Personality of the Month


Personality of the Month: July 2005 www.nihindia.org Lance Armstrong: the real life gladiator Name Lance Armstrong means Hope, inspiration, courage, guts and grit. Lance was born on September 18, 1971 at Plano, Texas, USA. Overcoming all the hardships of childhood; today this 35 year old fine gentleman has made a history in sports world by winning Tour-de France …the highest acclaimed cycling race for six consecutive times since 1999. The Race spanning over 3607 km, running through plains and mountains and goes on for 24 days, asking for highest levels of fitness. The Tour is immensely popular not only as a sporting event but also as a matter of national identity and pride for France. It is said that any rider who has worn the yellow jersey, even for a day, will never go hungry or thirsty again in France. *Glance at Gladiator’s success, hardship and noble character* Lance started his carrier as a cyclist at 17, when he received an invitation to train with the Junior National Cycling Team. He was a cycling amateur, won the US amateur championship in 1991 and finished 14th in the 1992 Olympics road race. He turned a professional in 1992. Following year he scored first major victory as he rode solo to win the World Road Championships in Oslo, Norway. His victory was so dominant that he was invited by the King of Norway, which he initially turned down after finding that his mother was not included in the invitation. Minutes later, the King invited both. After being second in 1994, he won the US premier cycling event Tour DuPont in consecutive years 1995-1996 and was ranked number one cyclist in the world. But in 1996 he had a disappointing Olympic games and same year he plunged into sadness on been diagnosed with testicular cancer, which had spread to his lungs and his brain. His chances of recovery were between 3% to less than 50%. However, invasive surgery to remove brain lesions, and an aggressive form of chemotherapy showed that best was still to come. A person considers him/herself half dead when diagnosed with cancer but this man has shown a tremendous courage and has become inspiration for Cancer patients along with other sportsmen. Lance in his own words...“October 2^nd 1996, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer before this date I lived but after, I became strong”. He survived a battle against cancer. He got married 1998 and has three children Luke and twins Isabelle and Grace. In one of the most impressive comebacks in sports history, he returned (1998) to cycling and reached the pinnacle of the sport with six consecutive victories (1999–2004) in the Tour de France, the sport's toughest and most prestigious race. He also won a bronze medal in the time trial at the 2000 Olympics. He has distinctive riding style… pedalling very quickly, in a lower gear than his competitors on flats, and is able to rapidly accelerate away from his main rivals who tend to use higher gears but pedal more slowly while riding uphill. Though there were accusations made against him by French media along with some Americans of using banned drugs but repeated testing proved his critics wrong and Lance went on to win the race in 2003 and 2004. Much of his training is based on raising anaerobic threshold, and in learning exactly where the limit is. When training, he boosts his red blood cell count through cycling at altitude and sleeping in an altitude tent. He is also an author of two inspiring books “It's Not About The Bike. My Journey Back to Life” and “*Every Second Counts”. In 2002 Lance launched an initiative “Cycle of hope” for cancer patients participating in clinical trials. The yellow wristband that we see today is also originated from Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG* foundation for fight against cancer. Today when I am writing this article, Lance is leading towards 7^th tour de France victory with yellow jersey (given to over all leader of the race) with his Discovery channel team. As he is retiring after this race in 2005, we all wish 7/7; July, 7^th month of the year be remembered as 7 victory of this great leader. I personally got introduced to Armstrong when I learnt that India’s cricket team captain Saurav Ganguly chose to show documentary film on Lance Armstrong to his team mates to boost their morale during preparation for tough tests and one-day series against Australia in 2004. This write-up is not enough to project the entire personality of Lance Armstrong. I urge the interested reader to visit following websites. http://www.letour.fr/2005/presentationus/parcours.html http://www.answers.com/topic/lance-armstrong http://www.livestrong.org http://www.lancearmstrong.com http://sport.iafrica.com/news/352763.htm "Never, never, never, never give up." Winston Churchill Prafullakumar Tailor

Personality of the Month: July 2005 www.nihindia.org

Lance Armstrong: the real life gladiator

Name Lance Armstrong means Hope, inspiration, courage, guts and grit.

Lance was born on September 18, 1971 at Plano, Texas, USA. Overcoming all the hardships of childhood; today this 35 year old fine gentleman has made a history in sports world by winning Tour-de France …the highest acclaimed cycling race for six consecutive times since 1999. The Race spanning over 3607 km, running through plains and mountains and goes on for 24 days, asking for highest levels of fitness. The Tour is immensely popular not only as a sporting event but also as a matter of national identity and pride for France. It is said that any rider who has worn the yellow jersey, even for a day, will never go hungry or thirsty again in France.

Glance at Gladiator’s success, hardship and noble character

Lance started his carrier as a cyclist at 17, when he received an invitation to train with the Junior National Cycling Team. He was a cycling amateur, won the US amateur championship in 1991 and finished 14th in the 1992 Olympics road race. He turned a professional in 1992. Following year he scored first major victory as he rode solo to win the World Road Championships in Oslo, Norway. His victory was so dominant that he was invited by the King of Norway, which he initially turned down after finding that his mother was not included in the invitation. Minutes later, the King invited both.

After being second in 1994, he won the US premier cycling event Tour DuPont in consecutive years 1995-1996 and was ranked number one cyclist in the world. But in 1996 he had a disappointing Olympic games and same year he plunged into sadness on been diagnosed with testicular cancer, which had spread to his lungs and his brain. His chances of recovery were between 3% to less than 50%. However, invasive surgery to remove brain lesions, and an aggressive form of chemotherapy showed that best was still to come. A person considers him/herself half dead when diagnosed with cancer but this man has shown a tremendous courage and has become inspiration for Cancer patients along with other sportsmen. Lance in his own words...“October 2^nd 1996, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer before this date I lived but after, I became strong”. He survived a battle against cancer. He got married 1998 and has three children Luke and twins Isabelle and Grace. In one of the most impressive comebacks in sports history, he returned (1998) to cycling and reached the pinnacle of the sport with six consecutive victories (1999–2004) in the Tour de France, the sport's toughest and most prestigious race. He also won a bronze medal in the time trial at the 2000 Olympics. He has distinctive riding style… pedalling very quickly, in a lower gear than his competitors on flats, and is able to rapidly accelerate away from his main rivals who tend to use higher gears but pedal more slowly while riding uphill. Though there were accusations made against him by French media along with some Americans of using banned drugs but repeated testing proved his critics wrong and Lance went on to win the race in 2003 and 2004. Much of his training is based on raising anaerobic threshold, and in learning exactly where the limit is. When training, he boosts his red blood cell count through cycling at altitude and sleeping in an altitude tent.

He is also an author of two inspiring books “It's Not About The Bike. My Journey Back to Life” and “Every Second Counts”. In 2002 Lance launched an initiative “Cycle of hope” for cancer patients participating in clinical trials. The yellow wristband that we see today is also originated from Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG foundation for fight against cancer.

Today when I am writing this article, Lance is leading towards 7^th tour de France victory with yellow jersey (given to over all leader of the race) with his Discovery channel team. As he is retiring after this race in 2005, we all wish 7/7; July, 7^th month of the year be remembered as 7 victory of this great leader. I personally got introduced to Armstrong when I learnt that India’s cricket team captain Saurav Ganguly chose to show documentary film on Lance Armstrong to his team mates to boost their morale during preparation for tough tests and one-day series against Australia in 2004. This write-up is not enough to project the entire personality of Lance Armstrong. I urge the interested reader to visit following websites.

http://www.letour.fr/2005/presentationus/parcours.html

http://www.answers.com/topic/lance-armstrong

http://www.livestrong.org

http://www.lancearmstrong.com

http://sport.iafrica.com/news/352763.htm

"Never, never, never, never give up." Winston Churchill

Prafullakumar Tailor