NYT > Home Page: The Lede Blog: Armstrong Set to Appear on Oprah Next Week, as New Allegation Surfaces

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The Lede Blog: Armstrong Set to Appear on Oprah Next Week, as New Allegation Surfaces
Jan 9th 2013, 03:51

The year before his seventh and final Tour de France victory, Lance Armstrong offered to donate "in excess of $150,000″ to the antidoping agency in charge of keeping American athletes from using performance-enhancing drugs, according to the organization's chief executive.

The latest accusation against Armstrong, the disgraced former cyclist, was made by the current head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, Travis Tygart, in an interview with CBS News posted online on Tuesday. In October, Usada stripped Armstrong of all of his titles and barred him from competition for life following the release of a 202-page report into what the agency called "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

As my colleague Juliet Macur reported, Armstrong, who has so far denied all allegations of cheating, "has told associates and antidoping officials that he is considering publicly admitting that he used banned performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions during his cycling career." Late Tuesday, Oprah Winfrey announced that she "will speak exclusively with Lance Armstrong in his first no-holds-barred interview," to be broadcast next week on her network.

BREAKING NEWS: Looking forward to this conversation with @lancearmstrong: http://t.co/GwSmBhdW #NextChapter

— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) 9 Jan 13

As the cycling journalist Lionel Birnie notes, the Oprah Winfrey Network is a joint venture with Discovery Communications, the broadcaster that sponsored Armstrong's team in 2005.

Lance is going on Oprah, partly-produced by Discovery Channel, sponsors of Lance's 7th and final fraudulent Tour win. Somehow fitting.

— Lionel Birnie (@lioneljbirnie) 9 Jan 13

The network's logo was emblazoned across the victor's yellow jersey Armstrong wore on the top step of the podium in Paris that year, as he lectured "the people that don't believe in cycling, the cynics and the skeptics."

Directly addressing those who accused him of doping that day, Armstrong said, "I'm sorry for you, I'm sorry you can't dream big and I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles, but this is one hell of a race, this is a great sporting event and you should stand around and believe. You should believe in these athletes and you should believe in these people. I'm a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live and there's no secrets — hard work wins it."

Another journalist who writes about cycling, Shane Stokes, suggested that Armstrong might expect Winfrey to go easy on him, since she let another disgraced athlete, Marion Jones, claim during a 2008 interview that she had used performance-enhancing drugs unintentionally.

Marion Jones claimed during a 2008 interview with Oprah Winfrey that she had used performance-enhancing drugs unintentionally.

Just after news of the interview broke, Kathy LeMond, whose husband, Greg, is now the only American to win the Tour de France, offered to put Winfrey in touch with people who could give her a crash course on the culture of professional cycling.

.@Oprah I hope you get educated before the interview. I know people that can help you.

— Kathy LeMond (@KathyLeMond) 9 Jan 13

Joe Lindsey of Bicycling Magazine asked his Twitter followers to help Winfrey by suggesting some tough questions.

I am trying to anticipate some of "no holds barred" questions in Oprah's Lance interview. How about some suggestions? #questionsforlance

— joelindsey (@joelindsey) 9 Jan 13

That's pretty good. RT @BBQ44 what did you tell your kids or will/have you? #questionsforlance

— joelindsey (@joelindsey) 9 Jan 13

The complete CBS interview with the antidoping official is scheduled to be broadcast on Wednesday, during the premier of a new program, "60 Minutes Sports." In one portion released on Tuesday, Tygart said it was "totally inappropriate" that Armstrong had donated about $100,000 to the International Cycling Union, a regulatory body involved in drug testing, during his career. He then revealed that someone representing Armstrong had offered to give the American antidoping agency more than $150,000 at some point in 2004. "It was a clear conflict of interest for Usada," Tygart said. "We had no hesitation in rejecting that offer." Pressed further about the amount of the proposed donation, Tygart said that it was about $250,000.

In another portion of the interview, broadcast on the CBS Evening News on Tuesday, Tygart said that Armstrong had tried to intimidate former teammates who had testified to a federal grand jury about his doping. The official also revealed that he personally had received death threats as a result of his investigation into the cancer survivor who was once a hero to millions.

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