THE ENDING

OF A LEGEND

Executive Summary
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After winning seven consecutive Tour de France titles in a row, Lance

Armstrong changed the world of professional cycling. Soon after this mass
amount of success, accusations of doping began to arise regarding
Armstrong and his outstanding cycling performances. Armstrong began to
panic and look for ways out of the hole he had dug himself into, but he had
little luck doing so. Armstrong was found guilty of using performance
enhancing drugs for almost a decade, and not only did he do something
illegal, he lied about it year after year. The USADA and WADA, two
corporations used to regulate and punish those who decide to dope, or use
illegal performance enhancing drugs when competing at the professional
level, caught Armstrong and punished him for his acts.
Lance Armstrong used the method of apology and restoration in an attempt
to gain any sympathy from those he had hurt through his actions, but he
received little to no success doing so. The three phases that Armstrong went
through once rumors were spread about his possible drug usage were: Phase
1: Denial, Phase 2: Excuses and Justification, and Phase 3: Corrective Action
and Explanations. These phases were then coded using pathos, logos, and
ethos to categorize them. On the other hand, when confronted about
controlling doping and drug usage for the future, the USADA and WADA
explained that although the career of a legend went to waste, the amount of
natural talent within the world is worth much more than illegal drug usage.
During phase one, Armstrong consistently denied and lied to reporters,
interviewers, and even loved ones about using EPO and other forms of
doping in order to gain the upper hand in his cycling career. Once the
accusations were confirmed and positive test results began to arise,
Armstrongs actions began to fade into phase two. Phase two consisted of
multiple reports, interviews, and articles discussing Armstrongs take on the
situation and whether he felt guilty for doing so. When being interviewed, his
responses contained either multiple excuses for his wrongdoing or
justifications about why doping is becoming necessary in professional
athletics. Once the public was able to see Armstrongs true colors through his
interviews, he began to have a shift in mindset, leading to the third and final
phase. Phase three began with an interview with Oprah Winfrey, where he
finally took responsibility for his actions and wanted to explain his whole
thought process and feelings over the last ten years. Although he only
apologized to a handful of people, he never apologized to his fans and the
hundreds of thousands of people who watched and supported his successful
career.
Using repair and restoration, both appeared to have minimal impact on
Armstrongs life due to the fact that he had lost the respect and trust of so
many people. On the other hand, the USADA and WADA gained the attention
and respect they deserved for doing what needed to be done in order to
enforce their rules and regulations on professional athletics, no matter how
good or successful the athlete once was.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
4
Methods
.5
Results/Discussions
5-6
Conclusion/Results
.6-7
Works
Cited
.8
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Introduction
Background
After beginning his professional cycling career in 1992, Lance Armstrong
quickly took the world by surprise with his amazing athleticism and cycling
performances. His ability to constantly perform at such a successful and
intense rate caused the eye of thousands to stare right upon him, which
eventually caused the world to question how he was capable of doing such
things. Armstrong was able to not only win multiple Tour de France cycling
titles, but he was able to win seven consecutive titles in a row, which has no
where near been done by any other professional cyclists. His athletic
capabilities were like none that had ever been seen before, causing him to
become a legend in the world of professional athletics and hero to those who
watched and admired him. Even after being diagnosed with stage three
testicular cancer, Armstrong did his best to do whatever he could in order to
return back to his profession stronger and better than ever.
Accusations of Armstrong using performance enhancing drugs, otherwise
known as doping, began to arise around 2005, after he had clenched his
seventh consecutive Tour de France title. Once hearing of these accusations,
Armstrong continued to deny and deny the assumptions being made about
his ability to perform so well. In interviews, he proclaimed that he was above
doping and did not use them due to his past medical history, and for almost
a decade he stuck with these statements.
In the end, these statements were not facts at all, they were excuses. Fast
forward to 2013, when Lance Armstrong agreed to interview with Oprah
Winfrey, where he openly admitted to doping over a decade ago. All ties with
Nike, Oakley and Live Strong were completely cut between these companies
and Armstrong. Not only was he left sponsored-less, he was also stripped of
his seven Tour de France titles and his 2000 Olympics bronze medal.
Armstrong became a disappointment to not only himself, but the world of
cycling as a whole.

Purpose
The purpose of this white paper is to research the issues caused by Lance
Armstrongs scandal and how the USADA and WADA took action/ are
continuing to take action on illegal drug usage in professional athletics.
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Objectives
The objectives of this paper are the following:
1. How Lance Armstrong was accused of doping and his initial reactions.
2. How WADA and USADA took action to reveal the truth about
Armstrongs possible usage.
3. How Armstrong revealed the truth after a decade of lying about
doping.
4. How the media interpreted the responses of Armstrong and WADA.
5. How the public interpreted the responses of Armstrong and WADA.
6. How the two drug regulators explain what is to come in the future.

Methods
When analyzing events of crisis communication similar to the one at hand,
there are many different methods and ways to approach the situation. After
examining the different types of crisis communication analysis, the
framework I decided to chose for the Armstrong case was how to repair a
damaging event that has created a mark on the public population. The first
part of this crisis I began to analyze was the behavior of Lance Armstrong
over the past decade, and how he was able to convince millions that his
talents were god given and no one could take that away from him. But, when
the USADA and WADA see irregular athletic performance, its their job to take
further precautions into assuring equal play. A tool by the name of
reparation can be used when a business/company is trying to improve their
image after a setback or error. I felt as if this analysis method would be best
to use when examining the behavior of WADA/USADA and Armstrong post
doping scandal to see what their next move would be. The three phases of
reparation are as follows:
Phase 1: Denial
Phase 2: Excuses
Phase 3: Repair

The research and data found for these three phases are in multiple online
websites and sources that will be listed below.
While I was analyzing, I also used coding to categorize actions made by
WADA and Armstrong to determine if and how they affected the publics
emotions, logic, or credibility. The codes I used to categorize each
action/reply towards one of the two parts are: pathos, logos, and ethos.

Results/Discussions
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After completing an excessive amount of research on Lance Armstrongs

scandal and how it affected professional athletics, I was able to categorize
the data into three groupings, which are listed and explained below.

Phase 1: Denial: avoiding responsibility, shifting of blame

Once multiple accusations were made towards Armstrong after winning
seven consecutive Tour de France titles in a row, the attention of WADA and
USADA was caught. Armstrongs response to almost every question or
accusation made towards him resulted in some form of denial, and when
asked to tell nothing but the whole truth, Armstrong promised he would. In
an interview in August of 2005, Armstrong said Why would I enter into a
sport and then dope myself up and risk my life again? That's crazy. I would
never do that. No way. After continuously passing professional drugs tests
and denying any assumptions made about his drug usage, Armstrong seem
to actually be innocent. The WADA did not stop at this though, when more
and more rumors began to arise and more credible sources began to speak
up, drugs regulators knew something needed to be done.

Phase 2: Making excuses and justifying wrong doings

After almost of decade of constant denial, the truth began to unravel for
Armstrong. Constant investigation was being worked on and examined by
WADA to ensure that Armstrong was not going to get away with illegal
behavior. Finally, Armstrong cracked, and the secrets began to leak. Once a
taste of the truth was released, the rest of the information came out piece by
piece. Armstrong began to make excuses, telling friends and media that
[taking] banned substances was like saying we have to have air in our tires
and we have to have water in our bottles, proclaiming that doping was
essential to professional competition. To ensure that professional athletes
around the world would get the message and realize that doping is a serious
issue that is not tolerated by WADA and the USADA, Lance Armstrong was
banned from professional cycling for the rest of his life. Not only was he
never allowed to compete again, but he was also stripped of every title he
had won at the professional level when doping, including all seven of his Tour
de France titles and his 2000 Olympic Games bronze medal. In the blink of an
eye, Armstrong was no longer a legend.

Phase 3: Repair: Explanations and Corrective Action

By taking away Armstrongs professional athletic career, WADA and USADA
clearly showed the United States that they do not take doping or
performance enhancing drug usage lightly. After Armstrong admitted to his
crimes, he continued to explain more about why he did it and how so many
other professional athletes were doping at the same time as he did, they just
were not as successful as he was.
On the other hand, this caused yet another issue to arise among the public.
Other professional athletes have used performance enhancing drugs who
have had punishments that were not nearly as harsh or severe as
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Armstrongs. WADA and USADA explained that they aim [to] bring
consistency to anti-doping policies and regulations within sport organizations
and governments across the world and that the level of severity has
multiple deciding factors that guide them towards fair and equal punishment.
Over the last century, professional athletics has become one of the most
competitive industries throughout the world. As the talent and capabilities of
growing athletes is continuing to increase at a rapid pace, more and more
people are doing whatever they can in order to stay in line and compete with
the top level athletes. If WADA and USADA are able to control and regulate
drug usage, the natural athletic capabilities will become like none that have
ever been seen before.

Conclusion/Recommendation
Since the Lance Armstrong doping incident, the regulations and leniency with
drug usage in professional athletics has become much more intense and is
under much higher watch than ever before. The Armstrong scandal brought
attention to the publics eye that these so called heroes are not actually
heroes at all. Instead, they are liars and cheaters who are capable of taking
illegal substances in order to permit their body to outshine the talents of
other athletes. WADA and USADA took control of the situation once problems
began to arise, and did their best to remove the toxic behavior of Armstrong
from the world of professional athletics completely. Continuing into the
future, WADA and USADA are going to have to keep consistency when it
comes to professional athletics and doping, and they are determined to do so
by judging the severity of the crime in order to give equal and fair
punishment to all athletes that are caught doping. By continuing to stay true
and committed to keeping professional athletes drug free, corporations such
as WADA and the USADA will continue to keep the playing field for all
athletes fair and clean. Although Lance Armstrong accomplished many
nearly impossible tasks within his professional career, he even openly
admitted to not being able to do so without the help of doping. WADA and
the USADA had the authority to strip Armstrong of his professional titles,
which they did due to the fact that they were not his to keep. The USADA and
WADA continue to work and regulate day in and day out to keep the true
meaning of sports and pure talent alive in the United States.
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Works Cited
Albergotti, Reed, and Vanessa O'Connell. "Lance Armstrong Admits to
Doping, 'One Big Lie'" The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company,
18 Jan. 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2016.
Fotheringham,William. "Timeline: Lance Armstrongs Journey from Deity to
Disgrace." TheGuardian. Guardian News and Media, 8 Mar. 2015. Web.
9 Nov. 2016.
Joyner, Michael J. "The Real Reason Athletes Dope." Outside. Mariah Media
Network LLC., 13 Aug. 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2016.
Lance Amstrong Denies Using Drugs through the Years. Perf. Lance
Armstrong. 2013. Youtube.
McMillan, Stephen. "Lance Armstrong's Doping Denials in Quotes."
TheGuardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 18 Jan. 2013. Web. 9
Nov. 2016.
USADA Media C. "Lance Armstrong Receives Lifetime Ban And
Disqualification Of Competitive Results For Doping Violations Stemming
From His Involvement In The United States Postal Service Pro-Cycling
Team Doping Conspiracy." USADA. USADA, 24 Aug. 2012. Web. 9 Nov.
2016.