Sports

WADA: Armstrong’s Attempt at Reduced Ban ‘Almost Too Late’

Published

9 years ago

March 24, 2015

In this Feb. 28, 2011, file photo, Lance Armstrong is shown during a news conference at the Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. A person with knowledge of the meeting tells The Associated Press that cyclist Lance Armstrong talked last week with the head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in hopes of potentially reducing his lifetime ban. Armstrong and Travis Tygart met for six hours, according to the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussion was meant to remain private. The meeting was first reported by The New York Times.(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

SAMUEL PETREQUIN, AP Sports Writer

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Lance Armstrong has not done enough to get his life ban reduced and his latest bid for rehabilitation is coming too late, the director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency said Tuesday.

In an interview with The Associated Press, David Howman said the disgraced American cyclist did not seize the opportunities he had to come forward with the details of his doping past.

“If he satisfied the criteria to go forward and ask for suspension of his ban, the criteria will be carefully looked at, but so far he has not,” Howman said on the sidelines of a WADA symposium in Lausanne. “There is no consideration being given to it.”

Armstrong met with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency chief Travis Tygart this month in hopes of getting a reduction of his ban but has yet to get in touch with WADA. The meeting with Tygart was the first since 2012, the year Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life after systematic doping within his former teams was exposed.

Armstrong made a public confession about his doping but WADA was expecting him to give a comprehensive account of his cheating.

“I’m not sure why he has not done anything,” Howman said. “He certainly had plenty of opportunities, including talking to us, but he has not come forward with substantial information that might be helpful to the cycling fraternity.”

Armstrong previously met twice with European officials investigating doping in cycling as part of the Cycling Independent Reform Commission hearings. The report pointed out that he was the only rider banned for life in 2012 by USADA while former teammates who testified against him were banned for just six months.

The report also noted that Armstrong deserved a “harsh sanction,” and that some reduced penalties could be justified for riders who cooperated with USADA’s initial investigation, which Armstrong did not.

Armstrong has complained of receiving unfair treatment in his campaign for his lifetime suspension to be overturned. The ban also covers sanctioned triathlons and marathons, Armstrong’s other favorite sports.

“If he had been given a harsher treatment, then one would have expected an appeal. There was no appeal,” Howman said. “Everybody would hope that he would sit down and explain the whole regime and what they did. He had that chance.

“He did not do it before the independent commission that was established by the UCI. He did not do it with USAD. He has not done it with us. It’s almost too late.”

Armstrong declined to comment.

Howman also agreed with UCI president Brian Cookson that Armstrong’s plans to ride part of the Tour de France route a day before the professional peloton this summer would be disrespectful.

Armstrong, who overcame testicular cancer, was approached to join the ride by former English soccer player Geoff Thomas, who is trying to raise $1.5 million for the fight against blood cancer.

“Mr. Cookson is the correct judge of that, and I think his statement reflected what was probably the position from their perspective, which is damaging,” Howman said. “I think there is probably going more attention on what he is doing than on the Tour, and that’s a little bit sad.”

Betsy Andreu, the wife of former Armstrong teammate Frankie Andreu who testified that he admitted to doctors treating him for cancer in 1996 that he had used performance-enhancing drugs, said Armstrong should act genuinely instead of trying to get his ban reduced out of personal interest.

“Not being able to compete for just two years is driving him nuts,” she told the AP. “So now he wants to give the impression that he is really, really sorry. Maybe he’ll do the right thing, but I don’t think he is remorseful. I think he is full of revenge. If he talks, it’s not because he wants to do good for the sport, but he wants to get back at everybody who let him take the heat himself.”

Betsy Andreu added that Armstrong’s planned return to France this summer was not a good idea.

“I think he’s so afraid of not being talked about. He is so afraid of becoming irrelevant,” she said. “So I look forward to the day when he says he is going to do something people just said: ‘OK, whatever.'”

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O.J. Simpson, 76, Dies of Prostate Cancer

Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson, who rose to fame as a college football player who went on to the NFL and parlayed his talents in acting and sportscasting, succumbed to prostate cancer on April 10, his family announced.

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson. Wikipedia photo

By Post Staff

Born and raised in San Francisco, the Galileo High School graduate was recruited by the University of Southern California after he was on a winning Junior College All-American team.

At USC, he gained wide acclaim as a running back leading to him becoming the No. 1 pick in the AFL-NFL draft in 1969 and joining the Buffalo Bills, where he had demanded – and received — the largest contract in professional sports history: $650,000 over five years. In 1978, the Bills traded Simpson to his hometown team, the San Francisco 49ers, retiring from the game in 1979.

Simpson’s acting career had begun before his pro football career with small parts in 1960s TV (“Dragnet”) before “Roots” and film (“The Klansman,” “The Towering Inferno,” Capricorn One”).

He was also a commentator for “Monday Night Football,” and “The NFL on NBC,” and in the mid-1970s Simpson’s good looks and amiability made him, according to People magazine, “the first b\Black athlete to become a bona fide lovable media superstar.”

The Hertz rent-a-car commercials raised his recognition factor while raising Hertz’s profit by than 50%, making him critical to the company’s bottom line.

It could be said that even more than his success as a football star, the commercials of his running through airports endeared him to the Black community at a time when it was still unusual for a Black person to represent a national, mainstream company.

He remained on Hertz team into the 1990s while also getting income endorsing Pioneer Chicken, Honey Baked Ham and Calistoga water company products and running O.J. Simpson Enterprises, which owned hotels and restaurants.

He married childhood sweetheart Marguerite Whitley when he was 19 and became the father of three children. Before he divorced in 1979, he met waitress and beauty queen Nicole Brown, who he would marry in 1985. A stormy relationship before, during and after their marriage ended, it would lead to a highway car chase as police sought to arrest Simpson for the murder by stabbing of Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.

The pursuit, arrest, and trial of Simpson were among the most widely publicized events in American history, Wikipedia reported.

Characterized as the “Trial of the Century,” he was acquitted by a jury in 1995 but found liable in the amount of $33 million in a civil action filed by the victims’ families three years later.

Simpson would be ensnared in the criminal justice system 12 years later when he was arrested after forcing his way into a Las Vegas hotel room to recover sports memorabilia he believed belonged to him.

In 2008, he received a sentence of 33 years and was paroled nine years later in 2017.

When his death was announced, Simpson’s accomplishments and downfalls were acknowledged.

Sports analyst Christine Brennan said: “… Even if you didn’t love football, you knew O.J. because of his ability to transcend sports and of course become the businessman and the pitchman that he was.

“And then the trial, and the civil trial, the civil case he lost, and the fall from grace that was extraordinary and well-deserved, absolutely self-induced, and a man that would never be seen the same again,” she added.

“OJ Simpson played an important role in exposing the racial divisions in America,” attorney Alan Dershowitz, an adviser on Simpson’s legal “dream team” told the Associated Press by telephone. “His trial also exposed police corruption among some officials in the Los Angeles Police Department. He will leave a mixed legacy. Great athlete. Many people think he was guilty. Some think he was innocent.”

“Cookie and I are praying for O.J. Simpson’s children … and his grandchildren following his passing. I know this is a difficult time,” Magic Johnson said on X.

“I feel that the system failed Nicole Brown Simpson and failed battered women everywhere,” attorney Gloria Allred, who once represented Nicole’s family, told ABC News. “I don’t mourn for O.J. Simpson. I do mourn for Nicole Brown Simpson and her family, and they should be remembered.”

Simpson was diagnosed with prostate cancer about a year ago and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment, according to Pro Football Hall of Fame President Jim Porter. He died in his Las Vegas, Nevada, home with his family at his side.

He is survived by four children: Arnelle and Jason from his first marriage and Sydney and Justin from his second marriage. He was predeceased son, Aaren, who drowned in a family swimming pool in 1979.

Sources for this report include Wikipedia, ABC News, Associated Press, and X.

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Arts and Culture

Gov. Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom Host 2024 Hall of Fame Ceremony

Former Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and three other African Americans were among 10 luminaries inducted into the 2024 Class of the California Hall of Fame on Feb. 8. The 17th Annual California Hall of Fame ceremony was held at the California Museum.

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Willie Brown, Former California Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor, was proud to be among the Hall of Fame inductees. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

By California Black Media

Former Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and three other African Americans were among 10 luminaries inducted into the 2024 Class of the California Hall of Fame on Feb. 8.

The 17^th Annual California Hall of Fame ceremony was held at the California Museum.

“The California Hall of Fame is one of our families’ favorite traditions as it is a time to come together to celebrate remarkable Californians as well as their loved ones because we know that it is about partnerships,” Siebel Newsom said. “The governor likes to say that California is a dream factory because it doesn’t matter what zip code or background you come from, the California dream is alive and well to everyone who calls this state home.”

The other Black honorees were filmmaker Ava DuVernay; Federal Judge and civil rights leader, the Hon. Thelton Henderson; and basketball Hall of Fame player and broadcaster Cheryl Miller.

“It’s what I’ve been waiting for and to be among a great group of individuals that also deserve the honor,” Brown told California Black Media on the event’s red carpet before the ceremony began. “No, I never thought someone from Texas would be recognized this way. But here I am, and it all happened in the great state of California. It’s a fantastic feeling.”

Other 2024 inductees are: master chef and “mother of fusion cuisine” Helene An; computer scientist and “father of the internet” Vincent A. Cerf; all-female pop punk band The Go-Gos; Chicano Rock band Los Lobos; former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Congressman Leon E. Panetta; and artistic director and choreographer Brenda Way.

This year’s honorees join a history-making club with over 150 inspirational Californians previously inducted for their groundbreaking achievements and personifying the state’s innovative spirit.

“It’s just a humbling experience. I want to thank the Governor and First Partner. Who would have thought 100 years ago (that I would be inducted?) It’s incredible,” Miller said after her induction. “I want to thank the governor and First Partner for an incredible event.”

During his acceptance speech, Henderson said he was deeply honored.

“You know, it really would have been a really big deal to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in the area where I grew up, for example, South Central Hall of Fame, or the Watts Hall of Fame, or the Straight Out of Compton Hall of Fame,” he said. “But being inducted into the California Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame of the greatest state in the country in this great nation is something else.”

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El Cerrito High Senior Jayvon Bolds Named to Blue-Grey All-American Bowl

El Cerrito High School senior Jayvon Bolds is set to play in the Blue-Grey All American Bowl game at Cowboy Stadium in Dallas on Jan. 8. Bolds, an 18-year-old scholar athlete whose favorite subject is history, was nominated for the honor by Rodney Alamo Brown, founder of Soulful Softball Sunday who also serves as an announcer for the Texas bowl game.

Published

3 months ago

January 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Jayvon Bolds (No. 4) is headed to Cowboys Stadium to play in the Blue-Grey All American Bowl. (Photo courtesy of Rodney Alamo Brown).

By the Richmond Standard

El Cerrito High School senior Jayvon Bolds is set to play in the Blue-Grey All American Bowl game at Cowboy Stadium in Dallas on Jan. 8.

Bolds, an 18-year-old scholar athlete whose favorite subject is history, was nominated for the honor by Rodney Alamo Brown, founder of Soulful Softball Sunday who also serves as an announcer for the Texas bowl game.

“It’s a real honor,” Alamo Brown stated about Brown’s selection for the bowl game. “This makes him an All-American.”

Bolds will play three positions for the Eastern team: kr, slot back and special teams—i.e., kickoff and punt return.

“The plan is to line up Bolds all over the field and let him do his thing. He’ll be a weapon for our staff,” said NFL veteran Tampa Bay Buccaneers standout and All-American Bowl Coach Dick Bell. “In a game like this, with the platform being an NFL facility with former professionals as assistants and mentors, he’ll have a chance to shine on one of the biggest stages around.”

Recently, Bolds received a scholarship offer to continue his higher education at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa.

Bolds maintains a 3.3 GPA and is heavily involved in leadership as he is the vice president of the Black Student Union.

Blue-Grey Football launched in 1989 by founders Gus and Erik Bell with the aim of helping prospects gain national exposure so that they can improve their chances to secure college scholarships.

Some of the nation’s most talented young football players compete in the annual game, with Fox Sports, CBS Sports and USA Today regularly providing coverage, as well as ESPN.com, Scout.com, Rivals.com and 247Sports.com.

Bolds’ family is planning on traveling to Dallas on Friday and is seeking donations from the community to offset the enormous cost. Those who are willing to donate may do so by sending their donations to this cash app, $Juanita Towns.

Rodney Alamo Brown contributed to this report.