Celebrity of Pro Cyclists

On 28 Jul 2003 16:17:55 -0700, (Patrick)
wrote:

I guess my question is...is the overexposure that Lance Armstrong is
getting going to ruin the race interviews that I like to watch, and
are future winners going to do the same. Or, refresh my memory, do
all big race winners turn hollywood ?

Remember Pantani around 1997 and 1998? He was a very humble likeable
guy. Face it. At first they are all alone during their practice with
maybe a few teammates everyday. Once they win the TdF then every TV
announcer wants to interview them. After a while it can easily go to
their head that they are superhuman. They spend a much larger chunk of
their time talking about how great they are than training by
themselves on the road. Pantani became arrogant for no reason and then
a mental patient. I thought this would have happened to Lance at least
2 years ago. I think the cancer was a big reality check for him.

I guess my question is...is the overexposure that Lance Armstrong is
getting going to ruin the race interviews that I like to watch, and
are future winners going to do the same. Or, refresh my memory, do
all big race winners turn hollywood ?

This bears on a bigger issue, which is that, as far as the viewers and the
media are concerned, sports is essentially a form of entertainment -- call
it show business if you wish. Sports heroes can obviously become
celebrities, just like actors -- or anyone else that can create a big enough
stir.

How an individual responds to the limelight depends on his own constitution,
but there are many that have gotten carried away and started to believe in
their own wonderfulness, perhaps because everyone seems to be suddenly
paying so much attention to them. Some even start to think that celebrity
qualifies them to become statesmen or political leaders, amazing though this
may seem. (Anyone notice Arnold at the Tour?)

Whether this will happen to Lance, who still seems pretty sincere, is open
to question, but clearly, all the attention forces one to think about other
things than just the nuts and bolts (literally) of the next race. In any
case, as a celebrity interviewee he must keep in mind who his audience is --
he can't talk in the same terms to a national TV audience as to a racing
club, disappointing though that may be to the true devotees who are
watching. Lance also has a second constituency in the US that is broader
than the racing community -- that of cancer survivors, or those who are
desperate to survive -- to whom he is talking.

The other side of the coin is that at the moment, Lance and his celebrity
are driving the popularization, even the recognition, of cycling as a
watchable spectator sport, and it is this popularization that makes TV
coverage feasible -- the same coverage that is so avidly sought after and
discussed, often in excruciating detail, in this group. So paradoxically,
the dilution that goes hand in hand with national media attention may be an
inevitable accompaniment to the deepening appreciation of cycling by a
larger public, an appreciation whose benefits are ultimately shared by the
aficionados.

In other words, you can't have it both ways!

-- AMG (former show-business person, but never a celebrity, thank God!)

"Patrick" wrote in message
Playing into the
retarded questions "whats-her-face" asked about how scared he
[Armstrong] was when
he was only up by 15".

That seems like a good question to me.

JT

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