With his recent unprecedented seventh victory in the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong is perhaps the greatest cyclist of all time.
Born Lance Edward Gunderson on September 18, 1971, in Plano Texas, the son of Linda Gayle Mooneyham and Eddie Charles Gunderson. Eddie disappeared when Lance was two years old, and Linda remarried Terry Keith Armstrong, whose last name Lance took. Lance didn’t get along with his stepfather, he hadn’t seen him in several years and he also didn’t express any desire to meet his biological father.
Lance was very athletic from a very young age, having started running and swimming seriously at the age of ten. At thirteen, he had started competing in adult amateur triathlons. He became a professional triathlete at sixteen, won the national sprint triathlon championship the following year and became the number one triathlete in the nineteen and under age group.
cycling race
Lance soon decided to focus on his favorite and best event, cycling, and in 1990 he became the US National Amateur Champion. The following year, he qualified for the US Olympic cycling team and finished fourteenth in the general in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
The following year, Lance turned pro, joining the Motorola team and ending the year ranked first in the world. His achievements that year included winning the eighth stage of his first Tour de France, becoming the youngest man to win the World Road Racing Championship and the first man to win the “Triple Crown”; the Thrift Drug Classic, the Kmart West Virginia Classic and the CoreStates USPRO National Championship. However, his first Tour de France was disappointing; despite his eighth stage victory, he soon fell behind and eventually retired from the race.
Cancer and Recovery
In 1995, Lance took his first victory at the Tour de Pont, a race he had already competed in twice. 1996 began as another successful year for him, in which he repeated his victory at the Tour de Pont, this time setting several racing records, and once again qualified for the US Olympic team, despite recover from bronchitis.
However, on October 2, 1996, Armstrong was diagnosed with stage three non-seminomatous testicular cancer which, due to his late diagnosis, had already spread to his abdomen, lungs, lymph nodes, and later even to your brain. Hoping to save his career, Lance opted for a more dangerous chemotherapy treatment and underwent surgery to remove one of his testicles and the tumors on his brain. He was given about a 50% chance of survival. His doctor told him later, however, that the true odds were closer to 3%, and that Lance had been given the higher odds to help keep his spirits up. In February 1997, he was declared cancer free and established the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer patients. in 1998 he returned to fourth place in the World Road Racing Championship. The same year he married Kristin Richard, whom he had met through his foundation.
Tour de France wins and divorce
Competing in the Tour de France for the first time in several years, Armstrong took his first victory in the race, winning four of the twenty-one stages. He repeated in 2000, this time defeating two of his main rivals who had missed the last race, Jan Ullrich and Marco Pantani, with Ullrich taking second place. In this year he also suffered systemic shock from a car accident, but recovered in time for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, in which he won a bronze medal.
In 2001 and 2002, Ullrich was again second to Armstrong in the Tour de France. He won again in 2003, but in that year he divorced Kristin Armstrong, and she cited the difficulties of caring for her cancer and her extensive travels. However, Lance continued his winning streak, notching wins in 2004 and 2005, bringing his total to seven before finally retiring. He currently holds the record for the most wins of any individual.
Current
Armstrong currently dedicates his time to his charitable foundation, while continuing to compete in various cycling and running events. From 2003 to 2006 he dated singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow. Lance currently resides in a house in Austin, Texas, where he also owns a ranch.
Birth: September 18, 1971
He died: —
Famous for: Renowned cyclist and athlete, founder of the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
Key achievements: Record seven-time Tour de France winner, cancer survivor.
Significant Quote: “To be a champion is to redefine what is humanly possible.”
funny quote: “Do you know when I need to die? When I’m done living. When I can’t walk, can’t eat, can’t see, when I’m a cantankerous old bastard, angry at the world. Then I can die.”