On October 17th, 2012, Lance Armstrong officially resigned from the Live Strong Charity. Shortly after, Nike released Armstrong from their label. Nike released a statement saying based on the “insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade, it is with great sadness that we have terminated our contract with him. Nike does not condone the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in any manner” (Brennan, C. (2012, 10 17, usatoday.com). Brennan: nike knows lance did it). Lance Armstrong who built his reputation and charity based on the lie that he won 7 Tour De France championships through sheer will even after he beat cancer, was a lie. Armstrong a man that deceived millions of people for a long time is finally having to deal with his deception. Nike too has to deal with the consequences of endorsing an cheater for such a long time.
Nike, one the world’s leaders in athletic apparel, must deal with the crisis that for over 10 years they both supported and profited from a cheater who used performance enhancing drugs to deceive his sport and deceive his fans. On top of his deception, Armstrong and Nike teamed up and profited from his story. Armstrong’s story was the story of how he beat testicular cancer and continued to win Tour De France championships. Nike now has the opportunity to recommit its companies’ values and ideologies to representing athletes who do not cheat and athletes who do not use performance enhancing drugs. Because of the sheer impact that Armstrong has had in some people’s lives including people who have been affected in some way by cancer and believed in Armstrong’s story, Nike must campaign how they were wrong to endorse a cheater and make a commitment to only represent legitimate athletes. Although Nike may have believed that Armstrong was innocent throughout the duration of his career, they must know show the public that they did make a mistake endorsing him, and that their company does not endorse such behavior.