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Replies will not be read or forwarded for handling.This message was sent to hertz@wi.rr.comContact Us | Privacy PolicyCopyright 2010 Walgreen Co., 200 Wilmot Road, Deerfield, IL 60015-4620. All rights reserved. 10/19/2012Contact: Erin Mirabella 619-507-6208 erinmirabella@msn.com CyclingÕs Doping Problem: A Clean Athletes Perspective. I am proud that I raced my entire professional and Olympic cycling career clean. For years I dreamed that the top cyclists of my time would Òget busted.Ó I told everyone who would listen that my sport was dirty and for years I heard that I was a jealous, jaded, conspiracy theorist. I thought that the time for justice had passed, so I was elated that the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) was so bold and aggressive in their pursuit of Lance Armstrong and the other former Postal Service riders. I hope that this is just the tip of the iceberg for USADA, because no women were implicated in this scandal and womenÕs cycling is certainly not exempt from the wide spread doping. I wonÕt feel vindicated until the women, who I know had to have been and in some cases probably still are doping, are added to the list. For years I lined up on the starting line feeling like the joke was on me. I spent years training, sacrificing and busting my butt despite the unfair playing field. I knew without cheating IÕd never realize my childhood dreams of winning a World Championship or an Olympic Gold Medal, but I kept racing because I wanted to see how far I could go. Regardless of my placing I wanted to have a personal best race at the Olympics, I couldnÕt ask for anything more. The chance to find out where I really stood was stolen from me by every athlete who chose to dope. They talk about the sport they love breaking their hearts, well my heart was broken over and over again by athletes just like them.I was a member of the 2000 and 2004 Olympic teams and, at one Games or the other, was teammates with Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie, Tyler Hamilton, Levi Leipheimer, and Christian Vande Velde. I didnÕt know any of them well, I never even met Lance, but they all seemed like nice enough guys. I knew however that nice didnÕt equal clean, and I guessed at the time that they were probably all guilty of doping. There just wasnÕt proof. IÕm sure most people are thinking that I didnÕt have to race against these guys directly, so why am I so up in arms; their choices didnÕt directly effect me, BUT THEY DID! The results they got while they were doping were the results that I was compared too. The year after the 2000 Olympic Games, when a very high member of USA Cycling told me ÒYou just arenÕt a world class athlete,Ó it was because my results and times were being compared to those of athletes that were doping. Every time they raised the bar with their super human results, it made it harder for the clean athletes like me to receive financial support from USA Cycling and the United States Olympic Committee, because all funding is based on results and medals.In an interview with Pressdemocrat.com, Levi Leipheimer stated, ÓIf you read all the riders' admissions from last week it's funny it was like we all had the exact same storyÉ everyone said we don't want to make excuses, but at the time we felt we really had no choice. It was so casually discussed in the peloton. No one felt like they were cheating. They didn't feel like they were cheating each other, you know. Obviously, we knew the rules and we were breaking the rules, but it was easy to be in that situation and just realize everybody was doing it. After a while, you justified it to yourself.ÓThey may have justified it to themselves, but they were wrong. Not everyone was doing it. For every one of them, there were hundreds of cyclist who quit because they wouldnÕt cheat and couldnÕt compete. I also got to the point where I knew that I couldnÕt get any further without doping. After years of dealing with suspected dopers internationally, I finally had to deal with it at a National level. I however never felt like I didnÕt have a choice. I knew I wouldnÕt dope, so I made the tough decision; I quit. Yes, IÕm sometimes bitter, but I have never regretted my decision. I can look back at my entire cycling career and know that everything I accomplished was clean, and IÕm proud of that. That means more than any title or medal.When I read in an article on ESPN.com about Christian Vande VeldeÕs home, Òset on a swath of quiet, wooded acreage,Ó I was reminded that I left the sport of cycling in debt. Granted IÕm a woman, so I wouldnÕt have made nearly as much money regardless of my choices, but had I chosen to dope I would have earned a lot more in prize money, grants and salary. I have to think that the cyclists who chose to cheat did it as much for the money as they did for the wins, prestige and glory, especially those athletes whose job it was to help Lance win. Doping allowed them to make a good living in cycling. IÕm glad Nike pulled their sponsorship of Lance Armstrong, all of the sponsors should. I think that all of the guilty riders should have to pay their sponsors, the race organizers and the United States Olympic Committee back, what better way to deter other athletes from cheating. The stakes still arenÕt high enough; a several month or several year suspension is just a slap on the wrist. Unless athletes face jail time or suffer a serious financial blow, I donÕt think much will change. The benefits of cheating far outweigh the consequences. IÕm all about forgiving, but until the public gets outraged and society changes its win at all cost mentality, nothing will change. Athletes will just find new drugs and new ways to get around the tests. I commend the cyclists involved in the Lance Armstrong scandal who have spoken out and now want to help clean up the sport. I hope they do encourage the next generation of athletes to compete clean. However, if they get paid to do it, it feels like they are benefiting from their cheating twice. Every time someone hires one of them to speak or buys their book, they become part of the problem; just as every person who refuses to believe their hero has let them down perpetuates the lie. There are plenty of role models out there who took the high road; most of them just donÕt have medals.When I wrote my two childrenÕs books, Gracie GoatÕs Big Bike Race and Shawn Sheep The Soccer Star, my goal was to reach kids while they were still moldable. USADAÕs new program, True Sport, has the same concept and gives me hope for my three children. Maybe with the implementation of a program that focuses on the true sport values at childhood, I will no longer have to hope that my kids pick some other sport. IÕd like to think that cycling will be cleaner now, but IÕm not sure. Thanks to USADA athletes here in the United States will definitely be looking over their shoulders, but the problem is much bigger. Doping in sport, all sports, is a world wide epidemic and every country needs to get on board and crack down. Hopefully this is just the beginning. ###