For three years, Greg LeMond was the poster boy for international cycling.
The young man with movie star good looks became the first American to win the grueling Tour de France in 1986 (he also won in 1989 and 1990). He was the toast of late-night talk shows and named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year.
“It should have been the greatest time of my life,” said LeMond, the keynote speaker at Thursday’s Sunflower House Lionheart Luncheon, “but it wasn’t.”
LeMond then discussed, for the first time in a public forum, the fact that he was sexually abused by a family friend when he was a youngster.
“There I was, wearing the (winner’s) yellow jersey on the podium, accepting all the accolades after I won the Tour de France and it was all I could do to smile,” LeMond said. “I was horrified. At that moment, all that horror came back. All I could think, ‘Is he out there? Is he going to tell someone or blackmail me?’
“It really was one of the worst moments of my life.”
LeMond never really wanted to make that horrific moment in his life public knowledge, but after testifying for the prosecution in the much publicized doping trial of Floyd Landis – the disgraced U.S. cyclist whose Tour de France crown was stripped because post-race testing results showed he had used testosterone – Landis’ manager made it public that LeMond told him that he had been sexually abused.
“I had confided to him, as a friend, and he told me if I testified that he was going to go public with what happened,” LeMond said, as a rapt audience at the Jack Reardon Convention Center leaned forward in their chairs, many dabbing tears from their eyes.
“How could somebody do that to another human being?”
LeMond testified and was outed, Landis apologized, “And the business manager was fired.”
But the damage had been done.
While he was cycling’s poster boy, LeMond admits today, “I don’t want to be the poster boy for sexual abuse. But I knew I had to come forward. If I didn’t, who would?”
His voice choked with emotion, LeMond recounted the moments he had suppressed for years, never telling his wife, Kathy, or their three sons.
“I don’t know when it all started,” LeMond said, taking a long drink of water, in an effort to collect his thoughts. “I was 11, maybe 12. He was a friend of my father’s, almost like an uncle to me.
“We went water skiing at Lake Tahoe and camping. He spent the night and slept in my room.”
The family friend introduced the young LeMond to pornography, and one night, the unthinkable happened.
“I didn’t know what had just happened,” LeMond said. “But it did, and I was ashamed. How many times did it happen? I don’t know, I have blocked out so much of that part of my life. And I never told my wife, my sister, my kids. I did finally tell my parents – years later – and they didn’t believe me. They got very defensive. That was devastating, too.”
The abuse stopped one night when LeMond recalled a moment that changed his life forever.
“My mom got all my dad’s stuff and threw it out the window and yelled, ‘I want all your dead-beat friends out of here.’ My dad quit drinking, the freeloaders were gone and the abuse stopped.”
But the memories lingered – and festered.
There were some bright moments, but they too became cloudy and overcast.
LeMond’s father began cycling with his son and soon became his manager.
That led to another crisis, as LeMond explains, “I no longer became his son. I was just a commodity.”
Soon, LeMond was an international celebrity.
“I basically re-invented myself,” said LeMond, who also suffers from ADD. “When I won the Tour de France, all I could think was, ‘What if this guy outs me?’ I was terrified.”
After winning the Tour in 1986, he was accidentally shot by his brother-in-law while they were turkey hunting. He stunned the cycling world by coming back and claiming two more victories.
But LeMond’s travel schedule took a toll on his family, especially his son Geoffrey, who was born in 1986.
“He had so much anxiety,” LeMond said. “When I left, he was afraid I wasn’t coming back.”
Geoffrey’s anxiety level reached the breaking point when he was teenager.
He had an argument with his father.
“He called me a horrible father,” LeMond recalled, “and I guess I was. I was on the road 200 days a year and was not there when he was growing up.”
He wanted to tell his son about the abuse that had taken place when he was 11 or 12, but he couldn’t muster the courage.
“One night, I got (expletive deleted) faced,” LeMond said. “I drank a bottle of scotch and was going to tell Kathy, but I couldn’t.”
Instead, LeMond left his family, had a brief affair with a woman and determined that he needed help.
Kathy stuck by his side and convinced him to seek therapy.
“I was sabotaging my life, and I needed help,” he said, “and I found it through therapy. I found out that the abuse was not my fault and I was getting some peace in my life. I was supposed to have this fairy tale life. I don’t have a fairy tale life, but now, I have a complete life.”
LeMond recently started 1in6 (www.1in6.org), an online service for abuse victims. The numbers indicate that one in six young men have been sexually abused, but LeMond believes the numbers are much higher because it’s not something most men talk about.
LeMond may soon tour the country, making talks similar to the heart-felt message he conveyed in downtown Kansas City, Kan.
“I look forward to my life as a complete person,” he said. “I’m a husband, a father, a person who has great empathy for people who are struggling. I’m really looking forward to the next stages of my life. I really am.”
Editor’s note: Sunflower House (www.sunflowerhouse.org) is a non-residential child advocacy and abuse prevention center serving Johnson and Wyandotte counties.
