Lance Armstrong Biography

Linda saw athletic potential in her son early on, and encouraged him to participate in a variety of sports. Lance confirmed his mother’s belief by winning, at the age of 13, The Iron Kid’s Triathlon, and at 16 he was a professional triathlete.

Soon, however, Lance’s love of cycling caused him to give up running and swimming to focus solely on bikes. He spent much of his youth cycling, and often managed to get so far from his house on a ride that he had to call his mother to come and drive him back home.

Once out of high school, Lance turned all of his attention to cycling. He joined the amateur circuit and scored a number of successes, including the US National Amateur Championship.

Lance was far from the finished article, though. In his first professional race, The Classico San Sebastian of 1992, he finished dead last. Many would have just ridden into the sunset after such disappointment, but not Lance.

Showing the kind of perseverance for which he would win the hearts of millions, Lance battled on. His determination paid dividends, and he managed to win 10 titles in the 1993 season. Success followed and by 1996, Lance was ranked number one in the world.

The glory was short lived. In the same year, Lance was diagnosed with malignant testicular cancer, which had spread to his lungs and brain. He was forced into a cycling hiatus as he underwent two painful and dangerous operations to remove cancerous tissue from his brain. His aggressive chemotherapy regimen hampered him still further. However, Lance showed incredible fortitude, founding The Lance Armstrong Foundation to help cancer sufferers despite his own illness.

The foundation's distinctive yellow rubber "Livestrong" wristbands, first launched in 2004, have been a major success, netting the foundation more than millions in the fight against cancer.

By 1998 he resumed his cycling career and improved rapidly through the season. So great was his improvement that in 1999 he managed to win the Tour de France, the most prestigious event in world cycling, then went on to win the Tour for a record breaking seven years running.

Unfortunately, these achievements have been clouded by allegations that Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs during his career. However, no conclusive evidence has been presented to verify these allegations and Armstrong vigorously denies them.

His immense achievements have earned him a host of awards in the course of his career, including the ABC Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year and the Prince of Asturias Award in Sports in 1999 and 2000 respectively. 2002 saw Sports Illustrated magazine name him Sportsman of the Year, with the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year gong also going his way in the same year. He went on to win the latter in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Further accolades followed, with ESPN's ESPY Award for Best Male Athlete being awarded to Armstrong in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award being handed to him in 2003. Having triumphed in the 2005 Tour de France, he hung up his cycling helmet and retired from the sport, only to return to competitive cycling in January 2009 with a third-place finish in the 2009 Tour de France.

After taking part in a series of comeback races in 2009 and 2010 without achieving the great success he was known for before retiring, Armstrong announced via micro-blogging site Twitter that the 2010 season would be his final Tour de France event. He plans to end his international career after the Tour Down Under of January 2011.

Armstrong married his wife, Kristin Richard, in 1997. They had three children: Luke and twins Isabelle and Grace. The couple filed for divorce in September 2003. Armstrong began dating singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow later that year. The couple announced their engagement in September 2005 but split the following year.

In October 2010, the champion racer and Anna Hansen, his girlfriend of two years, welcomed a new baby. Olivia brought the number of children fathered by the star to five, including Maxwell, who was born from the same union in June 2009.