Kolkata: Tainted former American cyclist Lance Armstrong has said he would not change the way he acted during his doping ordeal that led to him being stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles. All of Armstrong’s titles between 1999 and 2005 were taken away by the International Cycling Union six years ago.
“I wouldn’t change a thing. I wouldn’t change the way I acted,” Armstrong said in excerpts of an interview with American broadcaster ‘NBC Sports’ that will air May 29.
“I mean I would, but this is a longer answer. Primarily, I wouldn’t change the lessons that I’ve learned. I don’t learn all the lessons if I don’t act that way. I don’t get investigated and sanctioned if I don’t act the way I acted. If I just doped and didn’t say a thing, none of that (punishment) would have happened. None of it. I was begging for, I was asking for them to come after me. It was an easy target,” added the tainted cyclist.
Armstrong was handed a life ban by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USDA) in 2012 after he was found to be doping, and labelled as a cheat by the fraternity at large.
Armstrong, who kept denying the allegations, had finally made a public confession in a television interview with US chat show host Oprah Winfrey in 2013. “We did what we had to do to win. It wasn’t legal, but I wouldn’t change a thing: whether it’s losing a bunch of money, going from hero to zero,” Armstrong had then said.
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