He was considered by a some an American hero, Lance Armstrong had won seven Tour de France, and beat testicular cancer in the middle of it. For years, people accused him of using illegal substance, something he vehemently denied and said it was just people trying to bring him down. It turns out, he doped all of us into thinking he was clean. An investigation conducted by the USADA, it was found that Armstrong had cheated all those years.
In a sit down interview with Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong finally comes clean about using PEDs during his years of racing. During the interview, he admitted to using EPO, blood doping, transfusions, testosterone, and human growth hormone. His teammates had long pointed the finger at Armstrong for cheating, but it took him until now to admit that their accusations were true. He said that it was more about winning by any means necessary than playing by the rules.
He has since been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from ever competing in the cycling event again. He lost all of his sponsorships and Nike cut its partnership with his LiveStrong charity. His former teammate Floyd Landis, who Armstrong had sold out previously, filed a lawsuit against the disgraced athlete. Landis was responsible for informing the cycling officials about Armstrong’s cheating after he had a positive drug himself. He filed the suit under the False Claims Act which acts on the government’s behalf that someone had defrauded the government.
During the sit down interview with Oprah, Armstrong said that finishing the Tour de France was impossible to finish without the assistance of performance enhancers. An excuse that made absolutely no one feel sorry for him.
