The Daily News reported on Tuesday that Nike may have been complicit in Armstrong’s doping scheme, described in the USADA report as the most sophisticated in the history of sports. Kathy Lemond, the wife of American cyclist Greg Lemond, testified under oath during a 2006 deposition that Nike paid former International Cycling Union president Hein Verbruggen $500,000 to cover up a 1999 Armstrong positive drug test.
In sports, doping has emerged precisely because of the approach that the pursuit of victory justifies the use of any means to get it, and those who are against this idea: “it means, then, that they do not want to win.” But not enough to win the will of an individual (Armstrong) willing to set up the fraud, it need to build an organization that moves in the same way and shares the use of doping as a winning system. Of course, the higher the charisma and authority of the athlete, the greater its influence across the organization, the more difficult it will be for his teammates to refuse doping. To consolidate this system needs strong alliances and partnerships with other organizations, such as sports or business. This is why the news of the possible involvement of Nike and the former UCI president could be this additional piece of the puzzle. Armstrong was not alone in this adventure and now we’re finally finding out who were his allies.
To learn more about fraud: Alberto Cei, The Lords of the fraud. The mechanisms of financial and sport fraud. www.francoangeli.it / Research / Risultati_ricerca_avanzata.ASP
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