Lance lived all of his life with his mother, Linda, who was only seventeen when poor little Lance was born. His father, a man by the name of Gunderson, took off when he was only two. Yet his mother kept on working two jobs and finished high school; got a secretarial position and moved on to Oak Cliff and found another husband named Terry Armstrong. Terry was a born-again Christian who believed that the proper way of discipline was to whip a boy for any reason. This made a firm impression on the boy. His mom, Linda, was and will be a guiding force in Lance's life. She worked extra hard to make sure Lance had everything; plenty of food and that clothes were clean and pressed. Yet she couldn't do anything about the friends at school. "You had to play football or be rich in order to fit in," Lance remembered. Of course, he had neither of those things. So Lance began to do athletics like running and swimming lessons at the age of 10. Instead of being with kids at the same age, he was put with 7-year-olds. It was embarrassing for someone at his age. Later on he took competitive cycling and triathlons at the age of 13.

During his senior year, the U.S. Olympic team invited him into the team. He left school temporarily. Later he attended private school to earn his diploma. The following summer, he won 11th place for the Junior World Championships of bicycle racing; the best place for Americans since 1976. In that same year, he won two major races, 1st Union Grand Prix and Thrifty Drug Classic. In 1991, he competed in the first Tour DuPont, a long and difficult twelve-stage race covering one thousand eighty-five miles over eleven days and unfortunately finished in between all the racers. In 1992, he finished 14th place in the road race at the Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. He turned professional right after the Olympics. That same year he finished last in the San Sebastian Classic, his first race as a professional.

Subsequently, he dropped out of Tour de France because of a cold. On October 2, 1996, he was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer, which had spread to his abdomen, lungs, and brain. Doctors thought it was highly unlikely that he had more than another year to live. He was operated on to remove the affected testicle and the lesions on his brain, then began chemotherapy for the cancer cells in the abdomen and in the lungs. Miraculously he recovered, and then, even more miraculously, came back to bike racing. He signed a contract with the U.S. Postal Service racing team after being dropped by Cofidis.

He won the Tour of Luxembourg, the Sprint 56K Criterium, the Cascade Classic, the Rheinland Pfafz Rundfahrt, and came in second place at First Union International. Then in 1999, he won the Tour de France. It would be the first of three consecutive wins in this prestigious race. In 2000 he won a bronze medal in a time trial at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.

I consider him a hero for overcoming testicular cancer and creating the Lance Armstrong Foundation to help other cancer patients. He is loyal, trustworthy, and an excellent influence on young people like myself. Lance is a hero who is determined to do anything life demands. Like Lance always says, "I decided I was going to win."

Lance Armstrong: The Official Web Site

US Olympic Team Web Site