Lance Armstrong admitted to testosterone, blood transfusions, and EPOs

Lance Armstrong last night finally came clean about his years of using performance-enhancing drugs in his first lengthy public interview since the governing committees accused him of running the 'sophisticated' doping ring to secure his world record titles.
‘I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times,’ he said in an televised interview with Oprah Winfrey screened Thursday night.

KEY QUOTES: WHAT HE SAID

'I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times and as you said it wasn't as if I just said no and moved off of it.
'I viewed it as very simple. We had things that were oxygen boosting drugs for lack of a better word that were incredibly beneficial to endurance sports.
When was the last time he doped: 'The last time I crossed the line- that line- was in 2005.
'This is too late, it's too late for probably most people and that's my fault.
'I am flawed, deeply flawed. I think we all have our flaws. I deserve this.
'I didn't understand the magnitude of that following and we see it now... The important thing is that I am beginning to understand it.

Their testier back-and forths:

Oprah: Did it not even feel wrong?
Lance: No, it's scary.

Oprah: Did you feel bad about it?
Lance: No, even scarier.

Oprah: Did you feel in anyway that you were cheating?
Lance: No, that's the scariest.
After he answered a series of yes and no questions where he admitted to using testosterone, EPO, and blood transfusions throughout his career, she asked:
Oprah: Yes or no, in all seven of your Tour de France victories did you ever take banned substances or blood dope?
Lance: Yes.
Oprah: Was it humanly possible to win seven Tour de Frances if you were not taking performance enhancing drugs?
Lance: Not in my opinion.

The Department of Justice pursued a two year criminal investigation into Armstrong, pursuing charges of fraud, drug trafficking, witness tampering. They then dropped the investigation without an explanation.

Lance: I thought I was out of the woods-
Oprah: -The wolves had left the door.
Lance: And those are some serious wolves.
When talking to the wife of one of his teammates who accused him of doping, and continued to defame her in other interviews:
Lance: 'I said, "listen, I called you crazy, I called you a bitch. I called you all these things, but I never called you fat"'

THE DENIALS THAT SPANNED A DECADE

July 23, 2001: 'I've lived by the rules. You think someone with my health history would take something like that? There's no way.'
July 26, 2002: 'Immediately [the doping probe] knew the evidence was clean, but they kept the case open...there's nothing there.'
August 25, 2005: 'I have never doped. I can say that again but Ive said it for seven years.'
'Unfortunately, the witch hunt continues. This article is nothing short of tabloid journalism. [I have] never taken performance-enhancing drugs.'
November 30, 2005: 'Having never taken performance-enhancing drugs, when I pissed in the bottle, there was no drugs in that piss.'
June 24, 2009: 'I have no regrets at all. I've got no reason to lie.'
May 2010: 'We have nothing to hide. We have nothing to run from. I can give you one word to sum this all up. It’s credibility.'
July 2010: 'As long as I live, I will deny it. There was absolutely no way I forced people, encouraged people, told people, helped people, facilitated. Absolutely not. One hundred percent…I mean, I can’t control what other riders do.'
June 2012: 'I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one. These charges are baseless [and] motivated by spite.'

For now, he is formally banned from all sports because of the doping charges, and officials at the World Anti-Doping Agency say that a heartfelt confession to the Queen of Talk is far from enough for them to even consider lifting his band.
'He's got to follow a certain course,' the group's director David Howman said.
'That is not talking to a talk-show host.'
On Oprah's end, she said that viewers should expect to be 'satisfied' by the interview.
'I felt that he was thoughtful, I thought that he was serious, I thought that he certainly had prepared for this moment. I would say that he met the moment,' she said in a promotional appearance on CBS This Morning, hosted by her good friend Gayle King.
She did not go into too much detail about the interview, except to say that close friends and family- no lawyers- were present for the taping.
She also claimed that at one point during a break in taping, Armstrong asked her if the questions were going to lighten up.
Armstrong's lawyers were against the meeting but he went ahead with it anyway.

'I will spend the rest of my life trying to earn 
back trust and apologize to people for the rest of my life,' he said.
The interview was taped on Monday in Armstrong's 
hometown of Austin, Texas, but Winfrey
 waited to air the interview until Thursday night.


Armstrong made only two public statements between the time of the taping and the on-air reveal, texting a message to the Associated Press.
'I left it all on the table with her and when it airs the people can decide,' he said.
To another news outlet, he said: 
                                       'I have no idea
                                  what the future holds
                            other than me holding my kids.'

This has been a tough week for the former star, as the International Olympic Committee sent him a letter asking him to return the bronze medal that he won in the 2000 Sydney Games.
He received the letter on Wednesday night, meaning that even if Winfrey mentions it in a voiceover during the long-awaited interview, Armstrong will not have any opportunity to directly respond during the broadcast.
The IOC said that they decided last month to ask the cyclist to return the medal, though it waited to make their move until after he had been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.