Oprah’s interview with Lance Armstrong
Lance doped strong. Here’s what you missed.
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.
Due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade, it is with great sadness that we have terminated our contract with him. Nike does not condone the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in any manner.
Nike plans to continue support of the Livestrong initiatives created to unite, inspire and empower people affected by cancer.
They didn’t even do this when Tiger Woods had his trouble, so you know it’s bad. (ht @AntDeRosa)
EPO all in my veins; Lately things just don’t seem the same; Actin’ funny, but I don’t know why; ’Scuse me while I pass this guy.Cyclist David Zabriskie • Recalling serenading team leader Johan Bruyneel about his use of blood doping, to the tune of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze,” which, let’s face it, is kind of weird. The tale was one of many described in an incredibly long investigation by United States Anti-Doping Agency. The report basically nails Lance Armstrong to the wall. Thoughts?
There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, “Enough is enough.” For me, that time is now. I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999. Over the past three years, I have been subjected to a two-year federal criminal investigation followed by Travis Tygart’s unconstitutional witch hunt. The toll this has taken on my family, and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today – finished with this nonsense.
I had hoped that a federal court would stop USADA’s charade. Although the court was sympathetic to my concerns and recognized the many improprieties and deficiencies in USADA’s motives, its conduct, and its process, the court ultimately decided that it could not intervene. [more]
Lance’s legacy lost? Lance Armstrong, who put together an unmatched run of Tour de France victories between 1999 and 2005, gave up his fight against the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s charges against him, in part (he claims) because he’s sick of having to deal with it. ”I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999,” he claimed. “The toll this has taken on my family and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today — finished with this nonsense.” Just an hour after the announcement, the agency announced it would strip him of his titles and ban him from cycling for life. Say what you will of him, that’s really freaking sad. (photo by austincameraguy)
» This is not to say that all these athletes would have been Olympic competitors — the World Anti-Doping Agency’s testing period was the six months leading into June, before many qualifying events. WADA plans to have tested more than 5,000 other athletes during the official Olympics period, which started with the opening of the Olympic Village on July 16th.
Say nope to dope: The US Anti-Doping Agency—yes, that’s what it’s called—confirmed today that it’s going to file formal doping charges against Lance Armstrong. The agency says that Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs between 1999 and 2005 (you know, when he was winning the Tour de France every year). He’s consistently denied the allegations, and so the case will move to arbitration (Photo credit: AP). source
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