Lance Armstrong

[IAceI]

Right - tell me EWB.

Is Lance Armstrong one of the biggest, most famous, Sports Stars in the entire world?

So not just was he one of the best. Is Lance Armstrong one of the most famous sports stars there is.

I say yes. Pesci says no.

Clearly its down to EWB to be the impartial judge.

[King Ellis]

No doubt he is the most famous cyclist but whether he's one of the biggest sports stars is debatable. A lot of stars in North American sports might not be as big since their sports aren't perhaps as loved outside of N.A but still, it's cycling.

[Whisper]

I voted yes, purely because I think if you asked the average joe who Lance Armstrong was, they'd know...

That said, i'm also fairly certain he's more famous because of his battle with cancer, than purely for his sporting prowess.

Still... David Beckham, Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather... i'd say Lance Armstrong fits in with those names... in terms of everyone knowing who they are and what they are famous for.

[mikevandam]

Nope. He did something that was humanly impossible. Not trolling or anything. But no.

He might be famous for dating Sheryl Crow, but as far as sports fame goes. No. Especially when you consider the scandals that the sport of cycling had during his reign

Edited July 27, 2008 by mikevandam

[-A-]

I voted no on this, but it's hard to really put any kind of standard to it I really don't think he can be put in the same bracket as Pele, Beckham, Ali, Woods, Federer or even Schumacher, but he's clearly got a lot of name recognition.

[METALMAN]

I'd say on name alone, he is one of the most famous in the world. When you think cycling, you tend to think Lance Armstrong.

Whether or not he deserves this, with regards to doping controversies, is still very much up for debate, though not something I know enough about to comment on.

[Pesci]

My argument was basically that there are a lot of better known sports that get a lot more media coverage and as such the biggest star in a sport like cycling may not be on a par with a number of footballers, a scattering of boxers, a few tennis players and so on. Armstrong will be better known in places, but overall I just find it hard to believe he's as widely known as the top tier.

[Gabriel]

More people know Lance Armstrong as the guy who beat nut cancer and dated Sheryl Crow.

They don't know him for his cycling, which in my mind, negates the argument. Is he famous? Yes...but it's not because of the sport he was involved in...and furthermore, he is not more well known even than say, Lebron James...who is known 100% as a Basketball player.

[METALMAN]

I think it depends where you're from with regards to that. As far as I'm aware, very few people have heard of Lebron James, though so many more people know Lance Armstrong, and know him as a cyclist. I would certainly agree that cycling doesn't get anywhere near the coverage that other sports do. However, it does get a fair amount of coverage at this time of year, and the Tour de France is regarded as a very tough challenge. Therefore I think Lance Armstrong does deserve to be thought of as a big sports star due to his incredible success while overcoming great difficulties.

Though if those allegations of drug use against him are true, you can forget everything I said. I feel those allegations are likely not to be his fault though, rather that of the culprits who have savaged cycling's reputation so badly recently, to such a point that members of the public presume all cyclists are drug users.

[Gabriel]

Of course it depends where you're from.

If you're from the UK, you're hardly going to get anything that covers the NBA, or the NHL, or Major League Baseball.

From a generic standpoint though... Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Ken Griffey Jr... those guys eclipse Lance Armstrong. He may be a legendary cyclist, but that's like being extremely good as a benchwarmer in comparison to those three guys I listed.

[Baddar]

I'd say on name alone, he is one of the most famous in the world. When you think cycling, you tend to think Lance Armstrong.

But I don't think "cycling" an awful lot.

[thuganomic]

More people know Michael Jordan than they know Lance Armstrong. Hands down.

They love Jordan in third-world countries. You really think people in Africa know who Lance Armstrong is?

Edited July 27, 2008 by thug

[Gabriel]

More people know Michael Jordan than they know Lance Armstrong. Hands down.

They love Jordan in third-world countries. You really think people in Africa know who Lance Armstrong is?

...only the ones with nut cancer...

[IAceI]

1) I knew him much more about his cycling than his cancer

2) The cancer is more "The guy that done those wrist bands"

3) Fuck off do people care about Sheryl Crow. I'll give you the cancer argument, but not this one.

And I know who LeBron James is. I've seen him play live.

[DMN in the House]

All-time, its not even close. Jordan, Ali, Ruth, Gretzky, I could go on.

Currently, I still argue its not even close. David Beckham is probably more famous than him in the US, and easily in the rest of the football playing world, I'd wager, so he's above him. LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Yao Ming, more names that are probably better known. Tiger Woods almost certainly. He's probably more famous world-wide than any NFL (Tom Brady could have an arguement, maybe Peyton Manning) or MLB player (although Griffey, Bonds, A-Rod, and Jeter are all arguable there), but that still puts Lance Armstrong pretty far down the list, and I haven't even gone into women's tennis, where you could make arguements for the Williams sisters, and whoever else there is at the top of that sport (I don't follow tennis, don't care about tennis, and wouldn't know a female tennis player not named Venus or Serena if she sucked my dick, so sue me.).

[naiwf]

I don't think of Lance Armstrong as a great athlete or a legendary sports figure. I think of him as an inspirational story that people can relate to and that's why he's such a big deal (assuming you think that he is). In all honesty, I'd wager that 99% of the people out there that know him never sat down and watched a single minute of any of the 7 Tour de France's that he won and they certainly weren't more interested in it because of him. What other sports megastar added no interest to his sport in his or her home country?

[jrhodes]

I'd say that he is.

For a start you can name all the NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL players you want but no-one besides North Americans really gives a shit about those sports. I consider my group of friends to be pretty sports knowledgable but none of them know a damn thing about American sports or any of the "names" that are involved. I know because I watch late night C5 and have tried to talk about NFL and MLB with them and none of them have a clue what I'm talking about.

Lance Armstrong, on the other hand, is a far reaching name. Everyone knows who he is - the guy who had cancer who won Tour de France a bunch of times. They might not know much about him but they know who he is. He's a star, maybe more for overcoming cancer than his cycling but if he was just some Joe Schmoe to begin with then his cancer story would never have been picked up. He's a star, he was a sportsman. He's a sports star.

He's way up there in terms of world wide recognition. Off the top of my head I can only think of Tiger Woods, David Beckham and Monty Panesar ( ) who are bigger names. Of course, that's not including other past sport stars like Muhammad Ali, Pele, etc, as I feel they're too far removed from the current generation.

Edited July 28, 2008 by Jake O. Rhodes

[Pesci]

I find it hard to believe that he's better known than the Williams sisters, Roger Federer, Kaka, fat Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Floyd Mayweather, Michael Schumacher and loads of others. I didn't even know he had cancer, which is how little I know of him. I associate his name with cycling but that's about it - though that is coming from somebody who avoids cycling as much as possible. Admittedly this is just a Brit's perspective but I've never really heard that much about Armstrong, and I can't imagine it'd be different for the rest of the world football as a sport dominates.

[DMN in the House]

I'd say that he is.

For a start you can name all the NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL players you want but no-one besides North Americans really gives a shit about those sports. I consider my group of friends to be pretty sports knowledgable but none of them know a damn thing about American sports or any of the "names" that are involved. I know because I watch late night C5 and have tried to talk about NFL and MLB with them and none of them have a clue what I'm talking about.

Thats England, but most of the Spanish speaking world plays baseball, as does Japan, and they're going to know MLB players. Basketball is big in Europe, they'll know NBA players, and, of course, Yao is big in China. Plus, top NBA players are also Olympians, which adds to the people that know them.

Lance Armstrong can't compete with that. He's known for his overcoming cancer and Livestrong in the US, which, considering he's an American, hardly puts him in the running for the most known world-wide athlete.

My vote still goes to Beckham, because he's the most known footballer in the US, while names like Kaka, Ronaldo, Henry, just aren't known here.

[Colly]

I'm voting (not that is has anything to do with the actual vote...) Tiger Woods. I don't even follow golf, but everyone knows Tiger Woods. He's got the additional help of the named video game tie-in (See Colin McRae, but not David Beckham Super Soccer or whatever it was called).