In June 2012, USADA accused Armstrong of doping and
drug trafficking, based on blood samples from 2009 and 2010, and testimonies from witnesses including former teammates. Armstrong, denying all doping use in a statement,
New York Times sports reporter
Juliet Macur wrote in her book about the Armstrong scandal,
Cycle of Lies, that Armstrong opted not to contest the charges on the advice of one of his lawyers, Mark Levinstein, who argued that it would be folly to go to arbitration because USADA's charges almost always stuck. Macur wrote that Armstrong also hoped to keep USADA's evidence confidential. He also persuaded the UCI not to appeal the sanctions. Under Armstrong's plan, the UCI would have contended that while USADA's findings were unsound, its arbitration process was so tilted against a suspected doper that an appeal would not be worth the effort. According to Macur, Armstrong hoped to be able to portray himself as USADA's victim. Corroborating this, O'Connell and Albergotti wrote in
Wheelmen that most of the members of Armstrong's legal team knew that any arbitration panel handling Armstrong's case would make its decision based on the
preponderance of the evidence, the same standard of proof used in civil cases. This would have made it far more difficult for them to keep out evidence than is the case in a criminal trial. If two of the three arbitrators sided with USADA, Armstrong's competitive career would have effectively been over. According to O'Connell and Albergotti, USADA arbitrations operate under rules of "basic common sense", which would have made it appear obvious to "any person with half a brain" that Armstrong had doped. Among the witnesses who testified to USADA were
Frankie and Betsy Andreu, who repeated the testimony they gave in the SCA case. Landis and Hamilton repeated allegations made over the preceding years. Statements were also taken from former teammates, including
George Hincapie,
Levi Leipheimer, and
Michael Barry, all of whom confessed to doping during their careers as well as witnessing Armstrong using performance-enhancing drugs. Before its release, Armstrong's legal representative, Tim Herman, described the USADA reasoned decision as "a one-sided hatchet job—a taxpayer-funded tabloid piece rehashing old, disproved, unreliable allegations based largely on axe-grinders, serial perjurers, coerced testimony, sweetheart deals and threat-induced stories". On October 22, the UCI announced that it would not appeal USADA's decision to the
Court of Arbitration for Sport, meaning it had accepted USADA's sanctions of a lifetime ban for Armstrong and stripping of all results since August 1, 1998, including his seven Tour de France victories. On November 2, the
World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed that it would not appeal the USADA decision. On January 17, 2013, the
International Olympic Committee removed Armstrong's results in the
2000 Summer Olympics from its record books, and requested the return of his
bronze medal from the time trial.
Other reactions The
French Cycling Federation (FFC) issued a statement on August 30, 2012, in support of the USADA decision, stating that "Armstrong's refusal to contest USADA's accusations sounds like an admission of his guilt with regards to breaches of anti-doping regulation." The FFC also announced that it does not want vacated positions to be reassigned and want "...reimbursement of Lance Armstrong's prizes obtained during the Tour de France and other competitions for an amount assessed at 2.95 million Euros for the development of cycling among the youth and the prevention of doping." Spanish cyclist
Fernando Escartín, who placed third in the 1999 Tour de France, expressed continued support for Armstrong, stating, "Lance Armstrong remains the 1999 Tour winner, second Zulle and third, me... It's thirteen years now since this all happened. It seems completely illogical and unreal. I don't want to even think about it." On October 19, bicycle parts manufacturer
SRAM terminated its relationship with Armstrong, while
Oakley followed suit on October 22. It was announced on October 30 that Armstrong was stripped of
the key to the city of
Adelaide, which he had received as an honor for his three participations in the
Tour Down Under. At the end of November 2012, Armstrong was elected as the top "Anti-Sportsman of the year" by
Sports Illustrated. That same month, Armstrong cut all ties with his namesake foundation, which was renamed the
Livestrong Foundation—after the brand it had used since 2003. The move came after several board members threatened to resign unless Armstrong was removed from the board. On December 14, Armstrong met secretly with USADA CEO
Travis Tygart at the offices of the former
Colorado governor Bill Ritter, asking USADA to reduce his lifetime ban from sports to just one year in exchange for his cooperation with its ongoing investigations, including its case against Bruyneel. Tygart told Armstrong that under the anti-doping rules, USADA could bring his ban down to eight years, and said that cooperating with USADA would help Armstrong to improve his public image. These secret discussions fell apart after Armstrong told Tygart that he himself, and not USADA, held the keys to his own redemption. In any event, an eight-year ban meant that Armstrong would have been 49 years old before he could even theoretically compete again. Armstrong's attorney, Tim Herman, denied the report and told the
Associated Press: "When, and if, Lance has something to say, there won't be any secret about it." In a televised interview with
Oprah Winfrey on January 13, 2013 (broadcast later in two parts), Armstrong finally confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs throughout much of his career, including all seven Tour wins. During the interview, he stated that his "mythic, perfect story" was "one big lie", and attributed his denials to being "a guy who expected to get whatever he wanted, and to control every outcome." The AP and other media reported that Armstrong had made an apology to the Livestrong staff before his interview with Winfrey. He said that while doping, he neither felt that it was wrong nor felt bad about what he was doing. He also insisted that it was "absolutely not" true that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his 2009–10 comeback season, and claimed the last time where he "crossed the line" was in 2005. Macur wrote that Armstrong decided to admit his doping because he knew he would be questioned under oath about it in the
False Claims Act suit filed by Landis. He was also concerned about the toll it was taking on his kids. As Macur put it, Armstrong wanted to "confess on his own terms." In a 2020 documentary, he states in one of the first questions asked of him that he started cheating when he "was probably 21." ==References==