Fallen cyclist Lance Armstrong has confessed to using enhancing drugs all the time he secured victory and all seven of his Tour de France titles.
In an exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey yesterday,Armstrong admitted to doping saying he kept on using the banned substances for years which led him of losing his titles he had earned .
Armstrong admitted using testosterone and human growth hormone, as well as EPO — a hormone naturally produced by human kidneys to stimulate red blood cell production. It increases the amount of oxygen that can be delivered to muscles, improving recovery and endurance.
In addition to using drugs, the 2002 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year admitted to Winfrey that he took blood transfusions to excel in the highly competitive, scandal-ridden world of professional cycling. Doping was as much a part of the sport as pumping up tires or having water in a bottle, Armstrong said, calling it “the scariest” that he didn’t consider it cheating at the time.
“I stand on no moral platform here … but if there was a truth and reconciliation commission … I’ll be the first person in the door.”
“This is too late, it’s too late for probably most people. And that’s my fault,” he said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Thursday night. “(This was) one big lie, that I repeated a lot of times.”
“I lost myself in all of that,” he said, describing himself as both a “humanitarian” and a “jerk” who’d been “arrogant” for years. “I was used to controlling everything in my life.”
Lace Armstrong with Oprah Winfrey
In June 2012, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) charged Armstrong with having used illicit performance-enhancing drugs, and in August it announced a lifetime ban from competition, which applies in all sports which follow the World Anti Doping Agency code, as well as the stripping of all titles won since August 1998.
The USADA report stated that Armstrong enforced “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen”. On October 22, 2012, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the sport’s governing body, announced its decision to accept USADA’s findings regarding Armstrong.
By UP