Lance Armstrong has lived a very interesting life. Armstrong has had a lot of accomplishments throughout his lifetime.
He has also had some rough times, but he made it through all of them. He is still living and is enjoying life.Armstrong had a memorable childhood. He was born on September 18, 1971 in Plano, Texas. He was named after a Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Lance Rentzel. His mother is Linda Armstrong Kelly and his biological father is Eddie Gunderson.
Eddie left Linda and Lance when Lance was nine years old. Armstrong’s mother raised him in the suburbs of Dallas. His mother met Terry Armstrong and married him; Terry adopted Lance and helped raise him. Lance was very active and athletic as a child.Armstrong became active in sports when he was ten years old.
Armstrong practiced a lot and took up competitive cycling at the age thirteen. He also started competing in triathlons when he was thirteen years old. Armstrong was very good at triathlons and became a professional triathlete when he was sixteen years old. Armstrong became the champion of the national sprint-course triathlon in 1989 and 1990.Armstrong started focusing on solely on cycling during his junior year of high school. He chose cycling because it was his strongest and favorite sport of all.
The United States Olympic team development invited Armstrong to train with them in Colorado during Armstrong’s senior year of high school. Armstrong had to leave school to do the training so he made up all the work and got his high school diploma in 1989.Armstrong became a professional cyclist in 1992 after the Olympics. He joined the Motorola team for a decent yearly salary. He had a terrible start as a profession but he made a quick turn and started doing a lot better.
He had a very strong year in 1993. His career only went uphill from there, until he was diagnosed with cancer.Armstrong had a shocking turn once he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in October 1996. The tumors had spread to his abdomen, lungs, and lymph nodes. After making a lot of changes in his life, such as modifying eating habits and starting intense chemotherapy, he was given a sixty-five to eighty-five percent chance of surviving.
Once it was discovered that the tumors spread to Armstrong’s brain, his survival chance was lowered to fifty percent, then to forty percent. He had a successful surgery that removed the brain tumors. Armstrong had a few more rounds of chemotherapy and became cancer-free in February of 1997.After Armstrong’s quick recovery from cancer, he got back to his regular routine and competitive cycling. Not many believed that Armstrong would survive including his team, Cofidis. His contract of 600,000 dollars per year was cancelled.
He eventually found the United States Postal Service team who gave him a 200,000 dollars per year contract. Armstrong was accused of taking performance enhancing drugs, but his blood and urine tests had no trace of the substances. He won a total of thirty-seven bicycle races throughout his year, and seven of those wins were his seven Tour de France wins after surviving cancer. Armstrong described the sensation of winning in this quote, “If I could bottle that up and sell it, I’d be the richest man in the world.” (pg. 47, Christine M.
Hill). Armstrong also started a cancer foundation called the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and later called LiveStrong, in 1997 in Austin, Texas. The foundation was made “to inspire and empower people affected by cancer”. The foundation has thrived greatly.Armstrong’s relationships were interesting as well. He married Kristin Richards who helped him throughout his battle of cancer in 1998.
They had three children: Luke, Isabelle, and Grace. They filed for a divorce in 2003. He was later engaged to Sheryl Crow and the engagement was ended. Armstrong is currently dating Anna Hansen and they are expecting a child in July of 2009.Armstrong retired in 2005, but has “unretired” to race in some races. He is currently in the Astana team.
He competed in a race in northern Spain on March 23, 2009, where he broke his right collarbone in a massive wreck. He was planning on competing in the 2009 Tour de France this year, but he is not sure if he will be fully healed and in shape to compete by then. He says he will “just wait and see how it heals.”
