He was my cycling idol growing up as a cyclist even though the discipline he does and mine is totally different (I was into Mountain Biking back then). I even support the Live Strong Foundation whenever I could via donation over the years. But to know that Lance Armstrong lied in his confessional interview with Oprah Winfrey and the world at large was just too much. It doesn’t matter if he raced drug free in his comeback in 2009 and 2010. The fact that with so many people looking up to him and he choose to make everyone defending him in the past drug charges look like fools is just too much.
Travis Tygart, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) chief, said he has written to Armstrong to say that if he wants to lessen his lifetime sporting ban he must “cooperate fully and truthfully” by February 6, about drug-taking in the sport. It is not clear if cooperation from Armstrong, who was stripped of all seven of his Tour De France wins last year, could take the form of testimony before a truth and reconciliation commission.
The International Cycling Union (UCI), which is under pressure from the World Anti-Doping Agency and USADA, on Friday agreed that such a platform would benefit the drug-damaged sport after a series of devastating doping cases. Armstrong, a cancer survivor who during the Oprah interview admitted doping for the first time after years of vehement denials, said he would be willing to testify before such a commission if he were invited.
He also said that his record seven wins in the tour – between 1999-2005 – were fueled by performance enhancing drugs but insisted he was clean when he came out of retirement and raced in the Tour de France in 2009 and 2010. Tygart told CBS that Armstrong may have lied about doping after his comeback because under the statute of limitations for criminal fraud, he would still be open to prosecution.
But if he is sincere in his desire to correct his past mistakes, he will testify under oath about the full extent of his doping activities. But will you put your faith on such a man now that all those secrets he has been hiding came to light? What would you do if you know a friend is involved in competitions and has been taking performance drugs to keep himself at the top? Will you step up and get him clean or let him live his dream which might eventually hurt him in the end?
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