Lance Armstrong May Admit Doping, Report Indicates
Lance Armstrong may admit to doping during his lengthy and prolific cycling career, a shocking move considering the number of years he has spent insisting he has not used banned performance enhancing substances.
The battle that may culminate in Lance Armstrong admitting to having engaged in doping has been drawn out for what seems like nearly as long as the apex of the cyclist’s career, and a new report in the New York Times indicates that the controversial cyclist is considering the confession as one of several options to continue competing in the sport.
When contacted by the Times about the report that Lance Armstrong may admit to doping, Tim Herman, Armstrong’s longtime lawyer, did not explicitly deny that the move was a possibility for the embattled athlete, and said:
“I do not know about that. I suppose anything is possible, for sure. Right now, that’s really not on the table.”
The paper indicated that several ongoing legal considerations may hinder a confession from Lance Armstrong on the doping front.
The Times cites anonymous sources as saying that while a federal case regarding his USPS cycling tenure is one consideration, Armstrong has been involved in discussions about a doping admission with the US Anti-Doping Agency:
“Among the obstacles is a federal whistle-blower case in which he and several team officials from Armstrong’s United States Postal Service cycling team are accused of defrauding the government by allowing doping on the squad when the team’s contract with the Postal Service explicitly forbade it … Armstrong, 41, has been in discussions with the United States Anti-Doping Agency and has met with Travis Tygart, the agency’s chief executive, in an effort to mitigate the lifetime ban he received for playing a lead role in doping on his Tour-winning teams, according to one person briefed on the situation.”
The paper noted that all sources for the story on Lance Armstrong’s potential anticipated doping admission spoke on the condition of anonymity owing to the fact speaking publicly would interfere with future debriefing on the developing situation, and Herman denied that Armstrong had been speaking to Tygart.
