Lance: Fighting cancer!
Both the words 'Tour de France' and 'Cancer' are frighting for us. Last Sunday (Nov 13) I saw a biography of the greatest sports man this world has ever seen, "Lance Armstrong". It was so inspirational and made me write this blog. Sharing them with you...
Lance was young lad from the town of Texas. He started his childhood career as a triathlon athlete. Then soon he found his Superior bicycling skills and became a professional bicycler. By the time he had a few Junior tournaments under his belt. He was recognised by few teams in USA and was funded. Then he joined team Motorola which was his major boost.
'Tour de France' - Most enduring test for any athlete. Toughest ever in a cyclist career. Tour de France is a 3 weeks race to cover various plains and hills of France. Extreme athlete dare to take it. Each county is represented by a coloured Jersey. The winner of a stage is privileged to wear his country's jersey. Lance won 8th stage in 1993. 18th stage in 1995, but he was not able to celebrate since his team mate 'Fabrio' lost his life in a crash.
Then it was 2nd October 1996, Lance had his first symptoms that he was not well. Then was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed of 'testicular cancer' in his lungs. He was immediately operated the next day morning and was successfully removed from cancer. Then after sufficient rest, he was back on wheels. But things became worse, once during a practice session in France he came to his feet. It was diagnosed as cancer again, but this time in Brain. It was well grown, that the doctors said Lance chances of survival was less than 50%. But he was operated and was removed from cancer cells. Lance also under went chemotherapy thrice. He felt it was the end of his career. His sponsors with drew from him. But he recovered and announced for a need of sponsor. No one turned back.
This motivated Lance to prove them all wrong. His turning point was 'US Postal team' that invited Lance. with the spirits running high,he came back with a bang. He won the 1999 Tour de France for every ones surprise. Then he was able to repeat it on 2000, also the bronze in 2000 Sydney Olympics was added to it. But the media tried to push him down with a doping scandal, which was proved wrong. Then he repeated again, again and again.
He was the Tour de France champion for a record 7 consecutive years. A person once thought that it was end of his life with cancer to come up and win such a demanding race both physically and mentally is miracle. Then he retired from racing. He then found the LiveStrong for cancer victims and survivors and to raise awareness about cancer.
Use full links helped me are
http://www.lancearmstrong.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Armstrong
[P.S: If some of the statistics provided in my post are wrong, please bear with me. Its up to my knowledge.]
1 comment:
yeah...true...Lance's life story..is a real inspiration! He's a real hero, indeed! Nice post da!
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