History of Lance Armstrong
| Lance Armstrong was born in the city of Plano in Texas on 18 September, 1971. His parents were Linda Gayle Mooneyham and Eddie Charles Gunderson. Lance’s mother realized that he had an ardent passion and talent for athletics, and decided him to motivate him more on this line. |
Thus, Lance proved himself a professional athlete by winning Iron Kid’s Triathlon at the tender age of 13. Later, because of his craze for cycling, he had to set running and swimming aside. He bagged lot of awards like the US National Amateur Championship.
Some of his achievements were:
- 1987 - 1988: Lance was ranked as No. 1 Triathlete in the “Under 19” age group.
- 1989 and 1990: Lance won National Sprint Course Triathlon Champion
- 1991: Won the U.S Amateur Championship
- 1992: Participated in the Summer Olympics, representing U.S. and finished 14th
- 1993: Named as the “Youngest Rider” claiming the UCI Road World championship. Also, this was the year when he won the first stage of the Tour de France.
- 1994: Lance won the Thrift Drug Classic
- 1995: Won the award Clasica San Sebastian, and also won the Tour Du Pont
- 1996: Honored as the first American to win the La Fleche Wallonne, and ended up finishing 12th in the Road Race held during the Olympics.
- 1999-2005: Won the Tour de France title seven consecutive times, which was a record-breaking achievement.
In 1996, Armstrong was the number one ranked cyclist in the world. However, he had to put aside his passion for cycling as he was diagnosed with cancer of the testes which had metastasized to the brain and lungs. Lance returned from the brink of death to take up the sport in 1998. He returned in 1999 to successfully to compete in the Tour de France, which he won, and thereafter, he won the event for seven continuous years.
In the year 2005, Lance retired from professional road racing.
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