Middle School
Worksheets
Lance Armstrong - Seven-Time Champion
Lance Armstrong
Reading Comprehension for September 18
He has won the Tour de France seven times and overcome many obstacles. Lance Armstrong, inspiring bicyclist, was born September 18, 1971, in Plano, Texas. His first sports competitions were in the triathlon, a grueling combination of swimming, cycling, and running. At age thirteen, he won the Iron Kids Triathlon. Before long, his strength in cycling became apparent. Lance began to concentrate on this sport.
At the age of seventeen, Lance began training with the Junior National Cycling Team. Before turning professional in 1992, he won the US amateur championship and finished fourteenth in the 1992 Olympics road race. His first key success came in Oslo, Norway, when he won the World Road Championship. As a part of Team Motorola, he began to rack up other triumphs. He won portions of the 1993 and 1995 Tours de France. In 1996, he won the Tour DuPont, a prestigious U.S. event. He joined the U.S. Olympic Team and competed in Atlanta. At this time, he was awarded the position of number one cyclist in the world and signed on to the Cofidis racing team in France.
On October 2, 1996, tragedy struck the aspiring cyclist. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and his brain. He was given a fifty percent change of survival. However, doctors later told him that his real likelihood of survival was actually much less - closer to three percent. Doctors increased them falsely to give him hope. Lance went through surgery and chemotherapy, opting for a severe treatment to increase his chances of returning to his sport. Miraculously, it worked.
