On this Café we are going to talk about another famous American, today will be the cyclist—Lance Armstrong. A “cyclist” is an athlete who rides bicycles very fast, very quickly usually in races or competitions to see who can ride the fastest.
Lance Armstrong was born in the state of Texas, in the south-western part of the United States in 1971. as a child he was a swimmer but later he became interested in triathlons. A “triathlon” is a sporting competition that has three different parts to it. One of it is running, another part is cycling and the third part is swimming. A triathlon requires that you run, that you bike and that you swim. In 1992 Lance Armstrong represented the United States in the summer Olympics and he won many cycling races there, he was often the youngest cyclist to win that race of the first of American to do so. He won the Tour de France seven consecutive times. The “Tour de France” is the most famous bicycle race in the world and Lance Armstrong won it seven consecutive times. “consecutive” means one right after the other, you might also use the expression “ in a row”, so you won in this year, in the next year, in the year after that, in the year after that and so forth, seven times.
In 1996 when Lance Armstrong was just 25 years old, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. “testicular” refers to testicles, testicles are the part of the man’s body that produces necessary ingredients to make a baby, shall we say? Most men have two of them, in the case of Armstrong, his cancer spread or moved into other parts of his body including his lungs, his stomach and his brain. He had surgery and chemotherapy which are ways trying to get rid of or slow down the spread of cancer. Doctor however did not give him a good prognosis, a “prognosis” is what the doctor thinks will happen to this person, to this patient. How long for example the person might live or what his chances of surviving for many years are. The doctor thought Lance Armstrong had a 40 percent chance of surviving but he recovered, he got better and he actually returned to racing after his surgery and chemotherapy.
In addition to being a world famous cyclist, Armstrong in 1997 decided also to become the founder or person who starts a foundation, an organization, the Lance Armstrong foundation. The Lance Armstrong foundation raises money or trys to get people to give them money for cancer research and to help people who have cancer. The foundation became famous in the late 90s for selling these little yellow bracelets. A “bracelet” is a piece of jewelry that is worn around your wrist, your “wrist” is where your hand joins your arm, so the bracelet goes around your wrist. Women often wear diamond bracelets for example, but men nowadays also wear bracelets, I don’t personally but some men do. Bracelets were sold to support the Lance Armstrong foundation, and the name of the bracelet, there was actually a word on the bracelet, it was “livestrong” as one word. I guess that it’s sort of like Armstrong, I am not sure. “livestrong” was the word that was printed on the bracelet. These bracelets were sold for a dollar each and over 80 million bracelets were sold, it was common to see people wearing these bracelets, I never had one but a friend of mine had one. Many organizations since that time looked at the success of that and talked “Hey, we should sell bracelet too, so now you can buy bracelet for other important causes”.
One of the most controversial things about Armstrong has been the allegations of doping, an “allegation” is a accusation, is a statement saying that you have done something wrong, although there isn’t yet proof perhaps of that wrong doing. “doping” is using drugs to help your body become stronger, now doping refers specifically to drugs that are not allowed in your sport, that are considered illegal, steroids for example is a very common drug used for those athletes involved in doping. Armstrong’s sample has been tested for doping for many times, most of tests come out negative. However in February of 2012 which is a few months before this episode was recorded, the US federal investigator decided to drop their investigation, to stop their investigation into allegations of doping. Some people say he did, some people say he didn’t. today Armstrong continues to cycle and defends himself against his allegation, he continues to compete in marathons.
In 2005 he was so popular in his home state of Texas, some people thought he would become a politician and run for election or try to be elected as governor of Texas. Right now he is continuing his activity in his foundation, he is trying to get more money for cancer research. Lance Armstrong has received many awards in the United States. he has the name the male athlete of the year by one organization, he was called the United States Olympic committee sportsman of the year. Sports Illustrated – a magazine popular here in the US name him sportsman of the year. I don’t really have opinion about Lance Armstrong, I am not very interested honestly in the sports of cycling. I’d rather just get my car and drive it but remember I live in Los Angeles and everyone drives here in LA.
