Last night’s Armstrong interview with Oprah was never going to be as revealing as the first one, but there were still some good moments to be seen
By Adrian Collins
Lance was more emotional in last night’s interview with Oprah than his first go at it, and came close to tears at one point, although the cynical side of us suggests that he might have had some pretty good media training.
Armstrong stated the he didn’t feel he deserved the “death penalty” for his cycling career after he was hit with a life time ban. It was expected that he’d say this, but still sound like a crazy request when you consider the level of cheating he’s admitted to.
Armstrong also revealed in the interview that that the cost to him is apparently $75 million in income from sponsors, and that he’s also lost all future income, with pretty much no chance of him getting any sponsors after the scandal has broken.
He did confirm that he’s having therapy to deal with his problems, but he stated that there’s a different Lance, a guy who thought he was invincible, who was at fault for the whole scandal. He admitted that this guy hasn’t yet left, and when he does it will be an important step in his recovery.
The tears almost came out when talking about his children and how his son defended him against the allegations, which he said was the straw that broke the camel’s back in terms of coming clean about the whole thing.
Oprah did eventually get around to asking Lance about the numerous apologies he owes to people, and asked “Do you owe David Walsh an apology, who for thirteen years has pursued this story?”. His response was “that’s a good question” adding “I’d apologise to Dave” through gritted teeth, which made us think it wasn’t the most sincere thing we’ve ever heard in our lives. We wouldn’t expect an email any time soon anyway if we were Walsh.
USADA chief Travis Tygart will be extremely worried however, after Lance denied he offered the $250,000 donation to the association which is beginning to look hugely suspicious and is likely to make his position untenable.
Afterwards, Tyler Hamilton gave his reaction to it, having been involved in a long series of confrontations with Armstrong. Hamilton feels that Lance is still confused and maybe not “100% sorry for everything” while he is still learning exactly how many lives he affected with his behaviour.
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