Lance Armstrong finally admitted it. He doped. He was light on the details and didn’t take names. He mused that he might not have been caught if not for his comeback in 2009. And he was certain his ‘fate was sealed’ when longtime friend, training partner and trusted lieutenant George Hincapie, who was along for the ride on all seven of Armstrong’s Tour de France wins from 1999-2005, was forced to give him up to anti-doping authorities.
But right from the start and more than two dozen times during the first of a two-part interview with Oprah Winfrey on her OWN Network, the disgraced former cycling champion acknowledged what he had lied about repeatedly for years, and what had been one of the worst-kept secrets for the better part of a week: He was the ringleader of an elaborate doping scheme on a US Postal Service team that swept him to the top of the podium at Tour de France time after time.
Wearing a blue blazer and open-neck shirt, Armstrong was direct and matter-of-fact, neither pained nor defensive. He looked straight ahead. There were no tears and very few laughs. He dodged few questions and refused to implicate anyone else, even as he said it was humanly impossible to win seven straight Tours without doping.
‘I’m not comfortable talking about other people. I don’t want to accuse anybody.
Whether his televised confession will help or hurt Armstrong’s bruised reputation and his already-tenuous defense in at least two pending lawsuits, and possibly a third, remains to be seen. Either way, a story that seemed too good to be true - cancer survivor returns to win one of sport’s most grueling events seven times in a row - was revealed to be just that.
‘This story was so perfect for so long. It’s this myth, this perfect story, and it wasn’t true,’ he said. Oprah got right to the point when the interview began, asking for yes-or-no answers to five questions.
In his climb to the top, Armstrong cast aside teammates who questioned his tactics, yet swore he raced clean and tried to silence anyone who said otherwise. Ruthless and rich enough to settle any score, no place seemed beyond his reach, courtrooms, the court of public opinion, even along the roads of his sport’s most prestigious race.
That relentless pursuit was one of the things that Armstrong said he regretted most. ‘I deserve this,’ he said twice.
‘It’s a major flaw, and it’s a guy who expected to get whatever he wanted and to control every outcome. And it’s inexcusable. And when I say there are people who will hear this and never forgive me, I understand that. I do. ...That defiance, that attitude, that arrogance, you cannot deny it.’ Armstrong said he started doping in mid-1990s but didn’t when he finished third in his comeback attempt.
But right from the start and more than two dozen times during the first of a two-part interview with Oprah Winfrey on her OWN Network, the disgraced former cycling champion acknowledged what he had lied about repeatedly for years, and what had been one of the worst-kept secrets for the better part of a week: He was the ringleader of an elaborate doping scheme on a US Postal Service team that swept him to the top of the podium at Tour de France time after time.
Wearing a blue blazer and open-neck shirt, Armstrong was direct and matter-of-fact, neither pained nor defensive. He looked straight ahead. There were no tears and very few laughs. He dodged few questions and refused to implicate anyone else, even as he said it was humanly impossible to win seven straight Tours without doping.
‘I’m not comfortable talking about other people. I don’t want to accuse anybody.
Whether his televised confession will help or hurt Armstrong’s bruised reputation and his already-tenuous defense in at least two pending lawsuits, and possibly a third, remains to be seen. Either way, a story that seemed too good to be true - cancer survivor returns to win one of sport’s most grueling events seven times in a row - was revealed to be just that.
‘This story was so perfect for so long. It’s this myth, this perfect story, and it wasn’t true,’ he said. Oprah got right to the point when the interview began, asking for yes-or-no answers to five questions.
In his climb to the top, Armstrong cast aside teammates who questioned his tactics, yet swore he raced clean and tried to silence anyone who said otherwise. Ruthless and rich enough to settle any score, no place seemed beyond his reach, courtrooms, the court of public opinion, even along the roads of his sport’s most prestigious race.
That relentless pursuit was one of the things that Armstrong said he regretted most. ‘I deserve this,’ he said twice.
‘It’s a major flaw, and it’s a guy who expected to get whatever he wanted and to control every outcome. And it’s inexcusable. And when I say there are people who will hear this and never forgive me, I understand that. I do. ...That defiance, that attitude, that arrogance, you cannot deny it.’ Armstrong said he started doping in mid-1990s but didn’t when he finished third in his comeback attempt.