Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong has reportedly confessed to Oprah Winfrey during an interview on Monday that he used performance-enhancing drugs.
A person familiar with the situation said Armstrong confessed to doping to win the Tour de France.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the interview is to be broadcast Thursday (US Time – Friday 1pm AEDT Australian time) on Winfrey’s network.
Lance Armstrong confessed to Oprah Winfrey during an interview Monday that he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the interview is to be broadcast Thursday on Winfrey’s network.
Armstrong was stripped of all seven Tour titles last year following a voluminous U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report that portrayed him as a ruthless competitor, willing to go to any lengths to win the prestigious race.
USADA chief executive Travis Tygart labeled the doping regimen allegedly carried out by the U.S. Postal Service team that Armstrong once led, “The most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”
After a federal investigation of the cyclist was dropped without charges being brought last year, USADA stepped in with an investigation of its own. The agency deposed 11 former teammates and accused Armstrong of masterminding a complex and brazen drug program that included steroids, blood boosters and a range of other performance-enhancers.
A group of about 10 close friends and advisers to Armstrong left a downtown Austin hotel about three hours after they arrived Monday afternoon for the taping. Among them were Armstrong attorneys Tim Herman and Sean Breen, along with Bill Stapleton, Armstrong’s longtime agent, manager and business partner. All declined comment entering and exiting the session.
Soon afterward, Winfrey tweeted: “Just wrapped with (at)lancearmstrong More than 2 1/2 hours. He came READY!” She was scheduled to appear on “CBS This Morning” on Tuesday to discuss the interview.
In a text to the AP on Saturday, Armstrong said: “I told her (Winfrey) to go wherever she wants and I’ll answer the questions directly, honestly and candidly. That’s all I can say.”
Armstrong stopped at the Livestrong Foundation, which he founded, on his way to the interview and said, “I’m sorry” to staff members, some of whom broke down in tears. A person with knowledge of that session said Armstrong choked up and several employees cried during the session.
The person also said Armstrong apologized for letting the staff down and putting Livestrong at risk but he did not make a direct confession to using banned drugs. He said he would try to restore the foundation’s reputation, and urged the group to continue fighting for the charity’s mission of helping cancer patients and their families.
Armstrong spoke to a room full of about 100 staff members for about 20 minutes, expressing regret for everything the controversy has put them through, the person said. He told them how much the foundation means to him and that he considers the people who work there to be like members of his family. None of the people in the room challenged Armstrong over his long denials of doping.
Winfrey and her crew had earlier said they would film Monday’s session at Armstrong’s home. As a result, local and international news crews were encamped near the cyclist’s Spanish-style villa before dawn.
Armstrong still managed to slip away for a run despite the crowds outside his home. He returned by cutting through a neighbor’s yard and hopping a fence.
More to come.
Tom
Guest
I see his point though, whenever, for example, an Eastern European wins a weightlifting competition, or a Chinese swimmer wins a race, almost immediately the doping allegations come out. Yet strangely, considering their terrible record of athletes failing drug tests, US athletes aren't subject to the same suspicions. Be it Armstrong, Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, and plenty of domestic sport stars, the US has pretty much as bad a record as anyone when it comes to doping.
Dadiggle
Guest
Think someone should start a pole. Which starting line up were more juiced up 2000 Tour de France starting lineup Or 2000 Sydney Olympics Woman's 100 meter finalists
jameswm
Guest
I'm with AndyMack. You might want to do a bit of research on Bolt, for example. He won the world juniors 200 as a skinny 16yo, running mid-20-point. I've seen the footage. He was skinny, gangly, leaning back and a bit all over the place. The improvement he's had since then has been stock standard, nothing suss about it. Adding form, strength, and the last of his growth and physical development, you'd expect someone to improve by what he has. I actually thinnk he's a bit of a slack trainer and could go faster. I'm not saying for sure he's clean, but that evidence points to it.
AndyMack
Guest
"maybe" you're a cynic???? facepalm.
AndyMack
Guest
i will take that bet WF. both bolt and phelps on the gear, or I get your house.
AndyMack
Guest
Oikee Come on, surely you cannot just throw slurs at everyone now.... Maybe Thorpe and Hackett (Hackett and Thorpe....) are on the gear as well. And Mears, and Sally, and Madam Butterfly (both of them) and Rice, and that pole vaulter guy, and our sailing team, and J Henry, and the Oarsome Foursome.....
AndyMack
Guest
"liestrong" i like it.
AndyMack
Guest
Nice one Nick OS Problem is, i beleive LA is a confirmed non-beleiver, so wont be asking "god" for anything. Although, guess "facts" dont play a large role in all of this, so why not.....
ScrumJunkie
Guest
As if they all don't do it, and that's how they rationalise it. 'It's not giving me an unfair advantage cause everyone does it'. LA probably still was the best ever. Maybe I'm a cynic, but I reckon anyone who does well in the tour, or a 100m olympic final for that matter, is on drugs. That includes Aussies, even though we like to live in a fantasy that our athletes don't cheat.
Garcia
Guest
LIESTRONG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zad68VOxr8g&feature=player_embedded
Garcia
Guest
Parisien
Guest
Wasn't it in the south that they had a tradition of tar and feathering?
Lee Rodgers
Expert
had LA insisted on a disclosure clause to be adhered to by all present at the interview's filming, this wouldn't have been 'leaked' - the man's a master, a politician in the making!
SkinnyKid
Guest
HAHA think about it Polly. Who watches Oprah? Idiots that's who. Just the type of idiot who will say ''well he owned up so he's still a champion to me'' Its a pathetic last grasp attempt to keep a level of following. Crude and pathetic.
mace 22
Guest
Yeah I reckon chuck anna mears into that as well. Drugs has made every olympic winner suspect since the 1968 games.
Riddos
Guest
Yeah apparently! No big deal if he just admits to what's been common knowledge for years and repeats what was in the USADA Reports from last October. The story will be if there's going to be corrupt UCI folk dragged into it.
Australian Rules
Guest
Lance Armstrong...a drug cheat..?!! Well I never...!
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
Haha, true. In the 90s we had cyclist Richard Virenque in France who had a teary confession admitting he took banned substances after having denied. The funny bit is that, being far from eloquent in his own language, he made a blunder saying something like ' I dopped willingly myself without really knowing'. That was a classic and all media had a go at him not only for doping but more so for being near illiterate. He made many more blunders like that after so it wasn't just emotion.
jameswm
Guest
Go Hugh...
WoobliesFan
Guest
U.S. swimming has been suss for years. I bet my house that Phelps is doping. Not possible for one person to dominate other professional athletes so much. Bolt too. No 100m winner of the last 4-5 Olympics has won gold without being juiced.....see Seoul 100 BBC doco.....doping has been endemic for decades now . The LA things proves we have every right to be cynical and that our cynicism is usually right in the end.