Lance Armstrong Admits to Doping - Armstrong Confesses to Oprah — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:04Let's start with the questions that
3. 0:05people around the world have been
4. 0:06waiting for you to answer. And for now,
5. 0:08I'd just like a yes or no. Did you ever
6. 0:11take banned substances to enhance your
7. 0:13cycling performance? Yes.
8. 0:17Yes or no? Was one of those banned
9. 0:19substances EPO? Yes.
10. 0:23Did you ever blood dope or use blood
11. 0:26transfusions to enhance your cycling
12. 0:28performance? Yes.
13. 0:30Did you ever use any other banned
14. 0:32substances like testosterone, uh,
15. 0:35cortisone, or human growth hormone? Yes.
16. 0:40Yes or no? In all seven of your Tour Def
17. 0:44France victories, did you ever take
18. 0:47banned substances or blood dope? Yes.
19. 0:51In your opinion, was it humanly possible
20. 0:54to win the tour to France without doping
21. 0:58seven times in a row?
22. 1:01Not in my opinion.
23. 1:11After my
24. 1:12comeback is not true, the last time I
25. 1:16crossed the I don't know that I have a
26. 1:18great answer.
27. 1:20I will start my answer by saying that uh
28. 1:23this is too late. It's too late for
29. 1:28um probably most
30. 1:31people and uh that's my
31. 1:36fault. You know, I view this situation
32. 1:40as um one big lie that I repeated a lot
33. 1:45of times.
34. 1:57the cynics and the skeptics. I'm sorry
35. 2:00for you. I'm sorry you can't dream big
36. 2:02and I'm sorry you don't believe in
37. 2:03miracles, but this is one hell of a
38. 2:05race. This is a great sporting event and
39. 2:07you should stand around and believe.
40. 2:12There are no secrets. This is a hard
41. 2:14sporting event and hard work wins it.
42. 2:16So, what what was the culture? Can you
43. 2:18explain the culture to us?
44. 2:21It's it's hard to get into that without
45. 2:23and and again, I don't want to
46. 2:26um I don't want to accuse anybody else.
47. 2:28I don't want to necessarily talk about
48. 2:30anybody else. I I made my decisions.
49. 2:34They are my mistake. And I am sitting
50. 2:36here today to acknowledge that and to
51. 2:39say I'm sorry for that.
52. 2:43I don't know.
53. 2:52came out of a of a life-threatening
54. 2:54disease. I was on my deathbed. You think
55. 2:56I'm going to come back into a sport and
56. 2:57say, "Okay, okay, doctor, give me
57. 2:59everything you got. I just want to go
58. 3:00fast." No way. Would never do that.
59. 3:09I am not a fan of the UCI. I have every
60. 3:13incentive to sit here and tell you yes,
61. 3:15that's right. They're all crooked that
62. 3:18are there things that that um that were
63. 3:21a little shady. That was not one. You
64. 3:24know, they called and said they didn't
65. 3:25have a lot of money. I was retired. I
66. 3:27had money. Um they said, "Would you
67. 3:30consider a donation?" I said, "Sure."
68. 3:33Why now? That's the best question. Most
69. 3:36logical question. I I know if you're
70. 3:38going to confess, this is the way to do
71. 3:40it to Oprah. And uh he's doing it the
72. 3:43right way. He's being careful not to
73. 3:45implicate anybody else and name names
74. 3:48and he's being completely and totally
75. 3:50honest. So, you know, I don't I don't
76. 3:53condone what he did, but and it's a
77. 3:55little late on the confessing, but
78. 3:58I'm glad he's finally coming out and
79. 4:00doing it. Well, I can't believe you
80. 4:01denied it all that
81. 4:03time. And and what benefit is it to come
82. 4:06out with it now? Who does who benefits
83. 4:09now?