September 08, 2003

Driven man.: Enormous great interview with Lance Armstrong, for your delectation.

posted by Fat Buddha to extreme at 02:43 AM - 14 comments

Welcome back FB. Great article, and beautifully written. Armstrong's violent escape, up through the fog and the serpentine gauntlet of Basque rowdies

posted by BigCalm at 03:58 AM on September 08, 2003

Good article for sure. Driven man is an appropriate title. In alot of ways he really sounds like a bastard. Didn't he and his wife just call it quits again?

posted by vito90 at 10:18 AM on September 08, 2003

So, am I able yet to call this guy an asshole? Has the cancer been in remission long enough for the PC police to let me off with a warning? It's just in my experience, people who are driven like this tend to be total assholes. I'm not sure it's integral to their success, but they appear to think so. However, the only things I know about him for sure are that he keeps winning these things in France, they all think he's a cheater but can't prove it (and consistenly get caught cheating in their own right), and he has one testicle.

posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 11:41 AM on September 08, 2003

A one-balled asshole....that's funny.

posted by garfield at 12:39 PM on September 08, 2003

Weedy, I, for one, support your right to call even somebody with terminal cancer and asshole if they are an asshole. That being said, Armstrong seems to be a total jerk and also an amazing athelete. I enjoyed this article - thanks for the link.

posted by Joey Michaels at 03:06 PM on September 08, 2003

I guess it's OK (on many levels) to call Lance Armstrong "a nut".

posted by worldcup2002 at 03:35 PM on September 08, 2003

He's an obsessive trainer that spends half of each year away from his family which makes him both an outstanding athlete and a horrible husband/father. People that are so focused and so driven like that often do so at the expense of those around them. He's apparently concsious of this fact (cite the examples of gifts for those he's left behind, etc.) but isn't willing to change right now. Maybe after he goes for number six he'll think otherwise. For his wife and kids' sake, I hope so. I've got a tremendous amount of respect for the man as an athlete, but I don't think I'd want to spend a night hanging out with him.

posted by Ufez Jones at 04:04 PM on September 08, 2003

Lance and Kristin Armstrong are divorcing. After reading the article that FB posted, I have to revise my comment to say that Armstrong is a brilliant nut. A classic triumph-over-adversity story. And seriously, if we had been through what he'd been through, and achieved what he achieved, do we think we'd be different or better?

posted by worldcup2002 at 09:12 PM on September 08, 2003

Maybe not WC2k2, but I contend that this guy was probably a bit of a jerk before adversity visited his pants, and it just helped everything get a PR whitewash. I guess this is kind of the proverbial mountain out of a mole hill thing. I just like the disparity between what is presented in media and what is actual. But it's still mostly conjecture.

posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 08:39 AM on September 09, 2003

And fun reading.

posted by worldcup2002 at 09:53 AM on September 09, 2003

good read - thanks for the link. Lance seems a lot like those guys who climb everest season after season - driven to the point where nothing else matters. Maybe that's what it takes to win the TdF 5 times but it's a shame (in my opinion) that his drive to win seems to be more important than his family/marriage...

posted by JohnSFO at 01:38 PM on September 09, 2003

On further reflection, this does happen more than just athletes too. It's very common for people working on a PhD dissertation (for example) to have very strained marriages. Anyone that puts this much time and effort (both mental and physical, not to mention emotional) into a career or goal is going to be taking away time from loved ones. Again, athletes are more in the public eye though, so it's easy to point to them as examples. But I'm willing to bet that most of us have known at least one couple that has split up do to similar ciricumstances. Well, that and that Armstrong still does seem like a bit of an assclown. Talented assclown, though.

posted by Ufez Jones at 02:45 PM on September 09, 2003

By the bye, welcome to SpoFi JohnSFO.

posted by lilnemo at 04:45 PM on September 09, 2003

thanks lilnemo - been a mefi member for a long time and only a lurker here until today.

posted by JohnSFO at 04:57 PM on September 09, 2003

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