Would you be able to write a composition comparing Iván Fernández and Lance Amstrong? Knowing Ivánś stance towards sport and Lanceś....what could you write about? How many paragraphs could you use? How would you relate the information given in the introduction to the other paragraphs?
Honesty of the long-distance runner
Is winning all that counts? Are you absolutely sure about that? Two weeks ago, on December 2, Spanish athlete Iván Fernández Anaya was competing in a cross-country race in Burlada, Navarre. He was running second, some distance behind race leader Abel Mutai - bronze medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the London Olympics. As they entered the finishing straight, he saw the Kenyan runner - the certain winner of the race - mistakenly pull up about 10 meters before the finish, thinking he had already crossed the line.
Fernández Anaya quickly caught up with him, but instead of exploiting Mutai's mistake to speed past and claim an unlikely victory, he stayed behind and, using gestures, guided the Kenyan to the line and let him cross first.
"I didn't deserve to win it," says 24-year-old Fernández Anaya. "I did what I had to do. He was the rightful winner. He created a gap that I couldn't have closed if he hadn't made a mistake. As soon as I saw he was stopping, I knew I wasn't going to pass him." Fernández Anaya is coached in Vitoria by former Spanish distance runner Martín Fiz in the same place, the Prado Park, where he clocked up kilometers and kilometers of training to become European marathon champion in 1994 and world marathon champion in 1995.
"It was a very good gesture of honesty," says Fiz. "A gesture of the kind that isn't made any more. Or rather, of the kind that has never been made. A gesture that I myself wouldn't have made. I certainly would have taken advantage of it to win."
Fiz says his pupil's action does him credit in human if not athletic terms. "The gesture has made him a better person but not a better athlete. He has wasted an occasion. Winning always makes you more of an athlete. You have to go out to win."
Fiz recalls that at the 1997 World Championships in Athens he was followed by his countryman Abel Antón the whole way. In the final meters Antón attacked and easily won the race, having exploited all Fiz's hard work. "I knew that was going to happen. [...] But competition is like that. It wouldn't have been logical for Antón to let me win."
Fernández Anaya trains in the Prado every day, putting in double sessions three times a week - when his vocational studies allow. Experts say he is one step away from entering the elite of Spanish cross-country running. His goal this year is to at least make the Spanish team for the world cross-country champions.
But according to his coach, the pressure gets to him. "He doesn't know how to overcome the pressure, which is what differentiates champions. If he did, he would have been at the recent European championships," Fiz notes.
"In the Burlada cross-country race there was hardly anything at stake [...] apart from being able to say that you had beaten an Olympic medalist," says Fernández Anaya.
"But even if they had told me that winning would have earned me a place in the Spanish team for the European championships, I wouldn't have done it either. Of course it would be another thing if there was a world or European medal at stake. Then, I think that, yes, I would have exploited it to win... But I also think that I have earned more of a name having done what I did than if I had won. And that is very important, because today, with the way things are in all circles, in soccer, in society, in politics, where it seems anything goes, a gesture of honesty goes down well."
Armstrong banned for life
Lance Armstrong has "no place in cycling," Pat McQuaid said Monday
after the American rider was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles
and banned from the sport for life.
McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), the world governing body that ratified the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)'s charges against Armstrong, added that the Texan "deserves to be forgotten in cycling."
"The UCI wishes to begin the journey on that path forward today by confirming that it will not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and that it will recognize the sanction that USADA has imposed. I was sickened by what I read in the USADA report," said McQuaid. USADA's sanctions against Armstrong were the culmination of a years-long investigation — which the cyclist has labeled a witch-hunt — into the alleged doping practices employed by Armstrong and other members of the US Postal Service team. On October 10, USADA published a report accusing Armstrong of being embroiled in "the most sophisticated, professional and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."
Armstrong, who has always denied any wrongdoing, did not contest the charges on this occasion because, he said, "there comes a point in every man's life when he has to say 'enough is enough'."
With scandal after scandal, the outcome of the USADA investigation has thrown the entire future of the sport into question. Last week, Rabobank, which had sponsored the eponymous team for 17 years, withdrew from professional cycling amid concerns the sport is incapable of cleaning itself up. In the wake of Armstrong's life ban, demands for McQuaid and the entire UCI board to resign gathered pace.
"Cycling has a future. This is not the first time cycling has reached a crossroads or that it has had to begin anew," McQuaid told a press conference. "When I took over in 2005 I made the fight against doping my priority. I acknowledged cycling had a culture of doping. Cycling has come a long way. I have no intention of resigning."
Oscar Pereiro, who was handed the 2006 Tour de France title after Floyd Landis was disqualified for doping, said the decision to ban Armstrong was "understandable, but also sad."
"The sport that gave so much to me is making me very sad," Pereiro said. "I hope a line can be drawn under it now and cycling can move on, but with the resignation of the entire UCI."
Pereiro suggested that the evidence against Armstrong was less than convincing. "After so many years and with more than 10 million euros spent they sanction him on the strength of testimony from his teammates and not by evidence of their own."
Samuel Sánchez, the 2008 Olympic road race gold medalist, said the UCI's decision to ban Armstrong was incorrect. "What's happened to Armstrong is unfair, he has never tested positive. Somebody accuses you of doping and anything goes."
The UCI said it had tested Armstrong on 218 occasions and that he had "beaten the system." The governing body said the World Anti-Doping Agency should also assume responsibility for the scourge of doping. The UCI will decide on Friday what to do with the titles that have been stripped from Armstrong. Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said the history book should remain blank: "This period must be marked by a lack of victors. This is a crisis for cycling that affects not just France, but the whole world." The UCI has the final decision in the matter.
Asked if he thought the sport would ever be completely clean, McQuaid answered: "No."
McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), the world governing body that ratified the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)'s charges against Armstrong, added that the Texan "deserves to be forgotten in cycling."
"The UCI wishes to begin the journey on that path forward today by confirming that it will not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and that it will recognize the sanction that USADA has imposed. I was sickened by what I read in the USADA report," said McQuaid. USADA's sanctions against Armstrong were the culmination of a years-long investigation — which the cyclist has labeled a witch-hunt — into the alleged doping practices employed by Armstrong and other members of the US Postal Service team. On October 10, USADA published a report accusing Armstrong of being embroiled in "the most sophisticated, professional and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."
Armstrong, who has always denied any wrongdoing, did not contest the charges on this occasion because, he said, "there comes a point in every man's life when he has to say 'enough is enough'."
With scandal after scandal, the outcome of the USADA investigation has thrown the entire future of the sport into question. Last week, Rabobank, which had sponsored the eponymous team for 17 years, withdrew from professional cycling amid concerns the sport is incapable of cleaning itself up. In the wake of Armstrong's life ban, demands for McQuaid and the entire UCI board to resign gathered pace.
"Cycling has a future. This is not the first time cycling has reached a crossroads or that it has had to begin anew," McQuaid told a press conference. "When I took over in 2005 I made the fight against doping my priority. I acknowledged cycling had a culture of doping. Cycling has come a long way. I have no intention of resigning."
Oscar Pereiro, who was handed the 2006 Tour de France title after Floyd Landis was disqualified for doping, said the decision to ban Armstrong was "understandable, but also sad."
"The sport that gave so much to me is making me very sad," Pereiro said. "I hope a line can be drawn under it now and cycling can move on, but with the resignation of the entire UCI."
Pereiro suggested that the evidence against Armstrong was less than convincing. "After so many years and with more than 10 million euros spent they sanction him on the strength of testimony from his teammates and not by evidence of their own."
Samuel Sánchez, the 2008 Olympic road race gold medalist, said the UCI's decision to ban Armstrong was incorrect. "What's happened to Armstrong is unfair, he has never tested positive. Somebody accuses you of doping and anything goes."
The UCI said it had tested Armstrong on 218 occasions and that he had "beaten the system." The governing body said the World Anti-Doping Agency should also assume responsibility for the scourge of doping. The UCI will decide on Friday what to do with the titles that have been stripped from Armstrong. Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said the history book should remain blank: "This period must be marked by a lack of victors. This is a crisis for cycling that affects not just France, but the whole world." The UCI has the final decision in the matter.
Asked if he thought the sport would ever be completely clean, McQuaid answered: "No."
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