Why did Lance Armstrong confess ?

[JasonFromMiami]

It still puzzles me, he had nothing to gain from a confession, he lost everything, his homes, his money, his reputation.

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And the damage the confession has caused is catastrophic, he hurt the sport, and he hurt his home country, but what he hurt the most is the millions of cancer patients all around the world who believed in him, and held on to life knowning their pain would not last and that they could come out on top , healthy and be able do great things again......surely there must have been folks who gave up hope and gave up the fight and died, their hopes were shattered when their hero turned out to be a cheater and imposter.......can anyone tell me why Lance Armstrong confessed ?

[DelayedPenalty]

Guilt? Tired of constantly lying for his own benefit? Fear, that if he didn't finally confess there would be someone with enough proof to out him?

[JasonFromMiami]

Guilt? Tired of constantly lying for his own benefit? Fear, that if he didn't finally confess there would be someone with enough proof to out him?

But there was and still is no proof, no video of him in a bloodtransfusion, or a positive test, all there is is his own word.

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And guilt , No, he does not seems to be a person that cares about what others think and feel.

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All the bad things that could happen to him, has now happened because of his confession.

[NJTank]

The whole sport is dirty, so Lance Armstrong is excused in my book.

[Gothamite]

The whole sport is dirty, so Lance Armstrong is excused in my book.

Does "the whole sport" viciously attack journalists for telling the truth? Does the whole sport sue newspapers for telling the truth, lie in court and collect $1.5M? Does the whole sport try to ruin the careers of people for telling the truth?

I'm surprised at you, Tank. I never took you for a moral relativist. Armstrong is a scumbag, wholly undeserving of your generosity.

As to the "why", the answer is simple: money. His considerable fortune earned competing was at risk from lawsuits - the newspaper was going to sue him to get their $1.5M back, for instance, and his sponsors were considering similar action. He was unemployable, and had targeted triathlons as his most likely source of future income. But the problem was that he had been banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency from competing in any sanctioned events, which meant he was out. Armstrong needed to come clean if he wanted to get his ban reversed and start earning money again.

So even his confession was self-serving. Because scumbag.

[pmoehrin]

But there was and still is no proof, no video of him in a bloodtransfusion, or a positive test, all there is is his own word.

Well he failed four drug tests in 1999 alone, so you may want to got back and check some of your facts.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/cycling-lance-armstrong-failed-four-drugs-tests-in-1999-uci-admits-8577491.html

[OnWis97]

The whole sport is dirty, so Lance Armstrong is excused in my book.

Does "the whole sport" viciously attack journalists for telling the truth? Does the whole sport sue newspapers for telling the truth, lie in court and collect $1.5M? Does the whole sport try to ruin the careers of people for telling the truth?

I'm surprised at you, Tank. I never took you for a moral relativist. Armstrong is a scumbag, wholly undeserving of your generosity.

As to the "why", the answer is simple: money. His considerable fortune earned competing was at risk from lawsuits - the newspaper was going to sue him to get their $1.5M back, for instance, and his sponsors were considering similar action. He was unemployable, and had targeted triathlons as his most likely source of future income. But the problem was that he had been banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency from competing in any sanctioned events, which meant he was out. Armstrong needed to come clean if he wanted to get his ban reversed and start earning money again.

So even his confession was self-serving. Because scumbag.

I was going to say something along the lines of "well, yeah a lot of people cheat but some don't and it's unfair to them. Not to mention that Armstrong could have been the bigger, more honorable person here."

But this response is much better. Getting greedy and and cheating is one thing but just throwing other people under the bus for your own benefit is far, far worse. I don't spend a lot of time wringing my hands at steroid users, even the liars, in MLB. But Ryan Braun is my least favorite because of how he handled it.

[Gothamite]

Yeah. And Braun only slandered the guy, he didn't try to bankrupt him.

[drdougfresh]

For those who haven't seen it, this was a very interesting look at his life (now on Netflix): http://www.sho.com/sho/reality-docs/titles/3410419/lance-armstrong-stop-at-nothing#/index

[BBTV]

How did he "hurt his home country"? Is the USA in any different shape than it would have been if he had remained an angel in everyone's eyes?

[Kevin W.]

The fact that everyone in cycling is probably doping doesn't mean that Armstrong is cleared of any wrongdoing. It just means that the entire sport is rotten to its core.

[Sport]

For those who haven't seen it, this was a very interesting look at his life (now on Netflix): http://www.sho.com/sho/reality-docs/titles/3410419/lance-armstrong-stop-at-nothing#/index

I was going to reference this. It's pretty damning of Armstrong. The drug problem in cycling didn't really take off until Armstrong forced others to choose between taking drugs and being competitive or falling out of the sport. To say "well everyone was cheating so it's a wash" is misinformation.

Then he got on this holier than thou crusade to ruin the lives of people against him. Journalists, former teammates, teammates wives, his own wife were all victims in his quest to convince everyone that he was a good guy. He's actually a really scummy guy and there actually is loads of testimony and actual evidence against him. That's why he confessed.

He raised a lot of money for cancer, which is great, but he's also a maniacally competitive a$$hole who ruined a lot of people on the way.

[officeglenn]

Part of me thinks it had to do with attention, too. He seems to be something of an attention whore, and the headlines from continuing to deny the allegations wouldn't be nearly as big as if he finally ’fessed up.

[JasonFromMiami]

How did he "hurt his home country"? Is the USA in any different shape than it would have been if he had remained an angel in everyone's eyes?

Well, he was the only one to win 7 tours, and i considered him a american hero that got the euro-haters to shut up, so i think he hurt the USA bigtime with his confession.....they did afterall play a certain tune after each final stage win in paris

[Gothamite]

You may think he hurt the country, but I don't know that you can extrapolate that out.

[Corvus]

It still puzzles me, he had nothing to gain from a confession, he lost everything, his homes, his money, his reputation.

.

.

And the damage the confession has caused is catastrophic, he hurt the sport, and he hurt his home country, but what he hurt the most is the millions of cancer patients all around the world who believed in him, and held on to life knowning their pain would not last and that they could come out on top , healthy and be able do great things again......surely there must have been folks who gave up hope and gave up the fight and died, their hopes were shattered when their hero turned out to be a cheater and imposter.......can anyone tell me why Lance Armstrong confessed ?

Have you read The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton, Lance's former team-mate? In addition to outlining the vast scale of doping in the sport, and how the machinery of the sport worked to protect Lance as their cash cow, Hamilton talks about how good it felt for him to confess to his own doping, and how much of a relief it was. He makes the strong point that carrying secrets around like that is incredibly toxic, mentally and emotionally.

Also, Hamilton mentions a conversation with a former doctor from the team he was on with Armstrong where the doctor expressed fears that the drugs and doping Armstrong did are what led to his cancer in the first place.

Edit: I highly doubt anyone died as the result of Armstrong's confession. The cat was so far out of the bag by the point he confessed, that most perceptive people would have realized he was dirty.

My father dealt with cancer for over 13 years before he passed away. I was given one of those yellow wristbands at one point, but I didn't wear it more than a few times before I decided I didn't want to be associated with Armstrong. I just knew it was going to hit the fan one day.

I believe the most recent research has shown that attitude doesn't have much, if any, effect, on cancer survival rates.

[pmoehrin]

I believe the most recent research has shown that attitude doesn't have much, if any, effect, on cancer survival rates.

You mean all that walking I did at Relay For Life did was for nothing? I could have just handed in my $50 donation and gone home and that most of these raise cancer awareness activities are just a giant waste of time that have no measureable impact on cancer survival rate. Say it isn't so.

[MJWalker45]

In the end, I think someone dangled the carrot of competitive racing again. I mean, they wouldn't even let him do a triathlon because it involved biking! I think the biggest question is, why did UCI feel compelled to cover for Armstrong and help him in throwing so many people under the bus? When they backed him against his critics it gave him a false mantle of legitimacy that allowed him to continue his actions against the press and his former teammates.

[FFWally]

OK... as someone who is and has been involved in the sport of cycling for going on 25 years, I can tell you exactly how much damage Armstrong did to not only the sport but to American Elite/Professional Cycling.

In 2012 my team was in final negotiations with a major fitness company to be the title sponsor, and more importantly to work with our program to get first responders healthy through sport, and their fitness equipment. This was a Domestic Elite program, meaning we raced internationally, and at the top of our sport in the USA, save for UCI events with a .1 or HC classification. In the US Domestic Elite is equal to UCI Continental in Europe in organisation and rider level. There are just not enough UCI races domestically to warrant the $40K that registration and rider bank guarantee calls for. So a level was created here to make a team official, but not registered with UCI.

So.. the contract was to be finalized and signed on Friday, I spoke to the sponsorship/brand manager nearly every day leading up to the signing, until the Lance Armstrong decision came down. After getting 3 or 4 phone calls from friends not affiliated with cycling, I called and was told "she is in a meeting and will call you back". Well that call never came, nor did they ever answer another call, email or text. The deal just vanished, and it cost us the season.

This is not just my story, but the story of most every owner or director I know, when Lance came down as a liar, all credibility in cycling went away. Not only was another cyclist guilty, but Saint Lance, the demigod we had all put our faith in was a cheat.

The sport is not any more dirty than baseball, football, or basketball...

Think about this. A cyclist ingests some antihistamine for allergies, and has a random test that afternoon. Because he didn't have a prescription, and wanted ot be able to breathe, he is now banned for 2-4 years from the sport. Not 4 games, or 4 months, but 4 years. If you are a competitive cyclist 4 years is half a career or more. And then you cant get a job because your points wont count, and you bring no points.

Now some DT on the Dolphins gets popped for HGH, and he gets a 4 game ban. 4 games! And it is a blip on the radar... tomorrow some other player is going to get popped for whatever else, and the NFL players Union limits how often and when a player is tested. If you area cyclist, they can test you three times in a day, and then again tomorrow.

I ran a pro team and my kids knew if they were tested positive, not only would they be dismissed, but they would have to pay back their salary for the year.

Not all of them are doping, and really its between 1 and 2 in 10 at this point. And that has dropped from 6 or 7 in 10 a decade ago.

Lance thought confessing would make his a martyr to a sport that required doping to succeed, and from the early 90's early 2000's cycling was Formula 1, just like Baseball, and Football.

All of a sudden sprinters can climb, journeyman ball players are hitting 35 HR's a year, and sluggers can hit 70??? Football went from Refrigerator Perry in 1985 being one of only a handfull of 300 pound players, to every offensive lineman was 300+ and now 280 pound players run faster than running backs did on 25 years ago? But there is no doping in the NFL.

OK off my soapbox...

Lance is a horrible person, destroyed many careers and was made out to be a saint. He has not begun to get what he deserves...

[JasonFromMiami]

Thanks FFWally.....so what you think of the oprah confession, should Lance not just have kept his mouth shut ?