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It was more than a business deal for Bill Stapleton.
The attorney had ventured out on his own after working for Brown McCarroll LLP for three years to form his own sports marketing firm. The cornerstone of that venture was a local cyclist named Lance Armstrong.
But in October 1996, Armstrong had been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Not only was his life in danger, but his future as an athlete was highly questionable. Months of agonizing chemotherapy were in his future, which meant no cycling income for Armstrong - and no cycling-related commission for Stapleton.
But Stapleton stuck by Armstrong. The agent accompanied the athlete to every chemotherapy session in Indianapolis. Stapleton wasn't concerned about his own financial wellbeing. It was about his friend.
"It was his life," Ken Flaherty, a college buddy of Stapleton, says. "It consumed him for a while."
Friends say it wasn't surprising though. They say Stapleton's life has been consumed by taking risks and by taking care of others.
It was a risk to shoot for a spot on the U.S. swim team at the 1988 Summer Olympics. It was a gamble to stand up and press for a management overhaul at the U.S. Olympic Committee. He tossed the dice in a crap shoot in co-founding the Austin City limits Music Festival last year.
Yet each time, Stapleton won.
Those around him say he doesn't win at the cost of others, though. Friends and relatives describe him as a devoted husband to attorney Laura Stapleton and a devoted father to young daughters Alexis and Ella. As vice president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, he cares greatly for Olympic athletes. He cares deeply for his many friends, including Armstrong.
"Bill is more than just an agent," Armstrong said in 1997. "He's a friend, a big brother."
Whatever role he's in - agent, friend, brother - Stapleton assumes it with a healthy dose of determination.
"I don't know if it's a good thing about me, but when I go, there's no looking back," Stapleton says.
Looking back on his life, perhaps nothing exemplifies his tenacity more than his swimming career.
Growing up in the St Louis suburb of Edwardsville, Ill., Stapleton started swimming competitively at age 7. He's the oldest of...