“I deserve to be punished. I’m not sure I deserve the “death penalty.”
—- Lance Armstrong in his confessional with Oprah Winfrey.
In a word: Astounding.
Sure, why should you be punished any more than any other cyclist..wait, did you really just say that?”
Most of the second segment of Oprah’s interview with Armstrong was an anti-climax to the first, with one shocking exception.
Armstrong noted that all of the former team-mates who testified against him made deals that netted them, at most, six month suspensions from competition. Now that he was coming clean to Oprah, Armstrong implied, he deserved a similar deal. “I’m not saying [ how Armstrong is being treated] is unfair…but it’s …different,” he said. Then he uttered the statement about the “death penalty”—his lifetime ban from any professional athletic competition, biking or otherwise.
Armstrong “isn’t sure” that cheating to win the most important competition in his sport seven times, corrupting other cyclists, lying—defiantly, pugnaciously, flamboyantly— for almost two decades…bullying anyone who tried to tell the truth about his deceptions…using his money, influence and power to intimidate and silence…accepting millions of dollars in sponsorships based on lies and fraud…embarrassing sponsors and supporters by linking them to a conspiracy of lies and drug peddling…and arguably worst of all, building a charitable foundation on those lies, while inducing children and cancer survivors to embrace him as a hero…deserves a lifetime forfeiture of trust, not just as an athletic competitor, but as a business partner, associate, and friend?
Despite all his assurances to Oprah that he is a changed man, and that he is truly sorry, and that he understands the enormity of his betrayals, Lance Armstrong hasn’t learned a thing.
Ethics Alarms 
When you put it all together like that, Jack, maybe he DOES deserve to swing.
Well. At least I’ve achieved a major goal. Have as many Tour de France wins as Lance Armstrong.
Bazinga.
Why YES, letting him compete is an insult to anyone in competition who has been clean. They reach the top without such egregious wrecking of the sport they love. This wasn’t just one youthful error, and like some child he never learned that there are consequences. If he was banned a month for every offense, every public lie, every threat and threatened lawsuit over the years, I think it would last far longer than the rest of his life.
Yes indeed….
Listened to an interesting radio interview of Greg LeMond. Greg won three tours the honest way. For ten years, I guess Armstrong roughly dealt with LeMond because LeMond had the integrity to bring forth the question of performance enhancing drug use.. Armstrong is a disappointment.
“Disappointment” is an epic understatement.
Technically, he was only banned from professional athletic competitions sponsored by the U.S. anti-Doping Agency. It would not technically apply to sports leagues not sanctioned by the agency.
But what sports league, even those that encourage doping, would let him compete, knowing that he encouraged, aided, and abetted others to cheat?
Slightly off-topic of his comment, but still relevant- Apparently an Australian library has moved all of their books regarding/by/about him to the Fiction section. Anybody got some aloe for that burn?
Really? That’s great.
Imagine if this movie was made by the producers of Truth.