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Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

                Chris Elliott                        Robyn Morrow                  Johnny Peña
                                      Fabian Sifuentes              Kristen Young

Cyclist faces tainted victory 

Moments after a miraculous stage 17 performance and a Victory at the Tour de France Floyd Landis began to receive the comparisons to Greg Le Mond and Lance Armstrong. He would have been known by the world as the first man after the Lance Armstrong Era to win the competition. He would have been, if he had not tested positive for high levels of testosterone following his 17th stage comeback.

Landis has previously stated that he has not taken any performance enhancing drugs and will fight to keep his name clean. This means appeals are more than likely in store for the American cyclist. There is also a chance that Landis could be stripped of his title if another test shows up positive for high levels of testosterone. Whatever the final outcome turns out to be Landis will not be remembered as the 93rd winner of the Tour de France. He will be remembered for the controversy that followed it.

Thanks to us, and by us we mean the media, athletes such as Tim Montgomery, Marian Jones, Barry Bonds and dozens of others have been under the watchful eyes of the most powerful information outlets on the planet. It is no secret that the most frequent news, whether it is in print, television or on the internet, is bad news. And that goes for sports journalism too. 

It is still impossible to turn on a television, log on to the internet, or pick up a news paper without seeing Barry Bonds' name and the words steroids surrounding it. It doesn't matter what records he has broken or will end up breaking. It doesn't matter if he is ever found guilty of utilizing performance enhancing drugs. He has and will be portrayed as the bad steroid taking guy who coincidently knew how to hit homeruns, despite his success before the allegations took place.

Sadly Landis will have to suffer through the same type of scrutiny. It his human nature to focus on the negative things in life and though sometimes it does not seem like it, journalists are human too. So consequently, Landis' astonishing victory at the 93rd Tour de France will have to take a back seat to the possibility that he could have cheated. But that's life.