The new improved Lance Armstrong discussion thread.*

[ufkacbln]

Will he, won't he? USA Today says he will.

Looks as though I was right about the deals on offer from the WADA......if the article is correct then one wonders just how far the ban will be reduced?

If he provided new information about cheating in the sport, he could have his ban reduced to no less than eight years, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency code. It's also possible that WADA and USADA could reach an agreement to reduce the ban further depending on his information and cooperation.

 

[BJH]

Although trying to buy off USADA with a donation should then be added back into the mix

I struggle with the idea that he will give a limited confession that wil be sufficient to allow him to be able to compete in triathlon within a shorter period of time.

How much of a self obsessed person would he need to be to want all of the publicity and baggage that would come with that to try to prove that he was really great anyway even if the competition is a different group of people........

......Oh hang on a minute that's probably what he wants

 

[Herzog]

I struggle with the idea that he will give a limited confession that wil be sufficient to allow him to be able to compete in triathlon within a shorter period of time.

Moreover, it'll be facinating to see how he phrases his confession/concession. The numerous lawsuits against him total a sizable amount and any confession would most likely cause him to lose all of them. His wording will be very, very interesting!

 

[rich p]

I hear on the grapevine that he's going to blame Tyler H, Big George and Jonathan 'Spats' Vaughters for making him do it.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Will he, won't he? USA Today says he will.

I think he will. Tears will be shed. His reputation will be restored as they love a come-back story in the States. And some revolting deal will be done with the anti doping boys and the governing bodies because big bucks are still to be made.

 

[Herzog]

I hear on the grapevine that he's going to blame Tyler H, Big George and Jonathan 'Spats' Vaughters for making him do it.

He'll blame his dad, taking the abandoned son route - or the french and how the never 'got' him.

 

[Aperitif]

ON WORLD ANTI-DOPING AGENCY

I've said it before and I will repeat it: I believe that I am the most tested athlete on this planet, I have never had a single positive doping test, and I do not take performance enhancing drugs. At the end of the day, I don't care what anybody says, cycling has done more than any sport to fix its doping problem. Responding to Dick Pound, the president of Wada, who had said the public knew that riders in the Tour were doping, 2004
The facts revealed in the independent investigator's report show a pattern of intentional misconduct by Wada officials designed to attack anyone who challenges them, followed by a cover-up to conceal their wrongdoing. This conduct by Pound is just the latest in a long history of ethical transgressions and violations of athletes' rights. Calling for Pound's dismissal from the International Olympic Committee after the Vrijman report said Wada had pronounced Armstrong guilty of failing a test in 1999 without adequate basis, 2006
ON THOSE WHO CHALLENGED HIM

It's our word against his word. I like our word. We like our credibility. Floyd lost his credibility a long time ago. After Floyd Landis had alleged doping had been systematic and commonplace at the US Postal Team, 2010
When you're on the witness stand, we are going to fukking tear you apart. You are going to look like a fukking idiot. I'm going to make your life a living fukking hell. To his former team-mate Tyler Hamilton after he had announced that he was cooperating with Usada's inquiry, 2011
It's 100% fabricated. [She is motivated by] bitterness, jealousy and hatred. On the testimony of Betsy Andreu, wife of former team-mate Frankie, 2007
P1ssed at me, p1ssed at Johan [Bruyneel, managing director of US postal], really p1ssed at Johan, p1ssed at the team. Why Emma O'Reilly, former team soigneur, had spoken of Armstrong's doping to David Walsh in LA Confidentiel, 2005
Fukcing Walsh, fukcing little troll, casting his spell on people, liar. I've won six Tours. I've done everything I ever could do to prove my innocence. I have done, outside of cycling, way more than anyone in the sport. To be somebody who's spread himself out over a lot of areas, to hopefully be somebody who people in this city, this state, this country, this world can look up to as an example. And you know what? They don't even know who David Walsh is. And they never will. And in 20 years nobody is going to remember him. Nobody. To the writer Daniel Coyle, 2004

All this and more in today's Observer (I think). A 'full' confession is on its way.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/jan/12/lance-armstrong-oprah-winfrey

 

[Crankarm]

Oprah might not be such a soft interviewer. I am sure she will be briefed. Maybe her other guest could be Floyd Landis?

 

[Strathlubnaig]

Re The Observer article referenced above. What a lazy piece to print, no opinion, no story, no journalism, just a bunch of quotes from the past, tells us nothing at all. Waste of space.

 

[dellzeqq]

Oprah might not be such a soft interviewer. I am sure she will be briefed. Maybe her other guest could be Floyd Landis?

Oprah is neither a soft or a hard interviewer. She is a financial and media titan. She makes Armstrong look like a pauper. What Oprah wants, Oprah gets. There will be no surprises. She will be paying money in order to get big ratings and the immediateand long term revenue that those ratings bring. If Oprah is trailing this it's because she reckons this show is going to be a big hit and she will come out of it looking even more serious and important than she does now.

Her US ratings might not be what they were, but they're still vast. She's the most influential woman and the second most influential black person in the US. She's taken on homophobia and, arguably, won. She's taken on racism. She's taken on Fox News. We think of Armstrong as a big deal - this is a show among many, and it will be conducted in the way that she wants it conducted. The upside for Armstrong is that he's not got many places to go if he wants public esteem, and this is a way of managing his 'coming out', bypassing the US press that thinks of him as a busted flush. There will be emotion and there may be tears, but it will all be carefully worked out and agreed in advance.

 

[dellzeqq]

Re The Observer article referenced above. What a lazy piece to print, no opinion, no story, no journalism, just a bunch of quotes from the past, tells us nothing at all. Waste of space.

that's to misunderstand the purpose of the article. It's a trailer for a show that will go to over 100 countries. The Observer is merely being fed stuff that it obediently regurgitates, but that's what Oprah wants.

 

[thom]

The Observer is merely being fed stuff that it obediently regurgitates, but that's what Oprah wants.

Yep - it is a bit much to expect free news to be the height of critical journalism, particularly with regard to a cycling personality.

 

[dellzeqq]

I think the one thing that might disrupt Lance's Oprafication is if he went (excuse the term) postal. He has been known to lose it. Having said that, his sworn testimony in the insurance case was so assured, so definite, that the chances of that happening are slight.

 

[Noodley]

I'm sure you've all had the opportunity to read this for yourselves but I thought I'd include it here to add to the discussion. The Sunday Times have placed an "open letter" in the Chicago Tribune, and David Walsh asks ten questions which he thinks Oprah should ask:


1. Did you tell doctors at the Indiana University Hospital on October 27, 1996 that you had taken EPO, human growth hormone, cortisone, steroids and testosterone?
2. After returning from cancer, how did you justify putting banned drugs in your body?
3. Did you have any sympathy for those rivals determined to race clean?
4. Do you regret how you treated Betsy Andreu, your former masseuse Emma O'Reilly and Greg LeMond?
5. Do you admit that your friend Dr Michele Ferrari fully supported your team's doping?
6. Is it your intention to return the prize money you earned from September 1998 to July 2010?
7. Did you sue The Sunday Times to shut us up?
8. Was your failure to understand Floyd Landis the key to your downfall?
9. Do you accept lying to the cancer community was the greatest deception of all?
10. Why have you chosen Oprah Winfrey for your first interview as a banned athlete?

I'm sure he could have thought of a better question 10 , but otherwise they all seem fairly straight forward and easy to answer. Perhaps too easy. BUt not bad as an opening gambit.

 

[StuAff]

And if any of those questions are asked, let alone any of them answered, then…

Nope, it ain't going to happen. Having read so much about him, including from the man's own words, I can't imagine a full, genuine, contrite Lance Armstrong apology happening, ever. Shame statute of limitations almost certainly saves him from ever being charged with perjury.