http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/sports/cycling/lance-armstrong-admits-doping-and-says-he-will-testify-against-cycling-officials.html?hp&_r=0 oh boy? he might slip on a bar of soap ???
Armstrong Admits Doping, and Says He Will Testify
By JULIET MACUR
Published: January 14, 2013
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey that is scheduled for broadcast on her network on Thursday, Lance Armstrong
confessed that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling
career, according to two people briefed on the interview, which was
recorded Monday in Austin, Tex.
Jose Jordan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Lance Armstrong, 41, is planning to testify against
officials from the International Cycling Union, the worldwide governing
body of cycling.
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It is unclear, though, how forthcoming Armstrong was about his doping program, which the United States Anti-Doping Agency
has said was part of the most sophisticated, organized and professional
doping scheme in the history of sports. Armstrong, when reached by
e-mail Monday, said he could not discuss the interview.
Acknowledging his doping past has cleared the way for Armstrong to take
the next step in trying to mitigate his lifetime ban from Olympic
sports. He is planning to testify against several powerful people in the
sport of cycling who knew about his doping and possibly facilitated it,
said several people with knowledge of the situation.
Armstrong, 41, is planning to testify against officials from the
International Cycling Union, the worldwide governing body of cycling,
about their involvement with doping in cycling, but he will not testify
against other riders, according to the people familiar with his plans.
He is also in discussions with the United States Department of Justice
to possibly testify in a federal whistle-blower case. That case involves
the cycling team sponsored by the United States Postal Service, and
Armstrong would testify against several of the team’s owners, including
the investment banker Thom Weisel, and other officials, one person close
to the situation said. That person did not want his name published
because the case is still open.
Floyd Landis, one of Armstrong’s former teammates, filed the
whistle-blower case in 2010 against Armstrong and other principals of
the Postal Service team on which he and Armstrong competed together for
several years. Landis claimed the team defrauded the government because
its riders used performance-enhancing drugs in violation of its
sponsorship contract.
Now Armstrong and possibly his longtime agent, Bill Stapleton, are
seeking to repay several millions of dollars of the more than $30
million the Postal Service spent sponsoring the team, as part of their
cooperation as witnesses in the case, said the person with knowledge of
the matter. (CBS News first reported Armstrong was in talks to return
money to the Postal Service.) The Department of Justice is considering
whether to join the case as a plaintiff and is close to making that
decision, the person said.
Armstrong, who for more than a decade vehemently denied doping, would be
willing to testify against the cycling union officials and his former
team’s officials because he badly wants to compete in triathlons and
running events again. Last fall, he was barred from many of those events
because they are sanctioned by organizations that follow the World
Anti-Doping Code, the rules under which he is serving his lifetime ban.
Armstrong said that lifetime ban was unfair.
He met with United States Anti-Doping Agency officials, including Travis
Tygart, the agency’s chief executive, last month to discuss what he
needed to do to mitigate his ban. Several people with knowledge of the
discussions said Tygart would be willing to reduce Armstrong’s
punishment if Armstrong would testify against the people who helped him
dope. That would possibly include Pat McQuaid, the president of the
cycling union, and Hein Verbruggen, who was the cycling union’s
president from 1991 to 2005, a time when doping in the sport was
rampant. Verbruggen, who is close with the International Olympic
Committee president, Jacques Rogge, is also the cycling union’s honorary
president and an honorary member of the I.O.C.
David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said in a
telephone interview Monday that he would not believe that Armstrong
would testify in other cases to help clean up the sport until it
happens.
“This guy is an enigma and nobody really knows what he is going to do,
no matter what he says,” Howman said. “I think he’s got his own demons
to deal with, but nothing can be done about his lifetime ban when he
hasn’t done anything to help us yet.”
Last fall the United States Anti-Doping Agency called Armstrong the kingpin of the doping program on his Tour de France
winning teams when it made public evidence that he had doped and had
encouraged his teammates to dope. During his interview with Winfrey,
Armstrong rebutted the claim that he was a leader of the doping program,
saying he just did what his teammates were doing, according to the two
people who did not want their names published because they are not
authorized to speak about the interview.
Before heading to the Winfrey interview in downtown Austin, Armstrong
stopped at the headquarters of his cancer charity, Livestrong, and
apologized to the staff. He told them he was sorry for letting everyone
down and for putting so much stress on the organization because of his
doping scandal.
He did not confess to using performance-enhancing drugs, but spoke for
about 20 minutes in the organization’s boardroom, eliciting tears from
some of the employees, said Rae Bazzarre, a spokeswoman for Livestrong.
“It was emotional and he choked up for a moment,” she said. “But we were all glad to see him.”
Armstrong had not been at the headquarters since Oct. 21, Bazzarre said,
about two weeks before he resigned from Livestrong’s board of
directors.
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