Lance Armstrong: Exclusive Interview with Oprah Winfrey

Lance Armstrong is a liar that many believe him to be… SHAME!

LANCE ARMSTRONG: SHAME

Lance Armstrong further shamed himself tonight in an exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey on her cable television network "OWN".

Armstrong was asked many compelling questions from Winfrey, yet he managed to frame his story as he saw fit.  This is exactly how this American cyclist has created his entire persona; arrogance, selfishness, complete denial and with a "win at all cost", unyielding purpose using every source of gaining an advantage, legal or illegal.  Armstrong admitted that he was involved in a sophisticated doping regimen throughout his professional cycling career.  Many of his answers to some of the more difficult questions were told in a contradictory manner often with rambling cloudiness that left more questions than answers.  He admitted being reckless and selfish, yet at the same time the contrition in his story was very difficult to decipher. He pressured other American cyclists bullying them to take part in the doping scandal and threatened many people to keep his secret, often paying off officials and using litigation to keep people with damning information quiet.

More than anything, this interview with Oprah told us what most already suspected to be the truth.  What was likely meant to be an astonishing moment of cathartic confession, turned out to be more of a desperate and broken man trying to assemble some sort of damage control over his entire international image, public and personal.  He was resistant to questions concerning other athletes and cycling personalities also included in this high-tech, sophisticated doping scheme, but one of his most conspicuous accessories, Michele Ferrari, he admitted was the architect of the sophisticated system of doping and masking the agents banned by the ICA. Ferrari is a medical physician, former cyclist and author that has received a lifetime ban from professional cycling after it was discovered that he was providing and teaching cyclists to use his doping regimen to gain illegal advantages through performance-enhancing drugs among other methods banned.

What's really sad is the wake of disaster that he has left behind damaging those who stood behind him all the way believing his lies and watching him carry-on his masquerade as a champion cyclist and wrongfully judged world-class athlete.  He mocked those who criticized him and turned the tables taking the offense by suing so many of his critics, he said he couldn't even remember some of the people he sued, even some of his former friends and supporters.  Every child and every adult that was inspired by him carries a wound that has cast doubt on every subsequent athlete who stands above the rest with significant greatness, breaking seemingly unbreakable records and raising the bar higher and higher.  Now, skepticism and doubt will be a shroud wrapped around them until scientists in laboratories prove that they didn't use any illegal methods to gain an advantage over the rest of the field of athletes.  Lance Armstrong has left an ugly scar for not only the Tour de France and cycling, but for every athlete that works hard, eats right and studies his or her opponent to honestly gained significant superiority.

The second half of Oprah Winfrey's interview with Lance Armstrong will be telecast tomorrow night and will surely expose more shame and embarrassment for not only Armstrong but every athlete involved with him or any associate who kept his lies secret.

It's just a giant form of SHAME that will hopefully influence every other athlete who believes cheating is the only way to become great.  In reality, it's a way to become a failure…