Lance Armstrong

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Wednesday, January 16, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Why Oprah needs Lance Armstrong

When disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong sits down with talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, the world will see a sinner seeking absolution from the only woman who, in media terms, has the power to save him. But in truth, Oprah needs Lance as much as Lance needs Oprah.
His reputation is in tatters and he has a lifetime doping ban which prevents him from making a living from cycling. He’s hoping to walk away from this with a small reprieve: permission to compete in elite triathlons.

Oprah has a TV network which, since its launch, has struggled to make its mark in the multichannel space. She needs world-stopping interviews such as this to deliver the sort of ratings spikes that will keep the channel on air.

And Oprah knows when she’s onto a good thing. Her network OWN has now confirmed that the interview with Armstrong will be extended to a two-night engagement.

The interview was taped on Monday, and we are little more than a day from the broadcast of the first half. Newspapers and online media are saturated with stories, leaks and tips – glimpses of a conversation we have not yet actually seen.

Armstrong will confess, we are assured. To what, exactly, is not clear. Winfrey, speaking on the US network CBS, said Armstrong “did not come clean in the manner that [she] expected”, but she did not elaborate.

At this point, though, one thing is abundantly clear: Armstrong’s confession, when it happens, will be one of the most carefully stage-managed media “moments” in recent memory. (Source: stuff.co.nz.com)

Tuesday October 23, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday October 23, 2012

Lance Armstrong Is Stripped of His 7 Tour de France Titles

Tour de Fraud, Lance Armstrong gets new sponsors

The International Cycling Union announced Monday that it would not appeal the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s ruling to bar Lance Armstrong for life from Olympic sports for doping and for playing an instrumental role in the team-organized doping on his Tour de France-winning cycling squads.

Lance Armstrong won ultimate possession of the Tour de France’s yellow jersey for seven straight years, but his name is being removed from the Tour record books.

That decision to waive the right to take Armstrong’s case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the highest court in sports, formally stripped Armstrong of the seven Tour titles he won from 1999 to 2005.

“Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling; he deserves to be forgotten in cycling,” Pat McQuaid, the president of the cycling union, known as U.C.I., said in a news conference in Switzerland. “Something like this must never happen again.”

McQuaid said he was “sickened” by the facts in the 202-page report the antidoping agency made public two weeks ago regarding the evidence it had in the Armstrong case, and called it mind-boggling how former teammates like the five-time national time-trial champion David Zabriskie were pushed to use performance-enhancing drugs.

McQuaid said that Armstrong’s teams had a “win at all costs” attitude fueled by “deceit, intimidation, coercion and evasion,” and that all of the evidence was there to prove that Armstrong doped. He added that he was sorry the cycling union had not caught Armstrong and his teammates “red handed” so he could have thrown them out of the sport. (Source: NYTimes)