problems.
Having written this… was Lance Armstrong justified in using some performance enhancing drugs to compensate from the negative effects of testicular cancer?
Frankly wrote:
> I read that there are female Olympic athletes owning male genitalia.
How would you like your 18 year old daughter to play against this guy/”girl”?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/transgender-college-hoops-player-head-high-article-1.1220117
Yikes! Her hands are quite large for a girl!
If my eighteen year old daughter qualified to play basketball, my response would be
“go for it”. My daughter 5’2″ and 105 lbs rowed crew with and against girls that were 6 feet and out weighed her by close to 100 lbs. No one was concerned about their chromosomal make up. Why must we be so judgmental that we cannot allow people to just engage in the activities for which they are qualified without the snide comments and innuendo ?
Wes wrote:
> Performance enhancing drug abuse is not just in sports competition.
> Various studies have found that up to 35% of current college students
> abuse ADHD medication.
From talking to UCD (and Cal and Stanford) kids I bet the number is even higher at competitive schools (and lower at Sac State and Chico state where more kids smoke pot and party before a test than snort Aderrall).
Unlike Frankly I don’t want to blame the baby boomers or liberals but the people that don’t “get it” and get hung up on “winning”. Some parents blow me away how much they care if their 8 year old wins a soccer game (or get’s on the varsity volleyball team).
I didn’t cram for the SAT and go to Cal, Stanford or UCD, but my life is great and I’m doing fine, I don’t spend hours at the driving range but I still have fun playing golf and I don’t use PEDs and never win races, but I could not be happier when I usually finish around the top 5 (for my age).
Interesting that doping in cycling started in the 1800’s (and all the guys that didn’t get caught are “heroes”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doping_cases_in_cycling#1886
Unlike Frankly I don’t want to blame the baby boomers or liberals but the people that don’t “get it” and get hung up on “winning”. Some parents blow me away how much they care if their 8 year old wins a soccer game (or get’s on the varsity volleyball team).
Ok, I agree that there is not a strong correlation with liberals owning this tendency… in fact, I find my conservative friends with money more obsessed with their kid’s athletic endeavors. It is interesting though. Folsom is an example of a city owning a higher percentage of these types of parents and their athletic programs are usually top in the state. I think this is the “tiger mom” approach but toward sports instead of academic achievement. Which then begs the question… why would one be demonized and the other applauded?
Black and white zero tolerance policies make me a little uncomfortable. No exceptions, ever? Under any circumstance, ever?
“This decay all started with the baby boomers… the great embarrassment generation produced by the greatest generation. The “me” generation. The “it makes me feel good so it is moral” generation. The generation that exploded the number of psychologists, therapists and counselors. The generation that spent trillions more than it could afford, and practically destroyed the economy. The generation that doubled-down producing children even more narcissistic and self-centered than their parents… and lacking both economic opportunity and the drive to pursue it.
Millions of adult-aged humans that are still fundamentally still children.”
God bless my mom & dad for teaching me the rewards of hard work, fair play, spirituality, and helping my neighbors. My dad was on a submarine in WWII and mom worked a swing shift in a defense factory, as a bookkeeper, in Massachusetts. My siblings and I are baby boomers. What our generation did, among other things, was give a vocabulary and some solutions to problems that my folks’ generation was told to buck up and tolerate, and, never discuss in polite conversation: racism, sexism, child abuse, child neglect, date rape, sexual harrassment, psychological disabilities, learning disabilities, wrongful imprisonment, Catholic church child abuse, the Vietnam war, to name a few problems that needed to be discussed openly.
Both generations contributed greatly to America.
Do we sometimes act like wide eyed children, still filled with joy and wonder? Guilty as charged.
If you are “God blessing” then you are not the typical baby boomer… you are more like your parents.
I do agree that both generations contributed greatly to America. However, the generation before the Baby Boomer contributed more than it took… their kids took much more than they contributed.
“This decay all started with the baby boomers…”
Maybe this decay came with us but before us the decay of amphetamines were used by the greatest generation.
Funny, I’ve always thought that the Lance Armstrong case resulted from excessive competitive zeal and the desire to win at all costs. Those are always things i’ve associated more with conservatives than liberals. That tendency to speak in absolutes, the dichotomous thinking, the people who say things like “the greatest country ever on God’s green earth.”
Lance Armstrong needed a more balanced life, less obsession with winning at all costs, and better perspective on what really matters. I don’t think liberalism caused his poor choices.
As usual you missed the point I was making.
Liberalism and baby boomers have advanced the decline of our individual and collective moral compass. Winning at all cost is not a conservative principle. If you want to understand conservative principles, they are largely present in the state of Utah. Utah is a state with strong economic growth. Better performing schools (spending much less per student than CA). The people of Utah tend to model the great American traditional values and morality. Liberals hate Utah. They would like nothing more than to flood it with poor and uneducated immigrant voters so to transform it into a more “tolerant” place like California… the state where Lance Armstrong learned to be a good person.
As usual you view the situation from your narrow lens of ideology, and have, as usual, posed a dichotomous view: Mormonism versus “California.”
It must be hard to be so depressed about the world.
It has nothing to do with Mormonism… which by the way is less of a factor for Utah. It has nothing to do with race, gender, sexual orientation or any other divisive group-ism that the left can drum up in their continued divide and conquer strategy. It has everything to do with traditional American values, expectations for behavior and traditional American culture. It has everything to do with a dominant ideology that celebrates or rejects these things.
If it has nothing to do with Mormonism, then what is it that you think causes residents of Utah to adhere to those values that you consider “traditional American values” and “traditional American culture”? My background and upbringing lead me to different values and different culture than yours. I’m not a classic liberal by any means, but I don’t share your values in many respects. In the past you have stated directly that makes me less American, which is nonsense. We have a range of cultures and beliefs in America.
But I deplore Lance Armstrong’s behavior, and that of his teammates who participated in his doping and coverup. I see it as resulting from a number of things — values and beliefs — that I associate with team sports, tribalism, and excessive competitive zeal. Things I don’t like, and values and beliefs that I see strongly held by conservatives.
Mormonism is “less of a factor for Utah”? The state where Romney got 73% of the vote? What have you been smoking?
In comparing states, there is a strong correlation between self-identification as conservative and religious affiliation. Utah is in the top 5 states of people who call themselves conservative. California is not in the top 10 states of people who call themselves liberal. Strong religious adherence is a form of tribalism and tends to lead to intolerance.
The percentage of Mormons in Utah has declined every year for the last several decades. What have you been smoking?
Lance Armstrong’s lack of moral compass is directly attributable to folks like you that have mistakenly grown critical and angry at traditional American values and culture because of some history of feeling like you don’t fit in to it, or that it does not serve you well personally for some reason. Which would be fine if not for the fact that you are part of a tribe relentless in demanding that everyone else be like you.
Talk about tribalism…
Your attempt to paint Utah and California in bad and good light is exactly illustrative of my point. You are hostile to the culture of Utah… one that is much more traditional American values… and you are complementary of California… one that is constantly drifting toward more tribal conflict because liberals control the state and demand that we accept every single non-traditional, non-American value and reject traditional American values.
You do work really hard to not have to concede any point cemented in your identity politics. You would have been better off to admit that traditional American values are much more prevalent in Utah, and Utah is a much more successful state because of it.
It gets to morality. In a society like California that rejects any and all basis and demands that nobody every be made to feel bad because of their behavior, then people get to pick their own sense of right and wrong… and because humans are generally needy and selfish by design, any individual can justify behavior as fitting their own moral code. Without the scorn and criticism that comes from a society that demands a basis of morality, we drift toward a form of anarchy.
And laws are not enough. Because it is a cat and mouse game that the mouse always wins. People are less motivated by the threat of punishment than they are needing to fit in and feel accomplished and feel part of the tribe. If the professional cycling tribe were all born and raised in Utah, my guess is that Lance Armstrong doping would not have occurred. And we could thank traditional American values for that.
I’ll just file this away in your ever-growing pile of outrageous nonsense statements.
Since the rest of your screed derives from it, the discussion ends.
Don wrote:
> I’ll just file this away in your ever-growing
> pile of outrageous nonsense statements.
I have to agree with Don Frankly seems to be losing it on this debate.
As far as Utah goes “most”/”more than half” of the people in Utah are Mormon/Members of the LDS Church.
The numbers go over 2/3 of the people in Utah if you count people born Mormon but got kicked out of the church for drinking beer while they watch football on Sunday or not paying (the “required”) “tribute”/”tithe” to the church every year.
Income inequality is lower in Utah than any other state, and a recent Harvard/Berkeley study found that economic mobility was higher in Salt Lake City than in any other big American city. “People here aren’t trying to be Donald Trump,” says Stephen Kroes, president of the Utah Foundation, a think-tank. Thanks partly to the Mormon influence, Utahns volunteer more than anyone else.
I see that like Don, SOD cannot help but denigrate a state that out performs California in almost every category except spending and narcissism.
2/3 of the people in CA sit on their fat ass getting government assistance and complain that the 1% are “stealing” all “their” money.
You both are losing this debate big time if you continue a track to put California in some better position.
The original point was one of morality and traditional American values. Utah has it and works to retain it and the state and the people of the state benefit from it. California continues to lose it and it suffers continued damage as a result of it.
But that CA sunshine and mild temp sure feels good doesn’t it?
Source, please?
Food stamp participation by state: http://www.statisticbrain.com/food-stamp-statistics/
California 9.7%, Utah 10%.
Percentage receiving public assistance: http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/acsbr10-13.pdf
Californa 4%, Utah 2.4%
What’s your next data point?
I think we’d find there is a short list of values that most Americans share, and we could probably identify them quickly. But I think that the regional variations are more pronounced than you are accepting. http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2013/features/up-in-arms.html
Looking at what I know about my ancestors, and the values expressed by my parents and grandparents, I’d say that Woodard’s analysis is apt. What you refer to as “traditional American values” really only apply, and have only ever really applied, to part of the country. You like the Bible Belt. I don’t find much in common with those values. There’s nothing wrong with those disagreements, but it is inaccurate to imply that one is more “American” than the other. My abolitionist secular great-grandfather from Connecticut is just as American as your great-grandfather from, um, wherever.
In my opinion, when we over-emphasize competition and winning, we run the risk of the behavior that pervaded the competitive bicycling community and other sporting industries. It’s not just Armstrong, it’s not just bicycling. And it wasn’t caused by increasing liberalism.
Over half the people in the US are on some type of public assistance. That number is higher for California with the higher percentage of poor and uneducated immigrants.
You need to expand your analysis.
And by the way, I don’t see you challenging SOD’s comment about 2/3 of the people in Utah being Mormon ” if you count people born Mormon but got kicked out of the church for drinking beer while they watch football on Sunday or not paying (the “required”) “tribute”/”tithe” to the church every year.” Apparently you are more sensitive to certain snarky comments than others.
I have no idea how many former Mormons there are in Utah. It’s a lovely state. I wouldn’t want to live there.
I think your figures are incorrect regarding public assistance. But I suppose it depends on how you are defining “public assistance.” If you include disability benefits, SSI, etc., you could be right, at which point we’d have to debate whether those are truly “public assistance.”
SOD
“The numbers go over 2/3 of the people in Utah if you count people born Mormon but got kicked out of the church for drinking beer while they watch football on Sunday or not paying (the “required”) “tribute”/”tithe” to the church every year.”
Shows what you know about Mormons, as a rule, if ever, they don’t kick people out for either of those things. Mormons are some of the nicest and most giving people in the world.
The LDS members in Davis that I’m acquainted with are all very nice and do a great deal of community service. It is one of their strong values.
Two curiosities about Utah: it is one of the five happiest states: Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Utah and Vermont.
And from an L.A. Times article: “[A]ntidepressant drugs are prescribed in Utah more often than in any other state, at a rate nearly twice the national average…. Other states with high antidepressant use were Maine and Oregon. Utah’s rate of antidepressant use was twice the rate of California and nearly three times the rates in New York and New Jersey, the study showed.”
B.P. wrote:
> Shows what you
> know about Mormons
I’m no expert on the Mormon faith and all the Mormons I have met have been nice (other than the crowd that gave me dirty looks when I asked for two hot dogs and two beers at the BYU stadium snack bar years ago) I have a friend from college (born and raised Mormon) who told me they kicked him out of the church since they don’t allow anyone who drinks and does not tithe. I have had other Mormons tell me that the reason so few kids leave the church is that they often also are forced to cut ties with their family.
P.S. Funny how this started with letting bike riders who took steroids have their photo in the Davis Bike museum…
Frankly:
“Apparently you are more sensitive to certain snarky comments than others.”
Along with a few others that post on the Vanguard.
Whatever happened to the teen center, and is there a section of the bicycle museum that welcomes young adolescents/teens like Lance Armstrong, who may not have one or more parents/caregivers at home in the afternoon, who may need a good mentor to show them the value of a balanced life, on and off the road to the Tour?
Oregon is gorgeous, but many parts are dark & gloomy. S.A.D. (seasonal something depression?) is a real, physical illness. I suffered that in Salem Oregon when working in the basement of a building without windows, in the winter months. Maybe that’s part of the reason why Oregon has higher use of anti-depreeants: extreme lack of sunshine in the Willamette Valley area of the state, which is also where the somewhat depressing area of state government workers also reside…..
I wonder why Utah is so depressed? They get a good amount of sunshine. Are the Mormon women really happy, or are they Stepford wives? No disrespect intended.
Congratulations to the Davis California-based Bicycling Hall of Fame for their action upholding strong values of good sportsmanship and personal honesty.