LANCE ARMSTRONG, THE ANTI-AMERICAN BOY?

The greatest individual sports hero story of recent decades is Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor and now five-time Tour de France victor. Add the personal issues and life challenges that he's faced and conquered to the unavoidable world geo-political backdrop of this year's Tour and you have a compelling story indeed. Would you believe a summer blockbuster movie or book with these plot elements:

Hero beats cancer, then wins four straight Tours, angering many French (and other European) fans of a sport that does not traditionally include successful American athletes. He is frequently accused of taking performance enhancing drugs (the sport is notorious for it's drug abusers) in spite of the fact that he has never tested positive for such.

Wife and hero separate but they reconcile and are determined to improve relationship.

The hero's main antagonist tests positive for the club drug Ecstasy, is suspended from racing and not able to compete the year the hero wins his fourth tour. He mounts his own personal comeback and will challenge the hero's attempt at a record-tying fifth consecutive victory.

The hero's team mate and fellow American departs to become lead rider of another team. He is considered a contender, but crashes early in the race and fractures his collarbone. He continues, however, and eventually wins a stage and completes the 2000+ mile race in overall fourth place. What might have been?

Meanwhile, in addition to disliking him for winning, the French are expected to resent him for being American in a time when the French government is opposing America's war on terrorism at every opportunity.

Then: Hero leads as expected. Antagonist chases as expected. Race is closest ever for hero. He crashes in late stage and antagonist (along with hero's former team mate) in astounding display of sportsmanship slows to allow hero to regain position. (Hero had done same for antagonist in previous race.) Hero then wins that stage. Race ultimately comes down to an individual time trial held in the rain! Antagonist crashes, thus ending slight remaining hope for victory. Hero takes closest overall Tour victory of his career.

Is that enough drama? Thus case closed on "greatest sports hero of modern era."

Of course everyone wants to be the hero, or at least to claim common ground with the hero. Small wonder then, that some in the media want this man to be an anti war droolbat just like them.

This is Ground Control to Major Tom
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear...
David Bowie, A Space Oddity

Washington Post, 5 July:

On the other hand, Armstrong has tried in recent years to shed his image as distant, learning passable French and giving interviews on French television in French. And before the Iraq war, he was quoted in interviews saying he was opposed to a military conflict -- comments hardly noticed back home, but which made the headlines here (France).

The Guardian (UK) 6 July Headline: Serena got the message, now it's Lance's turn as French cheers become jeers for US stars

For Armstrong there is an irony in this hostility. He was also against the war in Iraq, so much so that he told George Bush.
'He's a personal friend, but we've all got the right not to agree with our friends,' he said.

However, as has been noted here before, Lance's own website presented a slightly different perspective:

"...In my opinion it's not really the place of an athlete to take a position here. And I do think there should be a strong delineation from sports, war, diplomacy, and politics. I am getting asked this question repeatedly over here because a) I'm an American like the President, b) I'm a Texan like the President, and c) I am a friend of the President's. The war seems to be very unpopular here (lots and lots of protests) and it's normal that the press tries to get a quote regarding this. "What I will say, and have said many times, is that NOBODY wants a war. Not me. Not President Bush. Not Tony Blair. No one... but sometimes it may be unavoidable. I absolutely support the President and absolutely support our troops."

I would not claim to speak for Lance Armstrong, and have no compelling need to twist or obscure anyone's words to support my personal opinion, but it would seem Lance is "anti-war" as much as any reasonable person is anti war. A realist as opposed to an idealist. One who knows the tragic necessity of war as a last resort, and certainly not a man to use such a thing to his political advantage. Lance did not make sensational comments about the war to generate personal publicity. In fact he avoided teh limelight on this issue as much as possible and did not seek to use his celebrity to espouse his personal views for all the world.

Perhaps the more accurate portrayal is from this article:

Armstrong, the highest-profile U.S. athlete living and competing in Europe, tried to walk a tightrope. He expressed reservations about going to war without broader international support while affirming his support for Bush. But he wearied of being put on the spot.

"No more war questions," he said grimly as he emerged from the U.S. Postal Service team van at a race in Spain in late March.

Never simply content to make vague and incorrect claims that Lance was one of their comrades-in-arms at the anti-war rallies, the same reporters often went on to make faulty predictions of the reception he would get from the French. A description (and prediction) from the Guardian story referenced above describes:

There was tension in the air at football's Confederations Cup in Paris as the US players took to the field. Boos spread around the stadium as America's national anthem was played, jeers that did not quite finish until the team left the pitch.

Before that came Serena Williams's semi-final against Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne in the French Open in June, when the American was jeered and heckled throughout the match, leaving her defeated and in tears...

These stories follow the "everyone hates America now because of George Bush" storyline. The media is eager to sell this story to an American public, but a growing body of evidence from Iraq and elsewhere disputes these fables.

Surprisingly, perhaps, this NY Times article, (which avoids the Lance Armstrong position on war issue other then to note that "...he spoke, as he often did before the Tour, about the need to repair French-American relations strained by the war in Iraq.") details the reality:

Asked a few days ago about his reaction to the horde of fans with American flags along the route, he said, "Many times you get next to them and it's a French person. It's strange but many times it happens. I can't complain about the kind of support it is, it's much appreciated."

An informal solicitation of opinions from fans during the three-week race showed full appreciation of Armstrong's feats and nearly unanimous respect for him. Again and again, people at the sides of the Tour's many roads described him "un grand monsieur," roughly translatable as "a class act."...

...farther down the road, the counterman in a sandwich shop spoke for the defense. "I stopped following the sport because of all the drugs," he said. "When Armstrong began winning, I came back since I can't believe anybody who had cancer would take no-matter-what drugs. He's revived the sport. Him, he's un grand monsieur."

Indeed.