Slide 1
Good afternoon professor Weaving and fellow classmates, my name is Jason Thorpe and my research looks at Lance Armstrong. As most know Armstrong is no stranger to the public eye as the stubborn cyclist out of Ausitn, Texas has experienced success since he first stepped on the bike. Armstrongs list of accomplishments runs long but I will only scratch the surface of his resume.
Slide 2
Cancer Survivor - In 1996 Armstrong found himself struggling for his life as he battled testicular cancer which rapidly spread to his brain, lungs and abdominal region. Armstrong aggressively engaged himself into his diagnosis and treatment procedures as he battled against overwhelming odds .
7 Time Champion - After beating up cancer Armstrong took the world by surprise by declaring he would compete in the hardest cycling race on earth, Le Tour de France. All eyes were on this man who just barely escaped his death bed a short time ago. He rode the flats, battled the conditions and climbed mountains like a fine tuned cyborg machine.
Livestrong - during Armstrong’s own battle with cancer, he saw that there was a lack of resources for those fighting the disease. In an effort to help fellow survivors, the Livestrong foundation was established and has raised more than $500million to help serve survivors.
Father - One of the most personal aspects of Armstrongs life are his five beautiful innocent children. His mother was only 17 when she gave birth to Lance and soon after they were abandoned by his father who he has never seen.
It is fair to say that Armstrong has quite an impressive resume
Slide 3

But as we stand here in 2014 we now know that Armstrong lacked the ability to tell the complete truth. All eyes were the King of cycling but for all the wrong reasons. After defiantly denying all acquisitions of doping Armstrong got together with Oprah Winfrey for the Lance Armstrong
World Wide Exclusive. In Lances own words his “mythic, perfect story” was “one big lie”. He admitted to cheating during most of his career and he bullied people who set out to tell the truth.
Since then Armstrong has received a life time ban from the sport of cycling, stripped of all his tour titles and lost his major sponsors.
Slide 4
Where my interest lies is to examine Lance Armstrong to determine if he should be considered a role model for individuals to look up to and strive to be. To determine this I have used a
Philosophical Approach in my research.
The Construction of a Role Model
What is a role model? According to Webster’s Online Dictionary they are “a person whose behavior in a particular role is imitated by others”.Found directly below this definition it states that “Athletes should remember that they are role models”. In Armstrong’s situation he had cyclists of all ages dreaming to have a life with the same success as the great Lance Armstrong.
He demonstrated super natural powers equivalent to the Gallant Knights and Nobel Kings heard about in the mythical tales as children. According to Rusu “a hero that represents the ideal for part of society and their mythic behavior represents the well-known desire to overcome the human condition and the limits imposed on one”. During his reign as champion Armstrong was truly on top of the world and had a following of millions.
In times of hardship individuals can look to others for inspiration to overcome struggle. A study conducted by Sparks, Perez and Smith examined how cancer patients use social comparison to shape their cancer experience. They conducted multiple interviews with one of

Armstrong’s followers who happened to be an elite Spanish cyclist. Not only did he participate in the same sport as Armstrong, David was battling cancer too. Armstrong’s story provided inspiration for this young man to fight each waking day in the hope that he could pedal his bike across the finish line once again. Using a narrative map to help guide him through his own journey with cancer he was quoted saying “if lance could do it I can do it”.
After Armstrong admitted to his wrongs the media scrutiny was fierce to say the lease.
Due to the increased negative attention Lance initiated an image repair process, and according to
Hambrick “The word repaired was used because with such strong allocations against him his reputation could never fully be restored”. Using social media Armstrong began apologizing while pleading his case. But to no surprise including his own there was only so much he could do at this point in time “this is too late for most people and that’s my fault, I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated multiple times.” By admitting his wrong doings some may still believe he should be a role model but at least we can now agree that he is at least human.
.When asked under oath in 2005 that if he was caught doping would he loose his sponsors? Armstrong responded with the following statement
SLIDE 5
.“All of them, and the faith of all the cancer survivors around the world. So everything I do off of the bike would go away too. And don't think for a second I don't understand that. It's not about money for me. Everything. It's also about the faith that people have put in me over the years”
A power statement for a man that was so sure of himself. In the end Lance Armstrong will have to rely on time to heal the wounds he created. Like a bull sees red Armstrong saw Yellow and

adopted a win at all costs attitude to wear the highly decorated yellow piney of the tour de
France. Armstrong is simply..
CONCLUSION
“An imperfect man in an imperfect world”