Two Tour titles

Lance Armstrong, remarkably soon after defeating testicular cancer, completed one of the most inspiring comebacks in sports history with his dramatic and commanding win at the 1999 Tour de France. With the aid of his U.S. Postal Service teammates, Armstrong took the Tour’s yellow jersey in the early stages and never gave it up, finishing in Paris with a lead of 7 minutes, 37 seconds. He is the second American to conquer cycling's most prestigious event; Greg LeMond won it three times. Armstrong repeated as Tour de France champion in 2000 with a winning margin of 6:02 over Germany's Jan Ullrich.

The diagnosis

Armstrong was among the world’s top road racers when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996. During the three years prior to the diagnosis, there had been occasional painless swelling in his right testicle, which he dismissed as a passing annoyance from too much time in a bicycle seat. Yet when he awoke one morning coughing up blood, Armstrong decided to go see a doctor. On the afternoon of October 2, 1996, a urologist told him: "Lance, you have cancer." Says Armstrong: "I thought, ‘Oh my god, I am going to die."

Battling back

The diagnosis was advanced, stage three, testicular cancer. Doctors gave Armstrong at most a 50 percent chance of survival; some estimated his chances as low as 30 percent. A day after doctors discovered the malignancy, Armstrong had surgery to remove the cancerous testicle. But a few days later, it was discovered that the cancer had spread to his lymph system, abdomen and lungs. He had 12 tumors in his abdomen, some as large as golf balls, and more than twice that number in his lungs. Doctors were less than hopeful he would recover. But after surgery, 12 weeks of chemotherapy and a forced, yearlong hiatus from racing to regain his strength, Armstrong was cancer free by October 1997. Doctors estimate that there is only a two percent chance the cancer would return, no more than any other person; Armstrong says he is prouder of being a cancer survivor than he is of winning the Tour de France.

Olympics past and present

Armstrong's Olympic cycling history dates to 1992, when as an expected contender in the road race, he suffered in the Barcelona heat and finished 14th. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, he finished sixth in the individual time trial and 12th in the road race. At the Sydney Games, Armstrong could contend for a medal in the individual time trial and in the road race. If he wins gold in the latter, he would become only the second person to win the Tour de France, the road race Olympic gold medal and the road race world title.

1993 world champion

In the year following the Barcelona Olympics, Armstrong established himself as one of the world's top riders. After finishing second at the Tour Du Pont in May, Armstrong went on to capture the Verdun stage at the Tour de France. Though he didn't finish the grueling race, the stage win in France verified his potential. Armstrong capped the year by becoming the second youngest rider to win the road race at the World Championships. That win remains his only world title.

Switching sports

Growing up in Texas, Armstrong never excelled at the typical "Texas sports" -- he quit trying to make his school's football team after eighth grade. He got involved with swimming and, at age 14, he saw a newspaper ad for "Ironkids" -- a mini-triathlon for juniors. He bought his first bike, entered the race, and got hooked. In 1988, he was voted the Rookie of Year by Triathlon Magazine and then won the National Sprint Triathlon Championships in 1989 and 1990. His first exposure to competitive cycling was at a training camp in California in 1989. Armstrong decided to pursue a career in cycling because of his desire to compete in the Olympics.