Riding along with Lance Armstrong: Exploring Antapologia in Response to Athlete Adversity

This research explored antapologia expressed on Facebook to cyclist Lance Armstrong during a tumultuous time in his career. A thematic analysis was conducted on 3,536 reader comments obtained from Armstrong’s Facebook page. Results indicated that antapologia manifested through (a) defending the apologia, (b) weakening the apologia, and (c) ambivalence toward the apologia. The results suggest that enacting apologia via social media provides athletes with a vehicle to connect with audiences and to derive and obtain support. The results also extend the antapologia framework by illustrating that it functions as ambivalence, as some people may need time to process the apologia.