The Greatest Cheat in the History of Sports

Unfortunately for UCI head Pat McQuaid, Lance Armstrong will never be forgotten, just like all of the other illustrious cheaters in sports history. Armstrong, though, went much further than mere cheating. He made it into an art form, and his intimidation tactics toward anybody who crossed him, including teammates, would have shamed a mafiosi.

What is tragic is everything he did was based on a lie, even his Livestrong foundation. Yes, Lance had cancer, but the story behind his founding the cancer awareness organization was based on a lie. He exploited the hopes of millions of people based on a lie, and that is truly unforgivable. If he hadn't cheated his way to seven Tour de France wins, he would have been a nobody and his foundation either would not have existed at all or would have been a local outfit. The cancer foundation he used as a shield from criticism, and it worked for many years. That is until he refused to challenge the USADA's findings. A few diehards still backed him and spewed the familiar talking points about Armstrong, but when the USADA report came out a couple of weeks ago, they have been mostly silent.

Like Icarus, he fell when the scrutiny got too intense:

USADA's report looked so complete that for McQuaid and his federation to ignore the evidence would have been almost unthinkable. There was speculation before his Monday press call about what McQuaid would say. In hindsight, however, it was clear he had little choice but to rubber-stamp USADA's conclusions, ban Armstrong and take away his Tour wins, white-out all that yellow — the color of the Tour leader's maillot jaune jersey — that he had expropriated as his color and that of Livestrong.