In a pre-taped television interview with Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong admitted to using numerous performance enhancing drugs.
Amongst the other things, he also admitted to being a bully on the US Portal Service team. Despite the no holds barred interview where he appears sincere and apologetic, the public and prominent figures seems to think that he should be punished further.
Dunno how to embed the link, would appreciate if a mod can do so. I doubt this video will be up for long so watch it before it gets taken down. The one on the Oprah website is only available in the US.
There are talks of him being charged for lying under oath/perjury with a possible 5 year jail term although he seems to be protected by the statute of limitations as he insisted he did not dope in 2009-2010(His comeback). The texan claims to have last used performance enhancing drugs back in 2005.
Some direct quotes from the video.
Did he dope? Yes.
Did he boost his blood with EPO? Yes.
Did he lie, betray and bully? Yes, all that.
Did he feel guilty? Not really.
Did it feel wrong at the time? No. .
“Did you feel bad about it?” No.
Armstrong tried explaining that when he first started, he was only trying to level the playing field in a sport where doping is pretty common. When probed further on why hes confessing now, the 41 yr old explained that when things started, it just seems so perfect and he was unable to control everything and eventually the whole incident balloon-ed to the point where it was difficult for him to do so.
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Cheese is Art.
Honestly, apart from being a terrible sportmans (although everyone close to him was pretty obviously doping too, and most likely half of the peloton), the way he has bullied and manipulated everyone else, including ruining the careers of numerous journalists and suing organizations, is just disgusting.
Armstrong tried explaining that when he first started, he was only trying to level the playing field in a sport where doping is pretty common.
I think before people judge him they have to understand the climate he was in. He cheated because he HAD to. Not saying it was right but it makes it more understandable. I hope the whole industry is reviewed so stuff like this never happens again. Lance used to be my hero i remember cutting out a newsaper article of him when he won the tour de france for the xth time.
"I didn't invent the culture but I did not try to stop it."
I disagree wholeheartedly with this.
Cliche as it may sound. Everyone has a choice.
I believe what you were trying to say was that he doped only to even the playing field he was in.
I guess being a competitive person could bring that out in you if you were in that situation. One where you wanted to win and the only way to level the odds was to dope since everyone was doing it.
What was fucked up was him actually winning suits against people who tried to out him. And making them seem like the bad ones. At least this confession should give them some sort of reprieve, if they'd feel any after all that they've been put through.
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