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THE United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) is set to bring doping charges against Lance Armstrong that could lead to his being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. ????Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France winner, denied the charges in a statement: “I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one.”????? ????The 40-year-old champion called the charges “a witch hunt,” the same words he has used in the past when fighting off doping accusations that have followed him for more than a decade, including a two-year federal investigation into doping-related crimes that was dropped four months ago. ????This time the accuser is the antidoping agency, which does not have the power to bring criminal charges but does have the power to strip Armstrong of the accolades that helped make him a famous athlete. ????If its charges are upheld, the agency — a quasi-governmental organization that oversees antidoping mostly in Olympic sports — also could levy a lifetime ban on him that would cover cycling and any other sports that are signatories to the World Anti-Doping Code. ????The case has already led to Armstrong being suspended from competing in triathlons organized by the World Triathlon Corporation. He has focused on triathlons since retiring from cycling last year. ????Another difference from the federal investigation is that the antidoping agency’s bar to charge and eventually punish Armstrong is not as high. ????“It’s serious in the sense that they’ve got the ability to take away his title and ban him from future events,” said Robert D. Luskin, one of Armstrong’s lawyers. “Is it a process that is likely to lead to something that gives us some confidence that the allegations are true? Not for a second.” ????Luskin said Armstrong was notified of the charges last week and was given a week to meet with the antidoping agency officials and give his version of the story. He declined because the agency would not listen to anything short of a confession, Luskin said. The agency said Armstrong was the only American rider contacted who declined to speak with it. ????Armstrong, who had hoped to qualify for the Ironman World Championship in the fall, said that he had never doped and that the antidoping agency had a vendetta against him, fueled by malice. ????In a statement, Armstrong said, “I have been notified that USADA, an organization largely funded by taxpayer dollars but governed only by self-written rules, intends to again dredge up discredited allegations dating back more than 16 years to prevent me from competing as a triathlete and try to strip me of the seven Tour de France victories I earned.” ????“These charges are baseless, motivated by spite and paid for by promises of anonymity and immunity,” he said.???? ????The antidoping agency, in a letter that was sent to Armstrong and five of his cycling colleagues Tuesday, said that Armstrong and his associates were at the heart of systematic doping programs that began in the 1990s. ????The letter said Armstrong used the blood-booster EPO, blood transfusions, testosterone, corticosteroids and masking agents. He also is charged with distributing and administering some of those doping agents, a violation of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s code that could result in a ban of four years or more. ????Beyond the specific allegations of doping, the letter also alleges that Armstrong’s cycling teams engaged in a coordinated “doping conspiracy” over many years that involved “team officials, employees, doctors, and elite cyclists of the United States Postal Service and Discovery Channel cycling teams.” ????It alleges that in the years following the alleged conspiracy, the people involved engaged in a coordinated coverup in which they misled antidoping authorities, and gave false statements and legal testimony under oath and worked to “intimidate, discredit, silence and retaliate against witnesses.” ????The letter says the conspiracy was carried out “in order to advance the athletic and sporting achievements, financial well-being and status of the teams and their riders, employees, members and investors.” ????Multiple riders will testify that Armstrong gave them, encouraged them or assisted them in using banned substances, the letter says. ????“The witnesses to the conduct described in this letter include more than 10 cyclists as well as cycling team employees,” the letter says. ????The United States agency also said results from blood tests done on Armstrong in 2009 and 2010 by the International Cycling Union are “fully consistent with blood manipulation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions.” ????Considering that Armstrong has an army of high-powered lawyers, including those who worked with him during the federal inquiry, the antidoping agency is facing a steep climb. But Travis Tygart, chief executive of the agency, confirmed sending the letter but declined to comment on the evidence. ????“We do not choose whether or not we do our job based on outside pressures, intimidation or for any other reasons other than the evidence,” he said in a statement. ????The agency likely has the help of those cyclists who cooperated with the federal investigation, including Floyd Landis, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour title for doping, and Tyler Hamilton, who admitted to being part of a doping scheme with Armstrong. ????Armstrong still has not decided whether to fight the charges. “Lance has never shrunk from a fair fight, and we haven’t decided whether or not this process affords him a fair opportunity to meet the charges head on,” Luskin said. ????Athletes who are charged by USADA can request a hearing, and if they lose, they have the ability to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, an international arbitration body. ????Luskin, said the athlete has 10 days to make a written submission to USADA’s antidoping review board. ????Some of the alleged doping outlined in the letter happened more than eight years ago, which falls beyond the scope of the World Anti-Doping Association’s statute of limitations. ????In the letter, USADA says the statute doesn’t apply because the co-conspirators made “false statements” and engaged in “fraudulent concealment or other wrongful conduct.” ???? ????Armstrong was born Sept. 18, 1971, at Methodist Hospital in Plano, Texas, north of Dallas. At the age of 12, he began his sporting career as a swimmer. He abandoned swimming-only competition after seeing a poster for a junior triathlon called the Iron Kids Triathlon, which he entered and won at age 13. It became clear that his greatest talent was for bicycle racing after he won the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1991. ????On Oct. 2, 1996, then aged 25, Armstrong was diagnosed as having developed stage-three testicular cancer. The cancer spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain. Armstrong had an orchiectomy to remove his diseased testicle. After his surgery, his doctor stated that he had less than a 40 percent survival chance. ????Following treatments, his cancer went into complete remission, and by January 1998 he was already engaged in serious training for racing, moving to Europe to race for the U.S. Postal team. ????Armstrong won the Tour de France every year from 1999 to 2005 and used his fame to fuel his charitable work for cancer awareness. ????He has always vehemently denied using performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career. He has never tested positive, but was publicly accused in 2010 and 2011. ????(SD-Agencies)??????????????????????????????????? ????THE United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) is set to bring doping charges against Lance Armstrong that could lead to his being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. ????Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France winner, denied the charges in a statement: “I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one.”??? ????The 40-year-old champion called the charges “a witch hunt,” the same words he has used in the past when fighting off doping accusations that have followed him for more than a decade, including a two-year federal investigation into doping-related crimes that was dropped four months ago. ????This time the accuser is the antidoping agency, which does not have the power to bring criminal charges but does have the power to strip Armstrong of the accolades that helped make him a famous athlete. ????If its charges are upheld, the agency — a quasi-governmental organization that oversees antidoping mostly in Olympic sports — also could levy a lifetime ban on him that would cover cycling and any other sports that are signatories to the World Anti-Doping Code. ????The case has already led to Armstrong being suspended from competing in triathlons organized by the World Triathlon Corporation. He has focused on triathlons since retiring from cycling last year. ????Another difference from the federal investigation is that the antidoping agency’s bar to charge and eventually punish Armstrong is not as high. ????“It’s serious in the sense that they’ve got the ability to take away his title and ban him from future events,” said Robert D. Luskin, one of Armstrong’s lawyers. “Is it a process that is likely to lead to something that gives us some confidence that the allegations are true? Not for a second.” ????Luskin said Armstrong was notified of the charges last week and was given a week to meet with the antidoping agency officials and give his version of the story. He declined because the agency would not listen to anything short of a confession, Luskin said. The agency said Armstrong was the only American rider contacted who declined to speak with it. ????Armstrong, who had hoped to qualify for the Ironman World Championship in the fall, said that he had never doped and that the antidoping agency had a vendetta against him, fueled by malice. ????In a statement, Armstrong said, “I have been notified that USADA, an organization largely funded by taxpayer dollars but governed only by self-written rules, intends to again dredge up discredited allegations dating back more than 16 years to prevent me from competing as a triathlete and try to strip me of the seven Tour de France victories I earned.” ????“These charges are baseless, motivated by spite and paid for by promises of anonymity and immunity,” he said.??? ????The antidoping agency, in a letter that was sent to Armstrong and five of his cycling colleagues Tuesday, said that Armstrong and his associates were at the heart of systematic doping programs that began in the 1990s. ????The letter said Armstrong used the blood-booster EPO, blood transfusions, testosterone, corticosteroids and masking agents. He also is charged with distributing and administering some of those doping agents, a violation of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s code that could result in a ban of four years or more. ????Beyond the specific allegations of doping, the letter also alleges that Armstrong’s cycling teams engaged in a coordinated “doping conspiracy” over many years that involved “team officials, employees, doctors, and elite cyclists of the United States Postal Service and Discovery Channel cycling teams.” ????It alleges that in the years following the alleged conspiracy, the people involved engaged in a coordinated coverup in which they misled antidoping authorities, and gave false statements and legal testimony under oath and worked to “intimidate, discredit, silence and retaliate against witnesses.” ????The letter says the conspiracy was carried out “in order to advance the athletic and sporting achievements, financial well-being and status of the teams and their riders, employees, members and investors.” ????Multiple riders will testify that Armstrong gave them, encouraged them or assisted them in using banned substances, the letter says. ????“The witnesses to the conduct described in this letter include more than 10 cyclists as well as cycling team employees,” the letter says. ????The United States agency also said results from blood tests done on Armstrong in 2009 and 2010 by the International Cycling Union are “fully consistent with blood manipulation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions.” ????Considering that Armstrong has an army of high-powered lawyers, including those who worked with him during the federal inquiry, the antidoping agency is facing a steep climb. But Travis Tygart, chief executive of the agency, confirmed sending the letter but declined to comment on the evidence. ????“We do not choose whether or not we do our job based on outside pressures, intimidation or for any other reasons other than the evidence,” he said in a statement. ????The agency likely has the help of those cyclists who cooperated with the federal investigation, including Floyd Landis, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour title for doping, and Tyler Hamilton, who admitted to being part of a doping scheme with Armstrong. ????Armstrong still has not decided whether to fight the charges. “Lance has never shrunk from a fair fight, and we haven’t decided whether or not this process affords him a fair opportunity to meet the charges head on,” Luskin said. ????Athletes who are charged by USADA can request a hearing, and if they lose, they have the ability to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, an international arbitration body. ????Luskin, said the athlete has 10 days to make a written submission to USADA’s antidoping review board. ????Some of the alleged doping outlined in the letter happened more than eight years ago, which falls beyond the scope of the World Anti-Doping Association’s statute of limitations. ????In the letter, USADA says the statute doesn’t apply because the co-conspirators made “false statements” and engaged in “fraudulent concealment or other wrongful conduct.”????? ????Armstrong was born Sept. 18, 1971, at Methodist Hospital in Plano, Texas, north of Dallas. At the age of 12, he began his sporting career as a swimmer. He abandoned swimming-only competition after seeing a poster for a junior triathlon called the Iron Kids Triathlon, which he entered and won at age 13. It became clear that his greatest talent was for bicycle racing after he won the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1991. ????On Oct. 2, 1996, then aged 25, Armstrong was diagnosed as having developed stage-three testicular cancer. The cancer spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain. Armstrong had an orchiectomy to remove his diseased testicle. After his surgery, his doctor stated that he had less than a 40 percent survival chance. ????Following treatments, his cancer went into complete remission, and by January 1998 he was already engaged in serious training for racing, moving to Europe to race for the U.S. Postal team. ????Armstrong won the Tour de France every year from 1999 to 2005 and used his fame to fuel his charitable work for cancer awareness. ????He has always vehemently denied using performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career. He has never tested positive, but was publicly accused in 2010 and 2011. ????(SD-Agencies) | 