Lance Armstrong

After years of rumours and accusations and lawsuits and outright denials, one of sports worst kept secrets was finally aired publicly this weekend, as seven time Tour de France winning cyclist Lance Armstrong spilled his guts to talk show softy Oprah Winfrey in the United States.
Over two nights, Armstrong confessed to mass blood doping and drug use during his career, including his most successful races. He profferred some less than heartfelt apologies to a number of people without ever appearing to be completely remorseful for his actions. He made no attempt to name or implicate any other people who were involved in this systematic cheating of the world cycling body's rules and regulations, nor was he pushed to do so by his somewhat patsy interviewer.

WADA Slams Armstrong Interview as "Controlled Media Performance"

Lance Armstrong - "I Want to Compete Again"

Armstrong "Breaks Down " In Interview

No one should feel sorry for him, though a large percentage of the population probably will end up doing so. He showed little true remorse for his actions in his interview, instead answering questions like it was a police interview, like a criminal who knows they are guilty and don't care. Even after three hours, the viewer was left thinking about what HADN'T been said rather than what he had decided to confess to. The only time he even showed the slightest change in emotion was when discussing his children's reactions to discovering that he had been lying to them for years.

The shame of all of this is what will be lost. Will 'Livestrong', the cancer foundation he set up, be able to continue, to help cancer patients, or will it crumble like its hero with the feet of clay. His children, who for so long thought their father to be a hero, to be honest and upstanding, now find that everything he has achieved has been through deceipt and lies. Sponsors and supporters who have been with him through all his achievements are now tarnished with the same brush through no fault other than their loyalty to him and his ideals.

He will ask for forgiveness, and no doubt in time he will receive it from most quarters, as the passing years dullen what has been revealed over the past few days. What will cause me to retch will be if anyone comes out and continues to call him a hero, whether it be for his performances (with the drug use conveniently put aside) or for his 'heartfelt' admission if guilt, for which he has only now finally agreed to when there was no doubt of his guilt in any way, shape or form. That is not the act of a hero, it is the act of a person who has bullied people through the courts in order to continue the fight to keep his name clean, but who has finally run out of all options with the threat of himself being charged through the courts.

The man recovered from cancer, so he has shown he has some inner strength. He is going to need every ounce of it if he is to be able to move on from this point, forever in the shadow of not necessarily the doping in order to have the success he achieved on the bike, but what he did in order to cover it up, and the people he has hurt by doing so, and the further people he has hurt in finally coming clean about it.