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It has been a few years since Lance Armstrong won his record breaking 7th Tour de France in consecutive years . He took a break from professional cycling but it called him back this past week where he competed in the Tour de France yet again. He was not victorious but placed a close 3rd place behind the winner who is a decade younger . Lance Armstrong is famous for his athletic accomplishments in addition to his Livestrong campaign to bring custom wristbands and cancer bracelets to be worn by many people as well as a motivational speaker for cancer survivors.

Lance Armstrong showed his athletic ability as a young teenager in the sport of triathlons when he won the Iron Kids triathlon at the age of 13 . He seemed to excel in the cycling portion of the triathlon and soon turned professional at the young age of 16 . He continued his steady climb by becoming a national champion shortly after becoming professional and after several wins in big races made the USA team for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics . During that time , Lance was ranked the number one cyclist of the world and no one seemed to be able to stop him.

From rising to high levels in a short time frame , Lance Armstrong seemed to be invincible but he soon realized he was not. After experiencing great pain on a bike ride, he visited the doctor only to be told that he had testicular cancer . Not only did he have cancer but it had spread to his lungs and the brain and his prognosis was less than 50% on if he would survive .

Lance Armstrong took his inner competitive and fighting spirit that he used to achieve his high levels of athletic accomplishments to fight this deadly disease . He insisted on having an aggressive type of chemotherapy as well as wanting to try a course of treatment that would not affect his lung capacity in the future as many chemotherapy sessions tend to do. He always thought ahead when he would be healed and how he would need that lung capacity to cycle competitively again.

Armstrong later was quoted as saying the cancer was “the best thing that ever happened to me” and formed the Lance Armstrong Foundation soon after being diagnosed with his cancer. He amazed so many people by returning to his cycling shortly after his treatments but had to drop out of his first race, feeling frustrated . Armstrong took a break and “learned to love the bike again” and to simply relax and enjoy life and good things will follow .

This new positive outlook brought him to win 7 Tour de France victories in consecutive years astounding everyone with his athletic comeback from beating cancer. Armstrong teamed up with Nike to produce a Livestrong yellow wristband that reminded people with or without cancer to take control of their lives and their health. Over 60 million of those Livestrong bracelets have been sold .