Lance Armstrong id Probably Cheat Again Transcribed Version

April 22, 2022 Post a Comment

Ex-Friends Say Armstrong Admitted Drug Use Bout de France legend Lance Armstrong is denying new allegations that he used banned substances. In sworn testimony, two onetime friends cite a 1996 hospital-room conversation. They say Armstrong told a doctor he had used "growth hormone, cortisone, EPO, steroids and testosterone."

Ex-Friends Say Armstrong Admitted Drug Use

Teammate Andreu, Wife Cite 1996 Hospital-Room Conversation

Ex-Friends Say Armstrong Admitted Drug Use

Lance Armstrong at an April 1996 news conference. Mike Powell/Getty Images hide caption

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Mike Powell/Getty Images

Lance Armstrong jokes with fellow American Andy Hampsten during a 1996 news conference to preview the Tour DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware.

Mike Powell/Getty Images

In that location are athletes and, then, there are those that transcend sport. Lance Armstrong is one of the latter. His record vii straight Tour de France victories after coming back from cancer has get legend. Throughout his storied career, he fought off suspicions that he cheated by using banned drugs. Those suspicions take followed him into retirement.

Co-ordinate to sworn testimony reviewed by NPR, two witnesses heard Armstrong openly acknowldege in 1996 that had used several functioning enhancing drugs. What you are about to hear are the details from that testimony and from 1 witnesses who says she was there when Lance Armstrong said he used "growth hormone, cortisone, EPO, steroids and testosterone." Armstrong is angrily denying that the incident happened.

In October 1996, Lance Armstrong was not all the same a Tour de France champion, only he had won a couple of stages in cycling'southward biggest race and a 1993 road racing world championship solidified his condition as an upwards-and-comer on the elite cycling scene.

On October. 2, 1996, however, Armstrong was stopped cold by a diagnosis of testicular cancer. Three weeks afterward, he had surgery to remove tumors that had spread to his brain. On Oct. 27, a few days after surgery, Armstrong was recovering at Indiana Academy Medical Heart in Indianapolis.

He was surrounded by a handful of friends in a conference room. The TV was on. Texas-born Armstrong and a few of the others were watching a pro football game betwixt the Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins. Among those in the room were Frankie and Betsy Andreu. At the time they weren't yet married; they were engaged. Frankie was Armstrong'southward cycling teammate.

What allegedly happened in that infirmary room at present raises questions about whether Armstrong used banned drugs on his mode to the pinnacle of bicycle racing.

The Andreus testified under oath last fall about their experience in the hospital room. Information technology was role of a legal example involving a lawsuit Lance Armstrong filed against a company that owed him coin.

In her sworn testimony in that case, Betsy Andreu recounts what happened after, she says, 2 doctors, wearing white coats and name tags, walked into the hospital room. Andreu never identified the doctors, but says in her testimony they were not Armstrong's 2 principal oncologists, or his encephalon surgeon.

In her deposition, Betsy Andreu testified:

I said, I retrieve we should leave to give you your privacy. I said that to Lance. And Lance said, that'due south OK. You lot can stay. And I turned to Frankie and I said, I think nosotros should leave. And Frankie said, no, Lance said it'southward OK. Nosotros can stay. And so the physician asked him a few questions, non many, and then one of the questions he asked was... have you ever used any performance-enhancing drugs? And Lance said yes. And the doctor asked, what were they? And Lance said, growth hormone, cortisone, EPO, steroids and testosterone.

When asked last week nearly her testimony, Betsy Andreu said, "I answered every question truthfully and honestly. It is 100 pct truthful."

Throughout his career, Lance Armstrong always has denied in the strongest terms that he always used performance-enhancing drugs.

Frankie Andreu and Armstrong were shut friends over the years. They lived and trained together in Italy in the early 1990s; they were teammates when Armstrong won his first two Tours-de-France... in 1999 and 2000. In his deposition, Frankie Andreu expressed his reluctance at having to testify; he was subpoenaed. Only he still told the same story as his wife about the hospital room in 1996.

This commutation is from his deposition -- testimony nether adjuration, in response to a lawyer'southward questions.

QUESTION: And what is it Mr. Armstrong said in response to the doctor asking him about apply of performance-enhancing drugs?

ANDREU: I don't know how the doctor phrased the question, simply Lance's response was that he had taken EPO and testosterone and growth hormone and cortisone.

QUESTION: Did he say when he had taken these drugs?

ANDREU: ....when the doctor proposed the question, he said, 'Have you lot taken anything in the past or previous?' So plain, it was onetime before that point.

QUESTION: Were you surprised when Mr. Armstrong said he had taken those diverse performance-enhancing drugs?

ANDREU: Aye. I was surprised.

On the key issue of what was asked and what was said in the infirmary room, Betsy Andreu insists she heard a doctor ask nearly functioning-enhancing drugs, and heard Armstrong answer with a list of banned substances. Frankie Andreu insists he heard Armstrong reply with a list, too. Still Armstrong's lawyer, Tim Herman, says the Andreu'due south could have heard wrong.

"Mr. Armstrong was taking steroids at the time, every bit part of his postal service-operative treatment," Herman said. "Information technology's very possible that there could've been mention of steroids and epo in this conversation with these 2 doctors indicating either the electric current regimen, or the regimen that Armstrong was gonna exist discipline to after this surgery, or when he got out of the hospital."

Armstrong'southward primary cancer doctor, Craig Nichols, submitted a sworn affidavit in the case saying, "I have never seen any show, either from myself or any other doctor, that indicates Lance Armstrong admitted, suggested or indicated that he has always taken performance-enhancing drugs."

Still, what happened in that hospital room in 1996 seemed to be on Armstrong'due south mind, according to Frankie Andreu's sworn deposition. In his testimony, Andreu recalls a cycle ride he and Armstrong took within a year of the alleged infirmary room incident. Andreu says Armstrong asked how Betsy reacted to what happened in the hospital room. From the deposition:

ANDREU: I said Betsy freaked out a little bit, and, y'all know, she and I got into a couple of arguments, only then it kind of went away.

QUESTION: Did Armstrong respond or say annihilation further nigh it?

ANDREU: No. Information technology was very short.

But according to Andreu'south testimony, Armstrong came back to the outcome concluding year when he called Frankie Andreu just a few days before Andreu was deposed. In his deposition, Frankie Andreu is asked "is it your testimony that Mr. Armstrong called yous and said it was his recollection, that the hospital incident never took place or didn't happen the way you lot've recollected?" Andreu answers, "Yes. Correct."

The degradation continues:

QUESTION: What did yous say to him when he said that?

ANDREU: I remained quiet.

QUESTION: Did you consider information technology odd that he was telling you lot well-nigh the hospital incident?

Andreu interrupts and says, "I considered information technology odd that he even called me, because I hadn't spoken with Lance in probably 2 and a half years."

Armstrong swore nether oath that the hospital incident did non happen. So did Stephanie McIlvain. In 1996, McIlvain worked for Oakley, a company that makes sunglasses and that has sponsored Armstrong for many years. McIlvain also was in the hospital room on October. 27, 1996, but in her sworn deposition, here is what she says:

QUESTION: Were yous ever at a infirmary room or other part of the hospital with Mr. Armstrong where he said annihilation virtually functioning-enhancing drugs?

MCILVAIN: No.

QUESTION: Do you have whatsoever recollection of any doc in your presence asking Mr. Armstrong if he used in the past any operation-enhancing drugs or substances?

MCILVAIN: No.

McIlvain denied the hospital incident under oath in tardily 2005. Co-ordinate to Greg LeMond, she said something completely different, the twelvemonth earlier. In July of 2004, old Tour de French republic champion Greg LeMond had a conversation with McIlvain, in which they discussed the Indiana hospital room incident. NPR viewed a transcript of that conversation. Referring to Lance Armstrong's alleged access of drug use, McIlvain told Lemond, "I was in that room. I heard it." LeMond says McIlvain felt Armstrong's alleged admission tarnished his legendary story nearly coming back from cancer, a story that's included repeated denials of functioning-enhancing drug utilize. "I know that she was incredibly disappointed," said LeMond. "She had a kid that had some disabilities, and she was angry... that he was fooling the cancer community with his kind of, I approximate what she said lies."

LeMond's account is backed upward past a veteran cycling photographer and announcer named James Startt. He was besides deposed in the case last year. Under oath, Startt said he ran into McIlvain at the 2004 Tour de France, and they had a brief conversation. Startt had heard about Armstrong'due south alleged admission of performance-enhancing drug apply. In his testimony, Startt said "I asked her did it definitely happen. And she said, yeah it did."

NPR called McIlvain to inquire virtually the discrepancy betwixt her sworn testimony and the statements by Startt and LeMond. She said she'd rather not annotate. McIlvain'south lawyer said "we pass up to talk under whatsoever circumstances."

The story of the declared hospital room incident emerged Friday in the French newspaper Le Monde. Within hours, Lance Armstrong released a statement, in which he said "the latest story, which alleges an access of using operation enhancing drugs in a hospital in 1996, is today as absurd and untrue as when it was first circulated years agone. It never happened."

Several days prior to the statement, NPR sent eastward-mails and made phone calls to Armstrong request for an interview, either contiguous or on the telephone. Armstrong never responded, merely his longtime friend and amanuensis Bill Stapleton did. In an e-mail, Stapleton referred NPR to Armstrong's lawyer, and said that neither he, Stapleton, nor Armstrong, would brand themselves available for interviews about the declared hospital room incident. NPR did discuss the matter with Armstrong's lawyer, Tim Herman, and examined medical records he provided.

In Armstrong'south deposition from the legal case, his sworn statements are consequent with his past denials of performance-enhancing drug use. Nether oath, Armstrong is asked, "Do you deny the statements that Ms. Andreu attributed to you lot in the Indiana University infirmary?" Armstrong replies, "100 percent. Absolutely." He is so asked, "Do you too deny what Mr. Andreu said regarding those statements?" Once again Armstrong replies, "100 percent."

The deposition continues:

QUESTION: Practice you have any recollection while these individuals were there that a medico or doctors came into the room and discussed with you lot your medical treatment or your condition?

ARMSTRONG: Admittedly not. That didn't happen.

QUESTION: Did any medical person ask you, while you were at the Indiana University Hospital, whether you had ever used any sort of functioning-enhancing drugs or substances?

ARMSTRONG: No. Admittedly not.

Armstrong is asked if he tin assist explicate why Betsy Andreu would brand upwardly a story about the hospital room. Armstrong says he has no idea, other than "she hates me."

"Lance and I used to exist proficient friends," Betsy Andreu told NPR. "I would go to his business firm and I would cook for him; I would talk to him on the phone about baby questions; I used to leave to dinner with Frankie and Lance and Kristin, often." Kristin was Armstrong's first wife. Betsy Andreu acknowledges that over the years, her friendship with Lance Armstrong soured. But she says that doesn't hateful she would do something, in her words, and then reprehensible as make upwardly a story about the infirmary room. "I'm distressing that it upsets him then much that I refuse to lie nether oath. I was always going to tell the truth," she said.

When asked nigh Frankie Andreu's testimony, Lance Armstrong rejects it, saying in his deposition he thinks Andreu was trying to back up his married woman.

The case involving all this sworn testimony grew out of a lawsuit Armstrong filed in 2004. He sued a company, chosen SCA, that had promised in a contract to pay Armstrong a $5 million bonus if he won his 6th directly Bout de France in 2004. He did win, merely SCA withheld the bonus subsequently new doping allegations against Armstrong surfaced that same year. A panel of arbitrators ultimately ruled in Armstrong'southward favor. SCA was forced to pay the $v million bonus, plus $two.5 meg more. SCA contends information technology lost considering the bonus contract was poorly written, and not considering SCA failed to prove Armstrong had cheated by using banned substances.

But Armstrong's attorney Tim Herman says the outcome had everything to do with doping. "Had they ended that Lance Armstrong had cheated, we would not exist in possession of a $7.5 million laurels," said Herman. "The upshot, and the proof related to Armstrong'south use or non-use of functioning-enhancing drugs was the controlling issue in the case."

The dispute was resolved early this yr, just the issue of whether or not Armstrong ever took performance-enhancing drugs still is unresolved for some, particularly Betsy Andreu. The stay-at-dwelling house mother of three kids remains adamant about what she says she heard on October. 27, 1996.

Armstrong remains busy in his retirement, spending time at celebrity events and raising money and awareness near cancer research. He no longer battles opponents on the steep mountain climbs of the Tour de France, but Armstrong even so finds himself fighting, in court and in the media, to preserve his legacy.