Apparently LA did confess on Oprah. Interview hasn't aired yet.

Source: Lance Armstrong confesses to Oprah he doped before he had cancer

According to those "familiar with the situation", which usually means deliberate leaks, he is trying to reduce the negative impact on Livestrong, with any prospect of returning to competition or regaining sponsors more remote.

According to the NYT, part of LA's strategy is to roll-over on senior functionaries and administrators in the sport world-wide (who knew of the doping and tolerated it) in order to manoeuvre himself into the position of "key witness" in the various lawsuits likely to follow.

This sounds like both a sleazy and very high-risk strategy — and that would fit right in.

He cheated, he got caught, he feels bad now, I can deal with that.

But he intentionally lied and called other people liars who were telling the truth about him, that will never go away.
AFAIC he will always be a liar and a POS.

Translation: LA is a poopy-head. SmileWavy

I think you are right to assume that he is doing it for personal gain, but if one wants to clean up a sport you are going to have to go to the top of the chain. It can't stop at one guy. Until we make the punishment severe at the sponsor and aminstration levels doping will never stop. It is ALWAYS worth it for sponsors and governing bodies to condone doping because they get all the benefits without any of the risks. Sponsors who want to win and governing bodies who want fans (to make money) will always find an athlete desperate enough to dope. Just look at MLB and what they let go on to get fans back to the sport. That homerun debacle with Bonds, Mcguire, & Sosa was all condoned and supported by the teams and the league.

Many people have suggested that Lance's cancer was the result of steriod use, imagine being so desperate to go back to a practice that should have and nearly did kill you. If he was willing to risk losing his life to win, what rule could you use to stop him? The only thing I can think of is that the risk for the sponsor and the sport is so large that they wouldn't take a chance at allowing doping to take place on their teams.

So I say if the captian is going down, the ship ought to go with him.

Yup

Why is this even news? ( same goes for 90% of whats considered "news"..)

Because if he dumps on the international cycling bureaucracy/administration, there is real suggestion that cycling will be thrown out of the Olympics.

I guess the next question then would be "why would that even be considered 'news'?"

Really, the whole world of spectator sport - both amateur and professional - is so sullied by the money involved and the excesses that money encourages that I'm surprised anyone holds any interest at all anymore.

Some guy cheated to win a bike race? They might not let them race bikes at the Olympics anymore? Yawn... I'm going for a drive...

How is what Lance did any different from Tommy John surgery in baseball? I understand that some younger athletes in baseball are now at least considering this as an elective surgery???!!!

How about Lasik surgery?

Not condoning at all what he did, or the subsequent lies, but we sure seem to accept other enhancements willingly as day to day news or even commonplace...

e

Tommy John surgery is not prohibited by the rules of the sport. Unlike doping in cycling.

Ahh, I see, so its the particular rules of each individual sport that's got you so tied up, not the individual fairness?

Rules change by the season in each individual sport...

So, you're "ok" to have a guy have surgery that straps a section of the muscle of his leg onto his arm because the rules don't particularly prohibit it, but if a guys takes his own blood out and then puts it back in, that's not "ok" because that's how the rules are written?

Hmm, ok, ..... you "win".... we'll just talk about the narrow subject and the individual rules. I'll back out of ppot and go back to the tech board now.

e

Reminds me of an ex-president everyone forgave when he lied "I didn't have sex with that woman". I wish they held him to the same standard as the ex-pres that knew about Watergate.

Hey, I've got a great idea. If we make steroids illegal (like certain folks want to do with weapons) then we won't have that problem....oh, wait, they are already illegal, um never mind.

This post will probably cause cognitive dissonance and severe headaches among the non-sociopaths here.

I guess the Captain - Ship anology wasn't the best to end with:)

Enjoy your headache, muh ha ha ha!

Well, kudos to armstrong for having the ball to come clean.

I don't see it that way. He got caught with indisputable evidence and was going to lose all his endorsements anyway. He gets a royalty payment from Oprah and next will be the tell-all book deal.

There is a difference between repentance for sinning versus being sorry that you got caught.

Um, Joe, I think that was a JOKE.

Oops. I didn't see it in green.
Hey, I'm slow but I'm steady.