Dan Majestic writes from New York about the recent Oprah Winfrey television show. The episode in particular that Dan refers to is the interview with cyclist Lance Armstrong and his confessions to the world. The things highlighted in today’s post is a follow up series about fixing and cheating in sports.
According to Keirsey, Oprah Winfrey may be a Teacher. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The recent Oprah Winfrey show broadcast from around the world recently in New York had Lance Armstrong admitting for the first time publicly on television to the public that he took performance enhancing drugs and that is how he won all his races. He put a lot of the blame on the pressure to win for his country and said that this happened with many people during his career.
Nancy Pelosi and Lance Armstrong (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A lot of the things shown in the US of A about Lance’s story can be found on YouTube Dan looks at these things and shares his opinion.
Find out what Dan thinks about the pressures in professional sport and his theories on why people go across the grain to win games over on Stirring Trouble Internationally.
Lance (Photo credit: Wei)
Find out the pressures that Dan underlines for sports people who are in caught up in helping people launder money through sport. You will be surprised and as you may know if you have been following the series of posts made recently this type of laundering and sponsorship pressure is not only exclusive to cycling. Dan points out it happens in other sports one of which is football.
Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama at a rally (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Dan also says some funny things about sports memorabilia and directly links this with sports fans and how they get caught up in the whole thing. He goes on to make fun out of people who get sportsmen names tattoed on the arms and goes into the idiosyncrasies of people who do this sort of thing.
Sport as Dan mentions over on Stirring Trouble Internationally is not something everyone engage in and he covers the pressures on society on people who are not interested and the pressures there to engage in these sorts of activities. This satirical post although related to the Oprah Winfrey interview with Lance Armstrong it is more of a reaction in correlation with the recent reports about fixing in all sports and has some serious undertones that need to be addressed.
The Lance Armstrong example is just one in many that shows the pressures from both sides for the participants and the viewers about sport, getting involved and the pressures of achieving and winning.
- Lance Armstrong interview with Oprah Winfrey: the previous denials (telegraph.co.uk)
- Dear Lance Armstrong: This Is No Longer About You – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
- Lance Armstrong: I Deserve to Compete Again (news.sky.com)
- Lance Armstrong to Oprah Winfrey: Perfect story was all ‘one big lie’ (usatoday.com)
- Public takes its shots at Armstrong after reported admission to Oprah – CNN (edition.cnn.com)
- Lance Armstrong ‘admits to doping’ in Oprah Winfrey interview (telegraph.co.uk)
I do not agree with the taking of drugs to enhance performance in any way or form. His excuse that others were taking drugs, implies he has no mind of his own, two wrongs do not make a right.
Then to say he was under pressure to perform, well of course he was, but only to perform to the best of his ability, by using exercise and diet. If he was instructed otherwise, then these individuals should also be exposed.
During the interview, he was not put under any pressure, Oprah is not a demanding, probing interviewer such as Letterman and some others.
What was evident from the interview was, that he is a very arrogrant bully, this was shown by how he commented on how he treated his peers and his aids. He is not a person for whom working for was easy. He had power and influence and he was always eager to use it for his best own advantage.
Cycling in the short term may suffer because of his actions, but in the long term, will be more beneficial from his absence.
Well said Chris, thank you.