You don’t have to follow bicycle racing to appreciate what just happened on Capitol Hill.
On July 9, cycling legend Greg LeMond received the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor Congress can hand out. It’s a rare award, given only a handful of times to athletes like Jesse Owens, Joe Louis, and Jack Nicklaus.
Now, LeMond joins that group, and it’s about time. LeMond is the only American to win the Tour de France and keep it.
Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis had their titles stripped for doping. LeMond did it clean – three times, in fact – and with grit that would make any red-blooded American proud.
Born in California, Greg LeMond was just a kid with a bike and a big dream. Back in the 1970s, when most Americans saw cycling as a hobby, LeMond saw it as a way to break barriers. He raced older kids, beat them, then took on Europe’s best and made history.
In 1986, LeMond became the first American to win the Tour de France, the world’s biggest bike race.
And he didn’t just win. He fought through dirty tactics, unsupportive teammates, and the entire French cycling establishment. His rival, Bernard Hinault (nicknamed “The Badger”) was supposed to help LeMond. Instead, he tried to stop him.
But LeMond held strong. He believed in hard work, not shortcuts. That attitude is what made him different. As he put it during his acceptance speech at the Capitol, “I believed that anything was possible if you worked hard enough.”
Then came one of the most incredible comebacks in sports history.
In 1987, while turkey hunting with family, LeMond was accidentally shot and nearly died. Dozens of shotgun pellets tore through his body. Most athletes wouldn’t recover from something like that. LeMond didn’t just recover – he came back and won the Tour again in 1989, in the closest finish ever, beating his rival by just eight seconds.
Think about that: over 2,000 miles of racing, and he won by eight seconds. That’s the stuff of movies. In fact, actor Ben Stiller is reportedly working on one.
So why does this matter now?
In 2020, California Congressman Mike Thompson introduced a bill to honor LeMond. And on December 4, 2020, President Donald Trump signed it into law.
Like him or not, Trump knew what LeMond stood for: determination, clean competition, and representing America the right way.
In Nevada, this kind of story hits home. Our state is full of underdogs, fighters, and people chasing the American dream.
We’ve got a growing presence in sports, and Greg LeMond’s story proves that with enough heart, even a kid from the West can take on the world – and win.
Even after retiring, LeMond has kept his voice in the sport, pushing for clean racing and calling out corruption. He stood up to Lance Armstrong long before the doping scandal broke wide open. That took guts, and it cost him business deals and friendships. But LeMond told the truth, even when it hurt.
In a time when so many sports stories are about scandal or shortcuts, this one’s about character.
It’s not just a win for LeMond. It’s a win for America.
This article was written with the assistance of AI. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
