NEW YORK: Lance Armstrong ended years of vehement denial yesterday by finally coming clean and admitting he had cheated his way to a record seven Tour de France titles with systematic use of banned, performance-enhancing drugs.
Confessing his “toxic” tale to chat show host Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong described himself as a “flawed character” while at last owning up to being at the center of one of the biggest drugs scandals in world sport.
In just one word at the beginning of the interview broadcast worldwide, cancer survivor Armstrong confirmed his place in any gallery of fallen icons who have shamed their sport, the likes of drug-cheat sprinters Ben Johnson and Marion Jones.
“Yes,” he replied when asked directly whether he had used performance enhancing drugs.
Without flinching, Winfrey rapidly fired questions at him, offering the 41-year-old little respite, grilling him about every aspect of his tainted career.
Without hesitation, and showing no signs of emotion, Armstrong replied “yes” to questions about whether he used specific drugs, including erythropoietin, human growth hormone, and blood doping.
When asked why he had repeatedly lied about using banned substances until yesterday’s startling admission, he told Winfrey: “I don’t know I have a great answer.
“This is too late, probably for most people, and that’s my fault. I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times.
“This story is so bad ... so toxic.
“It’s not as if I said no and moved off it. While I’ve lived through this process, I know the truth. The truth isn’t what I said and now it’s gone.”
Armstrong said he did not believe he could have achieved what he did without breaking the rules due to a culture of drugs in cycling. “Not in that generation. I didn’t invent the culture, but I didn’t try to stop the culture,” he said.
“It’s hard to talk about the culture. I don’t want to accuse anyone else. I’m here to acknowledge my mistakes.
“I will spend the rest of my life trying to win back trust and apologizing to people.”
Armstrong said he had never considered himself to be a cheat and had been sure he would get away with it, until out of competition tests were introduced and testing procedures dramatically improved.
The last time he cheated was in 2005, he said, when he won his seventh Tour de France on the streets on Paris.
“I looked up the definition of a cheat to gain an advantage. I didn’t view it that way. I viewed it as a level playing field,” he said.
One company, Texas-based SCA Promotions, said it would sue the fallen cyclist if he did not pay back $12m they paid out for Tour de France wins.
“He doesn’t deserve, and is not entitled to, that money,” Jeff Tillotson, a lawyer for SCA Promotions told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Armstrong’s confession of years of systematic doping represented a sad day for sport and the former rider should provide evidence to end “this dark episode”, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said yesterday.
“If Lance Armstrong believes he can win credibility with this interview then it is too little, too late,” IOC Vice-President Thomas Bach said.
“There are no new facts or evidence related to the USADA (US Anti-Doping Agency) report in the entire interview. It was clearly a well-orchestrated interview which, however, did provide no new facts.”
Meanwhile, Armstrong’s admission of doping was a “calculated public relations exercise”, Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said yesterday, calling for him to reveal more detail about his activities. AGENCIES
