I HAVE yet to hear a sports great, past or present, say a word of encouragement, let alone praise, for Lance Armstrong. While it may be properly all right, perhaps, to commend Armstrong after doing what he did, the world of sports continues to generally maintain a deafening silence over the stunning turn of events in the life of one whose rise from cancer to conquer the toughest cycling marathon on Earth has become a fairy tale of unimaginable success.
In two days on TV last week, Armstrong, who won an unprec­edented seven straight Tour de France titles from 1999-2005, admitted, finally, to having used drugs to enhance his chances of victory in the fabled bikathon.
The admission made Arm­strong, 41, reverse himself after more than a decade of saying his oft-repeated refrain, “As long as I live, I will deny ever doping.”
But in two taped TV interviews with the world-renown Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong confessed to his sin of doping through most of his cycling career.
The native of Austin, Texas, even used a smorgasbord of drugs that included testoster­one, cortisone, human growth hormone and the blood-booster EPO (erythropoietin).
With his sensational feat of amassing his record-smashing Tour de France crowns, Arm­strong’s worth was estimated to be at no less than $100 million.
But in the second part of the Winfrey interview, Armstrong said he lost $75-million worth endorse­ments after his doping scandal  got exposed some months back that led to his lifetime ban from the sport.