Court Upholds Ban on Floyd Landis

Floyd Landis's story began as an inspiration. During the 2006 Tour de France, Landis was among the favorites to win, but during the 16th stage of the Tour, Landis fell eight minutes behind the leader, Oscar Pereiro, with only four stages to go. At that point, he was faced with a nearly impossible task, but in Stage 17, Landis turned one of the greatest cycling performances of all time, winning the 201 km stage by nearly six minutes and cutting Pereiro's lead by over seven minutes.

As we would discover in the coming months, it was all a sham. Only a week later, Landis tested positive for banned synthetic testosterone. When a second test confirmed the initial findings, Landis was dropped by the Phonak team. Landis for a time insisted that he was innocent, even though the tests had shone that he had nearly three times the legal ratio for testosterone in his bloodstream. On June 30, the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that they would uphold the two year ban from professional racing.

Where does Floyd Landis stand among our disgraced champions? In recent years, the unearthing of cheating in professional sports has become common. In recent years, Justin Gatlin and Marion Jones, two former gold medalists, were issued bans. Gatlin was banned for eight years from track and field and was stripped of his world record hundred time. Jones was stripped of her medals from the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and was banned from attending the 2012 Games by the International Olympic Committee. Our society, especially the portion of it that is infatuated with sports, has little time for losers. After they were banned and their careers were effectively ended, the media has paid little attention to Gatlin, Jones, or Landis. Even Barry Bonds, with his indictment pending, is being paid little attention by the sports media. Like these other three disgraced athletes, Landis stands alone, forgotten.