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| FILE - In this Feb. 15, 2011 file photo, Lance Armstrong pauses during an interview in Austin, Texas. Local and international news crews are staking out positions in front of Armstrong's lush, Spanish-style villa ahead of the cyclist's interview with Oprah Winfrey later Monday, Jan. 14, 2013. |
Lance Armstrong ended a
decade of denial by confessing to Oprah Winfrey that he used
performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France, a person familiar
with the situation told The Associated Press.
The
admission Monday came hours after an emotional apology by Armstrong to
the Livestrong charity that he founded and turned into a global
institution on the strength of his celebrity as a cancer survivor.
The
person spoke on condition of anonymity because the interview is to be
broadcast Thursday on Winfrey's network. She tweeted afterward, "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.
The confession was a stunning
reversal for Armstrong after years of public statements, interviews and
court battles in which he denied doping and zealously protected his
reputation.
Even before the taping session
with Winfrey began around 2 p.m., EST, Armstrong's apology suggested he
would carry through on promises over the weekend to answer her questions
"directly, honestly and candidly."
The
cyclist was stripped of his Tour de France titles, lost most of his
endorsements and was forced to leave the foundation last year after the
U.S. Anti-Doping Agency issued a damning, 1,000-page report that accused
him of masterminding a long-running doping scheme.
About
100 staff members of the charity Armstrong founded in 1997 gathered in a
conference room as Armstrong arrived with a simple message: "I'm
sorry." He choked up during a 20-minute talk, expressing regret for the
long-running controversy over performance-enhancers had caused, but
stopped short of admitting he used them.
Before
he was done, several members were in tears when he urged them to
continue the charity's mission of helping cancer patients and their
families.
"Heartfelt and sincere," is how Livestrong spokesman Katherine McLane described his speech.
Armstrong later huddled with almost a dozen people before stepping into a room set up at a downtown Austin hotel.
The
group included close friends and advisers, two of his lawyers and Bill
Stapleton, his agent, manager and business partner. They exchanged
handshakes and smiles, but declined comment when approached by a
reporter. Most members of that group left the hotel through the front
entrance around 5 p.m., although Armstrong was not with them.
No
further details about the interview were available immediately because
of confidentiality agreements signed by both camps. But Winfrey promoted
it as a "no-holds barred" session, and after the voluminous USADA
report - which included testimony from 11 former teammates - she had
plenty of material for questions. USADA chief executive Travis Tygart, a
longtime critic of Armstrong's, called the drug regimen practiced while
Armstrong led the U.S. Postal Service team, "The most sophisticated,
professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever
seen."
Armstrong also went after his critics
ruthlessly during his reign as cycling champion, scolding some in public
and waging legal battles against others in court. At least one of his
opponents, the London-based Sunday Times, has already filed a lawsuit to
recover about $500,000 it paid him to settle a libel lawsuit, and
Dallas-based SCA Promotions, which tried to deny Armstrong a promised
bonus for a Tour de France win, has threatened to bring yet another
lawsuit seeking to recover more than $7.5 million an arbitration panel
awarded the cyclist in that dispute.
In
addition, former teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of the 2006
Tour de France title for doping, has filed a federal whistle-blower
lawsuit that accused Armstrong of defrauding the U.S. Postal Service.
The Justice Department has yet to decide whether it will join the suit
as a plaintiff.
The lawsuit most likely to be
influenced by a confession might be the Sunday Times case. Potential
perjury charges stemming from Armstrong's sworn testimony in the 2005
arbitration fight would not apply because of the statute of limitations.
Armstrong was not deposed during the federal investigation that was
closed last year.
Armstrong is said to be
worth around $100 million. But most sponsors dropped him after USADA's
scathing report - at the cost of tens of millions of dollars - and soon
after, he left the board of Livestrong.
After
the USADA findings, he was also barred from competing in the elite
triathlon or running events he participated in after his cycling career.
World Anti-Doping Code rules state his lifetime ban cannot be reduced
to less than eight years. WADA and U.S. Anti-Doping officials could
agree to reduce the ban further depending on what information Armstrong
provides and his level of cooperation.
Whether his confession would begin to heal those ruptures and restore that reputation remains to be seen.
Diagnosed
with testicular cancer in October 1996, the disease soon spread to his
lungs and brains.
Armstrong's doctors gave him a 40 percent chance of
survival at the time and never expected he'd compete at anything more
strenuous than gin rummy. Winning the world's most grueling sporting
event less than three years later made Armstrong a hero.
