TOUGH ROAD AHEAD
Should Lance Armstrong's Lifetime Ban Be Lifted?
Disgraced cyclist hopes to get ban overturned and settle with US Justice Dept
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Image: AP
Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong's much anticipated appearance on Oprah Winfrey's television show, where he confesses to doping during his career, may not just be about the rehabilitation of his image with the public.
Behind the scenes, Armstrong has been attempting to get the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to dramatically shorten his lifetime ban from competition. Also, Armstrong's lawyers have been in talks with the U.S. Justice Department attempting to settle a whistleblower suit that could cost him $100 million, the Washington Post reports.
Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life from the sport back in October. The USADA issued a 1,000-page report showing Armstrong to be the mastermind of a sophisticated doping scheme. But he could get that lifetime ban from competition scaled back eight years by confessing and providing information that helps keep future competitions clean, the Post said.
The Justice Department will likely join a suit filed by Floyd Landis, another fallen cyclist who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France, on behalf of the federal government. Landis claims that Armstrong defrauded the government by doping while his team received about $35 million in sponsorship from the U.S. Postal Service. The contract had said cyclists must compete clean, the Wall Street Journal said.
Via the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post
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