Riding along with Lance: 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<br>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<br>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.