10 Enlightening Quotes From Lance Armstrong's Oprah Interview
How the mighty have fallen. Last night, part one of Oprah Winfrey's exclusive Lance Armstrong interview aired on OWN, and audiences got a peek inside the world of cycling. Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs after years of denying it to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). He also admitted to trying to "control" every outcome which he called a "character flaw." Armstrong has been stripped of all his Tour De France wins and his Olympic bronze medal.
Click to see 10 of the most enlightening quotes from last night's sit-down.
Click to see 10 of the most enlightening quotes from last night's sit-down.
Lance Says 'Mia Culpa'
"It was impossible to live up to this. I'm a flawed character. All the fault and all the blame falls on me. Whether it's fans or the media, it just gets going and I lost myself in all of that. I certainly couldn't handle it, and I used to control everything in my life. I have controlled every outcome in my life."
Lance Speaks On Bullying Other Cyclists
"Yeah, yeah, I was a bully. I was a bully in the sense that I tried to control the narrative, and if I didn't like what someone said, I turned on them."
Lance Reveals Which Drugs He Used
"My cocktail was only EPO, but not a lot, and blood transfusions and testosterone, which were almost justified because of my history. With losing one, surely I was running low."
Lance Is Not A Fan Of The Anti-Doping Agency
“The only thing that made me angry in the whole [USADA] report was [it saying] that I doped in my comeback.”
Lance Admits To Being A Habitual Liar
"I viewed 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 I moved off it... The truth isn't what I said, and now it's gone. This story was so perfect for so long."
Lance Talks About The Effects Of Cancer On His Attitude
"Before my diagnosis, I was a competitor but not a fierce competitor. When I was diagnosed, that turned me into a fighter. That was good. I took that ruthless win-at-all-costs attitude into cycling, which was bad."
Lance claimed he spoke to Betsy Andreu, the wife of his former teammate Frankie who testified against him in 2006. Armstrong denied all allegations and tried to intimidate Betsy.
“I called you crazy, I called you a bitch, I called you all these things, but I never called you fat.”
Lance Calls Out His Own Ego
"My ruthless desire to win at all costs served me well on the bike, but the level it went to, for whatever reason, is a flaw. That desire, that attitude, that arrogance."
Lance Looked Up The Definition Of 'Cheater'
"I kept hearing I'm a drug cheat, I'm a cheat, I'm a cheater. I went in and just looked up the definition of cheat and the definition of cheat is to gain an advantage on a rival or foe that they don't have. I didn't view it that way. I viewed it as a level playing field."
