Oprah is set to conduct a ‘no holds barred’ interview with Lance Armstrong next week, but as Didi Hamann has suggested, wouldn’t it be great if it was Eamon Dunphy asking the questions instead?
With speculation surfacing lately that Armstrong was about to confess to his role in probably the biggest doping scandal ever seen in sport, the news that he is to be the subject of an extensive live interview with Oprah Winfrey next week is a very interesting development indeed.
Will Lance bare all in the first steps on the road to redemption? Will he go into detail about his dealings with notorious doctor Michele Ferrari, his questionable relationship with the UCI or discuss the accounts of the many people who have gone on record about his central role in the doping which has plagued the sport in recent years.
Or will he continue the staggering indifference he seems to have shown since the USADA case against him came to light late last year?
With all due respect to Oprah, the fear is that the interview could turn into what Ron Burgundy might call a big glass case of emotion, that the harder questions could be ignored and that Lance will manipulate the interview to suit his own agenda, as he did for so many years as a professional cyclist.
Ducking the tough questions wouldn’t be an issue if the likes of Paul Kimmage or David Walsh – both of whom went public on their suspicions about Lance for years in the face of much adversity – were asking the questions, nor would it be a problem if somebody took Didi Hamann up on his suggestion that Eamon Dunphy be put into the interviewer’s chair.
We’re not sure how up to date Eamon is on Lance’s situation and the sport of cycling in general, but if he’s prepared to call Cristiano Ronaldo a ‘disgrace to the game’ as he did a few years back (see below), then we’re pretty sure he wouldn’t hold back on the Texan if he got the chance.
Somebody, somewhere, should make this happen.
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