Lance Armstrong's Confession

Sometimes when a lie is repeated so many times, it becomes the truth. Not just for the liar, also to the people who thought he was a hero. 

I learnt more of Lance Armstrong when I was much younger from a book that that sis bought. I found out he was a five time (at the time when the book was published) winner of the grueling Tour of France, he was a cancer survivor and how he won his life battles. He was such an inspiration when I finished the book. 

Life is such that even heroes get their share of bad days. There had been many allegations that Lance Armstrong took performance enhancing drugs, did blood transfusion etc. and that was why he was able to win throughout the years. He got his team to dope as well according to some of the media sources. I kind of did not believe, well, he was such an inspiration to me after all. And I bought the Livestrong yellow band, specially ordered online and at that time, online oder was considered a big thing. 

The drug allegations came back strong recently, and I saw from Yahoo that Oprah would be doing an interview with Armstrong on these allegations.

Photo extracted from http://ownspecial.oprah.com/lancearmstrong.html

Amrstrong admitted to doping within the first two minutes of the interview. It was a simple yes and no to Oprah's questions and the simple answers were a resounding yes. Simple words and yet so... loud. I have my own set of beliefs and I am stubborn. After reading the book, I felt Armstrong is one of those miracles that happened to remind us that we could still control life to a certain extend and we are what we believed. 

Photo extracted from http://ownspecial.oprah.com/lancearmstrong.html

Beginning of the interview, I was deciding if this man was telling the truth. He was reluctant and hesistant to talk about the people who were involved, people who used to be his team mates, and to questions and conversations that he was not comfortable to divulge, he simply said he could not venture into or comment about them. 

Photo extracted from http://ownspecial.oprah.com/lancearmstrong.html

Armstrong said he made the decision (to dope), he would admit what he did and felt he deserved what was happening but he was not comfortable about talking about the others and to drag people into it. Whether it was a well strategised PR move, or it came from his heart, this got me. 

He had also insisted that when he returned to compete, after his declared 2005's retirement, in 2009; he had stopped all drugs and he compete those competition on his own merits. 

He said the scariest was when he felt he was not cheating during those doping years and he felt no wrong. He could not understand how he could come to think of those with no moral wrong at that time. And doping was common at that time. So was the playing field level then? You can take drugs, so  can I. So end of the day, it was up to who took the better drugs and who had the fitness to get through the races? 

Photo extracted from http://ownspecial.oprah.com/lancearmstrong.html

When Oprah asked how could he had treated so many people badly, by suing and publicly denied what was truth. He gave a very primal answer - he was simply attacking because these people were on his territory, and he needed to protect. He had started the process of trying to make the wrong right by calling and talking to people that he had hurt.

Photo extracted from http://ownspecial.oprah.com/lancearmstrong.html

He choked and teared when Oprah asked about his son who had defended him throughout the years. The man is still after all a father. He apologised again to the people who had believed and trusted him over the years.

Photo extracted from http://ownspecial.oprah.com/lancearmstrong.html

Is a fallen hero still consider a hero when he admit to his earthly sins and mistakes? Coming out to admit what he did wrong in front of the world takes some courage. He still beats cancer, and this is no ordinary feat. Is there an agenda behind his confession? Perhaps?