| Lance Armstrong  Born: 18-Sep-1971
Birthplace: Plano, TX
Gender: Male
Religion: Atheist
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Sports Figure Nationality: United States
Executive summary: 7-time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong's mother was 17 when she gave birth. His father abandoned them when he was two, and Armstrong has never seen him since. When reporters ask, he refers to his natural father as "the DNA donor". Lance started as a triathlete, the sport where competitors swim, cycle and run. He was good in the water and fast on his feet, but cycling was Armstrong's strength, and he soon decided to concentrate on cycling competitions. He won the US amateur cycling championship in 1991, and turned professional the following year.
In 1996 Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer, which had already spread to his brain and lungs, and doctors told him he had a 50/50 chance of surviving. Armstrong underwent surgery, received high-dose chemotherapy, and eventually recovered. His doctors then told him the 50/50 line had been a little white lie -- his actual odds of survival had been much worse, but they did not want to get his spirits down. In 1997, Armstrong began cycling again, and established the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The Foundation provides education and advocacy for cancer patients, and funds cancer research.
In 1999, he qualified for cycling's most prestigious race, the Tour de France -- a huge one-lap race around all of France, broken into 20 stages plus a short prologue. The race's flat stages eventually give way to steep mountains, which separate the winner from the also-rans. The total distance is more than 2,000 miles, and it is incredibly grueling. Armstrong won the Tour de France seven times consecutively, from 1999 through 2005.
Armstrong's heart is almost a third larger than that of an average man. It beats about thirty-two times a minute during those moments when Armstrong is at rest, and can exceed two hundred beats a minute when he exerts himself. Either number is far enough from the norm to startle any doctor with a stethoscope.
In August 2005, Jean-Marie Leblanc, director of the Tour de France, said that Armstrong owes the world an explanation after French newspaper L'Equipe reported that erythropoietin ("EPO"), a performance-enhancing drug, had been found in Armstrong's stored blood sample from 1999. But it is questionable whether a sample would be stable after that period of time, and it is not even known with certainty that the sample was his. Armstrong has always denied taking performance-enhancing drugs.[1]
[1] See "Lance Denies 'Credible' Report He Used Steroids", Associated Press, 23 August 2005, and Dale Robertson, "Lance Responds Angrily to Tour Director's Reaction", Houston Chronicle, 25 August 2005, a physician comments on the reliability of testing such old samples: "We are extremely surprised that urine samples could have been tested in 2004 and revealed the presence of EPO, Dr. Christiane Ayotte of the Institut National de la Recherché Scientifique told VeloNews. In its natural state or the synthesized version it's not stable in urine, even if stored at minus 20 degrees."
Father: Edward Gunderson
Mother: Linda Armstrong Kelly (nee Mooneyham)
Father: Terry Armstrong (stepfather)
Wife: Kristin Richard (m. 8-May-1998, div. 2003, one son, two daughters)
Son: Luke David Armstrong (12-Oct-1999)
Daughter: Isabelle Armstrong (twin, b. 2001)
Daughter: Grace Armstrong (twin, b. 2001)
Girlfriend: Sheryl Crow (singer/songwriter, together 2004)
Girlfriend: Ashley Olsen (Olsen twin, together 2007)
Girlfriend: Anna Hansen (together since 2008, one son)
Son: Max Armstrong (b. 7-Jun-2009)
High School: Plano East Senior High, Plano, TX
High School: Dallas, TX (1989)
Tour de France Winner 1999
Tour de France Winner 2000
Tour de France Winner 2001
Tour de France Winner 2002
Tour de France Winner 2003
Tour de France Winner 2004
Tour de France Winner 2005
Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year 2002
Associated Press Athlete of the Year (male) 2002
Associated Press Athlete of the Year (male) 2003
Associated Press Athlete of the Year (male) 2004
Associated Press Athlete of the Year (male) 2005
Endorsement of Comcast 2003
Endorsement of Nike
New York City Marathon 2:59:36
Asteroid Namesake 12373 Lancearmstrong
Risk Factors: Testicular Cancer, Lung Cancer, Brain Cancer
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
You, Me and Dupree (13-Jul-2006) Himself
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (18-Jun-2004) Himself
Official Website:
http://www.lancearmstrong.com/
Author of books:
It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life (2000, memoir, with Sally Jenkins)
Every Second Counts (2004)
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