Are all champions cheaters?

I've had few heroes in my life but one of them was Lance Armstrong. I traveled to Paris to watch him win twice in Paris - totally caught up with the story of a cancer survivor beating all odds to become one of the greatest champions the Tour de France ever knew. And then the revelations. He was doing it. Everyone was doing it. Lance turned out to be a cheat, a liar and a bully.

Now here is Maria Sharapova admits to using a drug for the past ten years that is now known to be performance enhancing. Ten years! I've never been a big fan of hers but I had respect for her competitive spirit and her obvious ability. Would she have been so successful without the drug? How many people did she defeat that might have beaten her if she wasn't cheating?

If all champions cheat - and you need to cheat to become one - what's that tell us? Doesn't it point out that we are too focused on winning and adoring the winners. People cheat because the rewards for winning are too great a motivator not to. Maybe if there wasn't such a huge payoff it would help them stay clean.

Nothing else seems to work.