History of Lance Armstrong doping allegations
[1] Armstrong vehemently denied allegations of using performance enhancing drugs for 13 years, until a confession during a broadcast interview with Oprah Winfrey in January 2013, when he finally admitted to all his cheating in sports, stating, "I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times".
[2][3][4][5] If you consider my situation: a guy who comes back from arguably, you know, a death sentence [Armstrong's 1996 cancer diagnosis and treatment], why would I then enter into a sport and dope myself up and risk my life again?
The effort convened a grand jury to investigate doping charges, including: taking statements under oath from Armstrong's former team members and other associates; met with officials from France, Belgium, Spain, and Italy; and requested samples from the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD).
[22] According to former cyclist Stephen Swart, Armstrong first began using performance-enhancing drugs during his time with the Motorola cycling team in the mid-1990s, and actively encouraged his teammates to do the same.
Armstrong contended, among other things, that it would have made no sense for him to dope since he lived in France, which has long had some of the strictest anti-doping laws in the world,[24] for most of the year.
[25] American cyclist Greg LeMond described himself as "devastated" on hearing of them working together, while Tour organizer Jean-Marie Leblanc said, "I am not happy the two names are mixed.
"[31] The newspaper's lawyers stated, "The Sunday Times has confirmed to Mr. Armstrong that it never intended to accuse him of being guilty of taking any performance-enhancing drugs and sincerely apologized for any such impression.
"[32] Ballester and Walsh subsequently published L.A. Official and Le Sale Tour (The Dirty Trick), further pressing their claims that Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career.
On March 31, 2005, Mike Anderson, Armstrong's personal assistant of two years, filed a brief[33] in Travis County District Court in Texas, as part of a legal battle following his termination in November 2004.
[36] In June 2006, the French newspaper Le Monde reported claims by Frankie and Betsy Andreu during a deposition that Armstrong had admitted using performance-enhancing drugs to his physician just after brain surgery in 1996.
'"[37] Armstrong suggested Betsy may have been confused by possible mention of his post-operative treatment, which included steroids and EPO that are taken to counteract the side effects of intensive chemotherapy.
According to LeMond, he had recorded a conversation,[40] transcribed for review by NPR, in which Armstrong's contact at Oakley, Inc., Stephanie McIlvain, corroborated Betsy's account.
[42] According to the Times, Australian researcher Michael Ashenden testified that Armstrong's levels rose and fell, consistent with a series of injections during the 1999 Tour.
Ashenden, a paid expert retained by SCA Promotions, told arbitrators the results painted a "compelling picture" that the world's most famous cyclist "used EPO in the '99 Tour.
The Times article also provided information on testimony given by Swart, the Andreus, and an instant messaging conversation between Frankie and Jonathan Vaughters regarding blood-doping in the peloton.
[43] The SCA trial was settled out of court, and while no verdict or finding of facts was rendered, Armstrong regarded the outcome as proof that the doping allegations were baseless.
Postal teammate Floyd Landis – who had previously been stripped of the 2006 Tour title after a positive drug test – accused Armstrong of doping in 2002 and 2003.
[44] Landis also claimed that Postal team director Johan Bruyneel had bribed Hein Verbruggen, former president of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), to keep quiet about a positive Armstrong test in 2002.
[47] However, in July 2010 the president of the UCI, Pat McQuaid, confirmed that Armstrong made two donations to cycling's governing body: $25,000 in 2002, used by the juniors anti-doping program, and $100,000 in 2005, to buy a blood testing machine.
[53] Instead of apologizing, CBS News chairman Jeff Fager said the network stood by its report as "truthful, accurate and fair", and added that the suspicious tests which Saugy confirmed to exist have been linked to Armstrong "by a number of international officials".
On October 10, 2012, USADA claimed that Armstrong was part of "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen," in advance of issuing its long-awaited report detailing the evidence it acquired.
Tygart claimed that:[59] ..the evidence shows beyond any doubt that the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.
The evidence also includes direct documentary evidence including financial payments, emails, scientific data and laboratory test results that further prove the use, possession and distribution of performance enhancing drugs by Lance Armstrong and confirm the disappointing truth about the deceptive activities of the USPS Team, a team that received tens of millions of American taxpayer dollars in funding.In December 2012, Armstrong and his attorney, Tim Herman, held a secret meeting at the Denver offices of former Colorado governor Bill Ritter in an attempt to negotiate a reduction of Armstrong's lifetime ban down to one year.
Vrijman was head of the Dutch anti-doping agency for ten years; since then he has worked as a defense attorney defending high-profile athletes against doping charges.
[67][68] The report said tests on urine samples were conducted improperly and fell so short of scientific standards that it was "completely irresponsible" to suggest they "constitute evidence of anything.
The Vrijman report also says, "Le Monde of July 21 and 23, 1999 reveal that the press knew the contents of original doping forms of the 1999 Tour de France".
[75] In a 2016 speech to University of Colorado, Boulder professor Roger A. Pielke Jr.'s Introduction to Sports Governance class, Armstrong stated he began doping in "late Spring of 1995".
