Disgraced former cyclist Lance Armstrong has told the BBC he will testify with “100% transparency and honesty” at any future inquiry into doping.
The American, 42, wants assurances he will be treated fairly after admitting in January he took performance-enhancing drugs during all seven of his Tour de France wins. He argues some of those involved in cycling’s culture of doping have been given “a total free pass,” while others have received “the death penalty.”
In a 20-minute interview with the BBC’s World Service, Armstrong said his life had “been tough” following his high-profile television confession to American chat show host Oprah Winfrey at the start of the year.
Accused by the United States Anti-Doping Agency of conducting “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program sport has ever seen,” Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles in August 2012. The Texan, who overcame cancer before the first of his seven successive Tour “wins” in 1999, also handed back the bronze medal he won in the road time trial at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
To read more, click here.
This story first appeared in the blog, The Sport Intern. The editor is Karl-Heinz Huba of Lorsch, Germany. He can be reached at ISMG@aol.com. The article is reprinted here with permission of Huba.