| 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 a newspaper reported that forbidden steroids had been found in Armstrong's blood sample (the sample itself was taken 1999, and was tested years afterward for a previously-unsought steroid). Armstrong has always denied taking performance-enhancing drugs.
Father: Edward Gunderson
Mother: Linda Armstrong Kelly (nee Mooneyham)
Father: Terry Armstrong (stepfather)
Wife: Kristin (Richard) Armstrong (m. 8-May-1998, div. 2003)
Son: Luke David Armstrong (12-Oct-1999, with Kristin)
Daughter: Isabelle Armstrong (twin, b. 2001, with Kristin)
Daughter: Grace Armstrong (twin, b. 2001, with Kristin)
Girlfriend: Sheryl Crow (together 2004)
Girlfriend: Ashley Olsen (Olsen twin, together 2007)
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, 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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