Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong was stripped of all seven of his titles in August after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) when he decided he would no longer fight doping allegations after vehemently denying them for years.

Now, Armstrong has come forward and confessed to Oprah Winfrey that he did, indeed, use illegal drugs and had blood transfusions during his performances in the cycling event; saying that he wouldn’t have been able to win all seven titles without doing so.

Armstrong spent years denying the doping allegations and finally came clean to Oprah on her show Thursday night.

The host began her interview with a series of yes/no questions, which included asking Lance if he used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) like Erythropoietin, testosterone, human growth hormone (HGH), cortisone and blood transfusions to help him gain better odds of winning the races.

Armstrong answered “yes” to all of her questions.

Armstrong, who won his first Tour de France in 1999; said, “My cocktail was EPO, transfusions and testosterone”; adding that he took cortisone early in his career.

The athlete called himself a “flawed character” during the admission, telling Winfrey that he didn’t have an answer to why he finally decided to come clean.

“This is too late for probably most people and that’s my fault. I view this situation as one big lie that I’ve repeated a lot of times,” he said.

“The story was perfect for so long… You overcame the disease, you win the Tour De France seven times, you have a happy marriage, you have children…” he said; “…I didn’t invent the culture (of doping), but I didn’t try to stop the culture.”

Lance then apologized to his fans, saying, “I made my decisions. They’re my mistake. And I’m sitting here today to acknowledge that and to say I’m sorry for that.”

There you have it… Share your thoughts on Lance’s confession.  Is it too late? Should he have confessed earlier when the accusations first surfaced? And don’t forget how defiant he was in his denials.  Do you even care? Let’s discuss.

[source]

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Posted by Eartha in Athletes, Celebrity Scandal, For Discussion, Oprah Winfrey, Screwups