By Rick Horrow and Karla Swatek
October 19, 2012
This wasn’t the best week for Lance Armstrong. In addition to stepping down as chairman of Livestrong, the charity he founded, Armstrong lost several sponsorship deals. The first shoe to drop, both figuratively and literally, was Nike, which cited “seemingly insurmountable evidence” of Armstrong’s doping as a reason to cut their long-time endorser. With Nike’s high-profile decision grabbing headlines, several other Armstrong sponsors, including Anheuser-Busch’s Michelob brand, RadioShack, and Trek BicycleCorp, ended their relationship with the troubled ex-cycler.
Armstrong’s fall from the endorsement Mt. Rushmore is stunning, and is reminiscent of a similar plunge by Tiger Woods. Before he retired last year, Armstrong ranked 8th on the 2011 Bloomberg BusinessWeek/Horrow Sports Ventures Power 100, at the time earning more than $15 million. Now, recent Q Scores reveal that nearly three times more Americans dislike Armstrong than like him. As for the Livestrong charity, experts expect to survive despite the downfall of its founder.
