Did Lance Armstrong Make the Right PR Call?

This article is by Aaron Kwittken, chief executive and founder of Kwittken & Co. Worldwide.

Everyone is “a-Twitter” over Lance Armstrong‘s decision not to move forward with the independent arbitration process over allegations by the USADA over his doping violations.

As a long-time fan of his and avid amateur triathlete myself, I was saddened and disappointed by this news but not at all surprised. I am also a realist and a PR guy. In my more than two decades of experience dealing with executives and organizations facing similar lose-lose scenarios, I think Lance knew that whatever path he chose would inevitably result in a career-ending, painful finish. He just had to decide if he wanted this to be an endurance race (fight and lose) or a sprint (surrender early but still lose).

True athletes, especially the elite athletes and super alphas like Lance, never “DNF,” especially if they think they can win. DNF stands for Did Not Finish, a term used by race directors to denote when an athlete did not finish a race. They always finish, no matter what. In this case, it looks like Lance relied on a combination of legal and PR calculus to DNF, with the hope that he could put an end to an endurance race he felt he could never win and instead move on with his life, salvage his personal brand and preserve his foundation.

Lance now joins a long list of professional athletes who have faced similar allegations. But Lance’s case is different. He is by far the most storied and statured athlete to suffer this fate. He is both a commercial and philanthropic powerhouse with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake by way of future litigation, as well as potential fan and donor abandonment. His decision to DNF against his toughest competitor, the USADA, may help him save parts of his empire, but it won’t help him save face, ever.

“PR” does not just stand for public relations, but it also stands for “personal record” in the racing world. Ironically, Lance’s move seems like a DNF and PR all in one. Is this PR move a good call? I think it depends on how you define it. Ultimately, he likely made the right call from a PR perspective to stave off further short term brand agony, but his reputation is irreparable regardless in the lose-lose race created by his own hand.