|
| This Monday, Jan. 14, 2013 photo provided by Harpo Studios Inc., shows talk-show host Oprah Winfrey interviewing cyclist Lance Armstrong during taping for the show "Oprah and Lance Armstrong: The Worldwide Exclusive" in Austin, Texas. The two-part episode of "Oprah's Next Chapter" will air nationally Thursday and Friday, Jan. 17-18, 2013. |
Lance Armstrong said viewers can judge for themselves how candid he was in his interview with Oprah Winfrey.
"I left it all on the table with her and when it airs the people can decide," he said in a text message to The Associated Press.
Armstrong
responded to a report in the New York Daily News, citing an
unidentified source, that he was not contrite when he acknowledged
during Monday's taping with Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing
drugs. Although the first installment of a two-part interview doesn't
air until Thursday night, there has been no shortage of opinions or
advice on what Armstrong should say.
Livestrong,
the cancer charity Armstrong founded in 1997 and was forced to walk
away from last year, said in a statement Wednesday it expected him to be
"completely truthful and forthcoming." A day earlier, World Anti-Doping
Agency general director David Howman said nothing short of a confession
under oath - "not talking to a talk-show host" - could prompt a
reconsideration of Armstrong's lifetime ban from sanctioned events. And
Frankie Andreu, a former teammate that Armstrong turned on, said the
disgraced cyclist had an obligation to tell all he knew and help clean
up the sport.
Armstrong has held conversations
with officials from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, including a reportedly
contentious face-to-face meeting with USADA chief executive Travis
Tygart near the Denver airport. It was USADA's 1,000-page report last
year, including testimony from nearly a dozen former teammates, that
portrayed Armstrong as the leader of a sophisticated doping ring that
enveloped the U.S. Postal Service team on the way to title after title
at the Tour de France. In addition to the lifetime ban, Armstrong was
stripped of all seven wins, lost nearly all of his endorsements and was
forced to cut ties with Livestrong.
According
to a person with knowledge of the situation, Armstrong has information
that might lead to his ban being reduced to eight years. That would make
him eligible to compete in elite triathlons, many of which are
sanctioned under world anti-doping rules, in 2020, when Armstrong will
be 49. He was a professional athlete in the three-discipline sport as a
teenager, and returned to competition after retiring from cycling in
2011.
That person also said the bar for
Armstrong's redemption is higher now than when the case was open, a time
during which he refused to speak to investigators.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a confidential matter.
Armstrong,
who always prized loyalty on his racing teams, now faces some very
tough choices himself: whether to cooperate and name those who may have
aided, abetted or helped cover up the long-time use of PEDs.
"I have no idea what the future holds other than me holding my kids," he said.
Armstrong
left his hometown of Austin, where the interview was taped at a
downtown hotel, and is in Hawaii. He is named as a defendant in at least
two pending lawsuits, and possibly a third. The Justice Department
faces a Thursday deadline on a decision whether to join a whistle-blower
lawsuit filed by former teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of the
2006 Tour de France title for doping.
That
suit alleges Armstrong defrauded the U.S. government by repeatedly
denying he used performance-enhancing drugs. Armstrong could be required
to return substantial sponsorship fees and pay a hefty fine. The AP
reported earlier that Justice Department officials were likely to join
the lawsuit.
