A moment 14 years in the making
The Daily Dot wins the fastest-GIF-in-the-land award for the evening.
Lance Armstrong, who this fall was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping and barred for life from competing in all Olympic sports, has told associates and antidoping officials that he is considering publicly admitting that he used banned performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions during his cycling career, according to several people with direct knowledge of the situation. He would do this, the people said, because he wants to persuade antidoping officials to restore his eligibility so he can resume his athletic career.
For more than a decade, Armstrong has vehemently denied ever doping, even after antidoping officials laid out their case against him in October in hundreds of pages of eyewitness testimony from teammates, e-mail correspondence, financial records and laboratory analyses.
When asked if Armstrong might admit to doping, Tim Herman, Armstrong’s longtime lawyer, said: “I do not know about that. I suppose anything is possible, for sure. Right now, that’s really not on the table.”
The danger for Armstrong is that the admission could put him in legal jeopardy. As one of his sponsors was the U.S. Postal Service, he and other members of his team are being sued for defrauding the federal government by lying about doping. Armstrong had a particularly tough 2012 filled with allegations and at great personal cost to his legacy — and his year ended with him leaving the board of his Livestrong charity entirely.
Lance Armstrong has stepped down as a board member of Livestrong, the cancer-support charity he founded in 1997, the organization said Monday.
“Lance Armstrong has chosen to voluntarily resign from the Board of Directors of the Livestrong Foundation to spare the organization any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding his cycling career,” Livestrong chairman Jeff Garvey said in a statement.
“We are deeply grateful to Lance for creating a cause that has served millions of cancer survivors and their families.”
Despite essentially not having any say over what the charity does, a spokesperson says that he ”remains the inspiration” for the charity’s work, as well as its largest individual donor. This resignation comes less than a month after he resigned as the charity’s chairman amidst scandal over his career.
This organization, its mission and its supporters are incredibly dear to my heart. Today therefore, to spare the foundation any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding my cycling career, I will conclude my chairmanship.Lance Armstrong • Resigning from his Livestrong charity’s chairmanship — in a shocking move that could further the scrutiny of Armstrong’s cycling career. Armstrong will remain on the charity’s board, but leadership will go to Jeff Garvey, who was the founding chairman in 1997. Armstrong is currently facing heavy scrutiny of doping during his cycling career — charges that have already cost him his titles.
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
