I don’t know that much about cycling, but I’ve seen bits of the Tour de France over the years and seen a couple of races here and in Europe. From what I’ve seen of Armstrong he seems he would be very good in most sports. He’s tall, strong and extremely fit.
Oh, and these stats from the same site:
Sounds kind of like an athelete to me. Maybe the most athletic guy in the world. Let’s face it, the guy who wrote this is a petty schmoe who most likely did it for shock value. We’d do well to just ignore him, and perhaps ignore the companies which sponsor him.
See, this is what happens when Boston Globe columnists try to think for themselves, instead of just plagarizing it from other sources like they’re supposed to.
Seems to me this guy thinks that it’s only athletic if you have someone playing against you…wait a minute, he does…a buttload of excellent cyclists racing against him.
Hmmm…oh wait, they have to be actively trying to impede you to your goal to be athletic. Hmmm… that doesn’t fit with some other things.
Hey, you want to say he isn’t the best, he uses primarily his legs and lungs instead of his full body, ok, but then don’t claim a sprinter is an athlete if he isn’t. Or a soccer player. You can play soccer with no arms. Hey wait, baseball had a guy who had one arm. Toss them out. Seen a lot of baseball players run? Bet he can outrun Mo Vaughn. Or NFL linemen? Throw out the golfers, too.
Wipe them all out. Gee, we’re getting down to cornerbacks, rubgy players, gymnasts, pole vaulters, and decathletes pretty fast, aren’t we? He’s probably picking out his favorite curler.
Hey, my little niece knows how to write. Maybe for my money you should do something an 8 year old can’t.
Guys, I used to race as a ‘roadie’ in Europe during the 80’s. I represented Australia in one Olympics ('84), two Commonwealth Games, and 3 World Championships. I was only an amateur and I never raced as a Pro but it was tough enough I can assure you.
Anyway, my point is this - the most knowledgeable, worldy Americans I ever met were Americans outside of the U.S. - invariably they were gracious and wonderful ambassadors for their country.
Interestingly however, just as an aside, in 1992 the FIA chose to NOT hold a further Formula One Grand Prix in Pheonix that year onwards. Ron Dennis from the McLaren Team at the time was quoted thus “We need a Grand Prix in the U.S. - the sport needs it to enforce it’s claim as a true World Championship. Unfortunately, the US is an incredibly insular country when it comes to sport. Unless the public has been weened on a sport on their TV’s and unless they continue to see that sport on their TV’s, there is a perception amongst typical American’s that it simply doesn’t exist or have any worth…”
By any yardstick, those words by Ron Dennis are remarkably insightful. The real issue for me (as an outsider to the US looking in) is this, this Borgess clown we’re taking shots at is guilty of the worst sort of sporting chauvinism - his views are designed specifically to enforce the existing insularity which exists within the US Television Sport establishment, and it’s an epicly sad thing to be sure.
So many countries around the world WISH you played more sports like the rest of us - just so that you could play with us more often. It’s so good for the soul. Idiots like Borgess would have the U.S. pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist because it’s such a threat to his pleasant, convenient status quo.
America doesn’t have TIME to play the sports the rest of the world likes. We’re too busy inventing new fake sports like Aggressive In-line Half-pipe Motocross Skiing so we can sneak them into the Winter Olympics and win a few freakin’ MEDALS for once, man!
I don’t care for cycling at all. But even I can see that it obviously takes a lot of strength, skill and endurance. And those who compete are definitely athletes. Best athlete, bar none? I don’t think anyone could ever agree on that.
Now there are fellas I wouldn’t consider athletes. Sail boat racers, car and motorcycle racers, jockeys, golfers…
Huh. I’d like to see this guy fly to the moon and come back in one piece. I’m sure that this commentator could not even make it through NASA’s training regimen to fly on the Shuttle much less a Saturn V.
Seriously though, that article may be the most misinformed piece of crap I’ve ever read. Has this guy gone after Race Car Drivers, I wonder? The same arguments might have merit on that subject, but not on bicycling.
Boo Boo Foo, excellent post. F1 is back in America now, with the Indianapolis GP. Great track, by the way. So far, it seems that it’s working. The stadium’s always full, and I think it’s fair to say that F1 has more American followers than (world) football does. Well, until the last world cup, anyway.
Maybe things are changing, maybe it’ll become less “insular”, as Dennis put it. I’d love a competitive US football team (seems that wish has been granted), and I’d love to see some great American F1 racers, instead of sorry excuses like Michael Andretti in 1993. No offense to his father, who is one of the all time greats in F1, and many other racing disciplines.
spooje, it depends on what they race. Whether you consider them atheletes or not, fact remains that any F1 driver or motorcycle races has to be incredibly fit to do so. I think Michael Schumacher’s physical condition is no less than, say, a top 10 marathon runner.
We have had discussions here about defining things like Figure Skating and Gymnastics as Sports, which has some arguable points. This article has no arguable points. Troll.
It’s publication more than likely accomplished the unstated goal. Website Hits. My guess is that drives advertising revenue. This guy makes money for the publisher.
