Lance Edward

Gunderson
(Lance Armstrong)
Cyclist. Born September 18,
1971, in Plano, Texas.
Raised by his mother Linda
in the the suburbs of Dallas,
Armstrong was athletic from
an early age. He began
running and swimming at 10
years old and took up
competitive cycling and
triathlons (which combine a
1,000 meter swim, 15-mile
bike ride, and three-mile
run) at 13. At 16, Armstrong
became a professional
triathlete — he was the
national sprint-course
triathlon champion in 1989
and 1990.
Soon, Armstrong chose to
focus on cycling, his
strongest event as well as
his favorite. During his
senior year in high school,
the U.S. Olympic
development team invited
him to train with them in
Colorado Springs, Colorado.
He left high school
temporarily to do so, but
later took private classes
and received his high school
diploma in 1989. The
following summer, he
qualified for the 1990 junior
world team and placed 11th
in the World Championship
Road Race, with the best
time of any American since
1976. That same year, he
became the U.S. national
amateur champion and beat
out many professional
cyclists to win two major
races, the First Union Grand
Prix and the Thrift Drug
Classic.
In 1991, Armstrong
competed in his first Tour
DuPont, a long and difficult
12-stage race, covering
1,085 miles over 11 days.
Though he finished in the
middle of the pack, his
performance announced a
promising newcomer to the
world of international
cycling. He went on to win
another stage race, the
Settimana Bergamasca race,
in Italy later that summer.
After finishing second in the
U.S. Olympic time trials in
1992, Armstrong was
favored to win the road race
in Barcelona, Spain. With a
surprisingly sluggish
performance, however, he
came in only 14th.
Undeterred, Armstrong
turned professional
immediately after the
Olympics, joining the
Motorola cycling team for a
respectable yearly salary.
Though he came in dead last
in his first professional
event, the day-long San
Sebastian Classic in Spain,
he rebounded in two weeks
and finished second in a
World Cup race in Zurich,
Switzerland.
Armstrong had a strong year
in 1993, winning cycling's
"Triple Crown" — the Thrift
Drug Classic, the Kmart
West Virginia Classic, and
the CoreStates Race (the
U.S. Professional
Championship). That same
year, he came in second at
the Tour DuPont. He started
off well in his first-ever Tour
de France, a 21-stage race
that is widely considered
cycling's most prestigious
event. Though he won the
eighth stage of the race, he
later fell to 62nd place and
eventually pulled out.
In August 1993, the 21-year-
old Armstrong won his most
important race yet: the
World Road Race
Championship in Oslo,
Norway, a one-day event
covering 161 miles. As the
leader of the Motorola team,
he overcame difficult
conditions — pouring rain
made the roads slick and
caused him to crash twice
during the race — to become
the youngest person and
only the second American
ever to win that contest.
The following year, he was
again the runner-up at the
Tour DuPont. Frustrated by
his near miss, he trained
with a vengeance for the
next year's event, which he
won, finishing two minutes
ahead of his closest rival,
Viatcheslav Ekimov of
Russia, who had defeated
him in 1994. He repeated at
the Tour DuPont in 1996,
setting several event
records, including largest
margin of victory (three
minutes, 15 seconds) and
fastest average speed in a
time trial (32.9 miles per
hour).
Also in 1996, Armstrong
rode again for the Olympic
team in Atlanta, Georgia.
Looking uncharacteristically
fatigued, he finished sixth in
the time trials and 12th in
the road race. Earlier that
summer, he had been unable
to finish the Tour de France,
as he was sick with
bronchitis. Despite such
setbacks, Armstrong was
still riding high by the fall of
1996. Then the seventh-
ranked cyclist in the world,
he signed a lucrative
contract with a new team,
France's Team Cofidis.
In October, however, came
the shocking announcement
that Armstrong had been
diagnosed with testicular
cancer. Well advanced, the
tumors had spread to his
abdomen, lungs, and lymph
nodes. After having a
testicle removed, drastically
modifying his eating habits,
and beginning aggressive
chemotherapy, Armstrong
was given a 65 to 85 percent
chance of survival. When
doctors found tumors on his
brain, however, his odds of
survival dropped to 50-50,
and then to 40 percent.
Fortunately, a subsequent
surgery to remove his brain
tumors was declared
successful, and after more
rounds of chemotherapy,
Armstrong was declared
cancer-free in February
1997.
Throughout his terrifying
struggle with the disease,
Armstrong had continued to
maintain that he was going
to race competitively again.
No one else seemed to
believe in him, however,
least of all Cofidis, who
canceled his contract and
$600,000 annual salary. As a
free agent, he had a good
deal of trouble finding a
sponsor, finally signing on to
a $200,000 per year position
with the United States
Postal Service team.
Back in competitive shape
by 1998, Armstrong took
fourth place at the World
Road Race Championship. He
went on to win several
events, including the
Cascade Classic, the
Rheinland Pfalz Rundfardt,
the Spring 56K Criterium,
and the Tour of Luxembourg.
In the summer of 1999,
Armstrong returned to the
Tour de France, the grueling
2,274-mile crown jewel of
international cycling. His
comeback garnered
worldwide attention,
especially when he began to
dominate the race, pushing
aside rumors that his
miraculous recovery had
been spurred on by
performance enhancing
drugs (frequent blood and
urine tests showed no trace
of such substances).
A leader from the start,
Armstrong won the event by
more than seven minutes
over his closest rival, Alex
Zulle of Switzerland. With a
record-breaking average
speed of 40.2 kilometers (or
25 miles) per hour, he
became only the second
American to win the Tour de
France and the first to win
at the head of a largely
American team. (The other
American to win, Greg
LeMond, had ridden with
French teams for his
victories in 1986, 1989, and
1990.)
In July 2000, Armstrong
dominated the Tour de
France yet again, silencing
those critics who had
claimed that his 1999 victory
had been without the
presence of some of his
major rivals. He posted a
final time of 92:33:08,
finishing six minutes and
two seconds ahead of
Germany's Jan Ullrich and
becoming the second
American (after LeMond) to
repeat as Tour champion.
In late August 2000,
Armstrong suffered bruises
and a shock to the system
when he and another cyclist
were hit by a car while
biking in Southern France.
He was not injured seriously
and recuperated in time to
compete at the 2000
Olympics in Sydney,
Australia, where he won
bronze in the individual time
trial.
Armstrong has lived in
Austin, Texas, since 1990. In
1996, he founded the Lance
Armstrong Foundation for
Cancer, now called
LiveStrong, and the Lance
Armstrong Junior Race
Series to help promote
cycling and racing among
America's youth. He is the
author of two best-selling
autobiographies, It's Not
About the Bike: My Journey
Back to Life (2000) and
Every Second Counts (2003).
In 2006, he ran the New York
City Marathon, raising
$600,000 for his LiveStrong
campaign.
Armstrong married Kristin
Richard, a public relations
executive he met through
his cancer foundation, in
1998. The couple had a son,
Luke, in October 1999, using
sperm frozen before
Armstrong began
chemotherapy. Twin
daughters, Isabelle and
Grace, were born in 2001.
The couple filed for divorce
in 2003. Since then, he's
dated rocker Sheryl Crow,
fashion designer Tory Burch,
actress Kate Hudson, and TV
star Ashley Olsen.
Armstrong retired in 2005,
only to announce three
years later, on September 9,
2008, that he planned to
return to competition and
the Tour de France in 2009.
He placed third in the race,
beaten by his teammate,
race leader Alberto Contador
and Saxo Bank team
member Andy Schleck. After
the race, Armstrong told
reporters that he intended
to compete again in 2010,
with a new team endorsed
by Radio Shack. The retail
chain will also sponsor
Armstrong as a runner and
triathlete.
In December 2008,
Armstrong announced that
his girlfriend, Anna Hansen,
was pregnant with his child.
The couple started dating in
July after meeting through
Lance's charity work. The
baby boy, Maxwell Edward
"Max" Armstrong, was born
on June 4, 2009, in Aspen,
Colorado.