TribLive: Lance Armstrong on the Doping Investigation — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:14I want to spend the bulk of our time
2. 0:15talking about cancer and talking about
3. 0:16smoke free but I I would be remiss if I
4. 0:18didn't ask you about the doping
5. 0:19investigation that is going on now
6. 0:21obviously you're welcome to say what you
7. 0:23choose to or don't choose to on that but
8. 0:25I think people are wondering this has
9. 0:26been going on now for months into years
10. 0:29uh what's going on with that well it it
11. 0:31uh years is right I mean obviously uh
12. 0:34For Me Maybe not obviously but it
13. 0:37started a long time ago it started 10
14. 0:38years ago with with a lot of talk and
15. 0:40and speculation which is you know I
16. 0:43think is part and partial to being
17. 0:44successful in what is widely viewed as
18. 0:47you know maybe a dirty sport um but we
19. 0:50see in sports you see these you know
20. 0:51these spectacular performances you have
21. 0:53a guy run 203 in Boston last weekend I
22. 0:55that's that's that's the fastest time
23. 0:57that's ever been running the marathon I
24. 0:58read that article I think I wonder
25. 1:00what the press conference after the race
26. 1:01is like do they ask the guy you know hey
27. 1:04uh what about this what about that and
28. 1:06question uh superhuman performance and
29. 1:09you can look at it in a lot of with a
30. 1:11lot of different examples and athletes
31. 1:12and um if it's Phelps or if it's feder
32. 1:15or a lot of guys that just have done
33. 1:16stuff that that uh that has never been
34. 1:19done before and you think there's a
35. 1:20culture of doubt that comes around that
36. 1:22oh I think there's a culture of Doubt uh
37. 1:24in our society in general I think the
38. 1:26media drives a lot of that I think as
39. 1:28you as you probably well know and people
40. 1:30in this room are sharp enough to know
41. 1:31that uh it's a competitive business too
42. 1:34and so everybody's trying to sort of um
43. 1:38uh scoop the next person and the media
44. 1:40the base of the media has become broader
45. 1:42and broader as you just said if you're
46. 1:43here uh with your phone on and your
47. 1:45tweeting Etc you are basically acting as
48. 1:48a journalist you broadcasting your
49. 1:51perspective and your view of this
50. 1:52conversation so in the old days it
51. 1:54started and I'm not I haven't answered
52. 1:56your question yet I want to get back to
53. 1:57it but sorry uh in the old days it
54. 1:59started started as a as a as a as an AM
55. 2:02radio and then it expanded and then we
56. 2:03had TV and then you had three TV
57. 2:05channels then you had cable TV then you
58. 2:06had the internet and blogs and Twitter
59. 2:09Facebook camera phones uh everybody's
60. 2:11reporting on everything and so uh even
61. 2:15the mainstream media and and I and with
62. 2:17regards to
63. 2:18myself um there has you know every
64. 2:21there's always the talk well um there's
65. 2:24this investigation will there be an
66. 2:25indictment will there be all these
67. 2:26things um the truth of the matter is
68. 2:29that I've been indicted in the media the
69. 2:31media reports on these things there's
70. 2:32been no official sanction no official
71. 2:34indictment of you of any kind resulting
72. 2:36from any of stuff no it's been going on
73. 2:37for a long time so you know have you
74. 2:39even been identified officially as a
75. 2:41target of an investigation don't don't
76. 2:42you get it I watched enough nighttime
77. 2:44television to know you're supposed to
78. 2:45get a Target letter aren't you if you're
79. 2:47a target of Investigation no and I have
80. 2:48not you've never received a Target
81. 2:50letter no so this investigation is just
82. 2:52basically one that we're aware of and
83. 2:54that we hear things about or read things
84. 2:55about but there's been no official
85. 2:57Target letter that you and we read a lot
86. 2:58about it and and I think I think people
87. 3:00ask uh fair questions they say you know
88. 3:03they'll ask why is the FDA the Food and
89. 3:04Drug Administration investigating the
90. 3:06tour to France are the alleged
91. 3:08misconduct at the tour to France which
92. 3:09is obviously in France uh 10 years ago
93. 3:12the F and FDA doesn't stand for France I
94. 3:14think right no it
95. 3:16does uh no no uh but so so there are
96. 3:21those questions they are now being asked
97. 3:23and I and I and I think that that people
98. 3:24have not been given the answers to that
99. 3:26but they're they're waiting on the
100. 3:27answers the other troubling thing too is
101. 3:29and again to tie the media into it not
102. 3:31not to blame anybody has been at least
103. 3:33in my situation has been the leaks the
104. 3:35issue of the leaks who's leaking well
105. 3:38see look at that person didn't pay
106. 3:39attention that person is leaking look at
107. 3:41that stop
108. 3:42leaking who who is
109. 3:45that hope there nobody with a yellow is
110. 3:48that you no he's just going he's just
111. 3:51going to the bathroom it's fine actually
112. 3:53uh uh who's leaking seriously who we
113. 3:55know I think we know who's leaking but
114. 3:57I'm I'm not I mean
115. 3:59you guys know who's leaking but
116. 4:03uh it's it's wouldn't be right for me to
117. 4:05say right now because obviously we don't
118. 4:06know for sure but anyways it's it with
119. 4:09those leaks leads to the indictment in
120. 4:10the Press which then leads to the
121. 4:12indictment in the mines uh and in the in
122. 4:15the in the space of of the people yeah
123. 4:18so that's the troubling thing but that's
124. 4:19that's that's the society we live in now
125. 4:21and that's the status of things right
126. 4:22now it's ongoing no indictment no target
127. 4:24matter no um you said having said all
128. 4:27that I'm going to repeat what I always
129. 4:28say I'm not going to let it distract me
130. 4:30well and I want to transition from from
131. 4:32this to that because it would be easy
132. 4:34for it to distract anybody and the
133. 4:36reality is your name is on the building
134. 4:38over there on E6 Street the foundation
135. 4:39that we said $400 million since 97 you
136. 4:42have gone out to California uh to lobby
137. 4:44for a tax increase recently to fund
138. 4:47billions of dollars of cancer research
139. 4:49out there a tax increase on cigarettes I
140. 4:51was going to say do we have to say tax
141. 4:52incre just you that's what it is though
142. 4:54right I mean it is cigarett there's a
143. 4:56slight increase in in in a pack of but
144. 4:58but the point is you've done the work
145. 4:59you have but that's a tax increase the
146. 5:01slight increase is still increase and
147. 5:02that's fine and it's defensible if you
148. 5:04choose to defend it the point is that
149. 5:06you have used your celebrity over the
150. 5:08years uh a considerable celebrity on the
151. 5:11foundations front on the on some of
152. 5:12these other fronts and the question is
153. 5:14to what degree is all the stuff we've
154. 5:15been talking about impact your ability
155. 5:17to do that okay so there's a couple ways
156. 5:18to look at that we can um I I can look
157. 5:22at it and if you want just consider it
158. 5:23as the brand as the package you can look
159. 5:25at it with regards to the foundation so
160. 5:27that could be how much money we've
161. 5:29raised in 2010 versus 2009 when there
162. 5:32was none of this uh talk and then we can
163. 5:34also compare the first 3 months of 2011
164. 5:37uh you can also I can look at it as an
165. 5:38athlete and say okay uh has uh Nike
166. 5:41called me and and and had questions has
167. 5:43anah haser Bush called in had questions
168. 5:44has all these people called dropping you
169. 5:46as an endorser correct which which has
170. 5:48not happened not even been a call to
171. 5:49question uh which has been amazing for
172. 5:52me uh to for them to show that kind of
173. 5:54support with regards to the foundation
174. 5:57um we haven't seen anything in terms of
175. 6:00a negative impact because no fall off in
176. 6:02fundraising no no and and I don't want
177. 6:04to uh uh misquote but I believe well I
178. 6:09know that 2010 was much bigger than 2009
179. 6:11we raised about $50 million 2011 the
180. 6:14first three months were up about 20%
181. 6:15over 2010 and this comes at a time when
182. 6:19uh most nonprofits as you well know and
183. 6:21most of you probably well know are not
184. 6:22doing well yeah I mean there there are
185. 6:24large large organizations that are
186. 6:26losing uh Millions if not hundreds of
187. 6:28millions of dollars in funding because
188. 6:29of the economy because of people's uh
189. 6:31willingness to give or not give um and
190. 6:34so there's a lot of stuff going on
191. 6:36besides what might be written in the
192. 6:38press or might be speculated but no
193. 6:40impact but no impact so far and and I
194. 6:43mean we're very fortunate for that we're
195. 6:44very we have obviously a loyal fan base
196. 6:46and and group of supporters and I think
197. 6:49they recognize that we're doing
198. 6:50important work and they recognize that
199. 6:52that uh that this is a complicated
200. 6:54disease it's going to take time and
201. 6:55they've been they've been amazing
202. 6:57supporters not just here in Austin but
203. 6:59all over the world the world