Lance Armstrong's much-anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey aired on Thursday, marking the first time the seven-time Tour de France winner has spoken about his past doping allegations.
The interview marked the beginning of a long process for Armstrong of forgiving people he has hurt along the way and to apologize for his past actions. For some people involved in the Armstrong narrative though, the Thursday interview was not enough.
Betsy Andreu, who is the wife of one of Lance Armstrong's former teammates, was not satisfied with the interview, saying that he never acknowledged the claims that she and her husband made that they overheard two doctors in an Indianapolis hospital room in 1996 ask Armstrong if he had ever used performance-enhancing drugs. They said Armstrong, who was battling cancer then, told the doctors about each of his substances, including testosterone, EPO, growth hormone, cortisone and steroids.
Armstrong battled against Andreu and her husband hard over subsequent years, saying they made up the store due to jealous feelings, among other things,
"He owed it to me," Betsy Andreu, on the verge of tears, said Thursday night on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, according to the New York Times. "You owed it to me, Lance, and you dropped the ball. After what you've done to me and what you've done to my family, and you couldn't own up to it? Now we're supposed to believe you? You had one chance at the truth, and this was it."
Armstrong admitted to many things in the interview, but one thing he did not say was that those allegations were true. In fact, he avoided the question and Winfrey did not ask him anything further about it.
"I'm not going to take that on. I'm laying down on that one. I'm going to put that one down. She asked me, and I asked her not to talk about it," he said.
Both Andreu and her husband appeared on ESPN Radio on Friday during separate segments and commented on the interview. Andreu was harsh against Armstrong and also said to hosts Colin Cowherd and Mike Greenberg that the media was responsible partially for building up Armstrong into a heroic figure and basically giving him a pass on his doping allegations for years. Here is a link to the radio segment.
Andreu and her husband were forced to testify about the incident in 2005 for a civil suit, but prior to that, they were quiet about the allegations. Andreu was particularly angry that Armstrong did not acknowledge those claims because originally, the famous cyclist helped blackball Frankie Andreu from the sport and kept him from working jobs within the cycling world.
Armstrong made many claims towards Andreu over the years and also called her names, including "crazy" and jealous." During the interview, Armstrong said "'listen, I called you crazy. I called you a bitch. I called you all these things, but I never called you fat'."
Further in the interview, Armstrong spoke about whether he had apologized to the couple about what had happened. He said he spoke to them for 40 minutes, but became quiet when she asked if he made peace with them.
"No," he said, "because they've been hurt too badly."
Andreu was emotional when speaking about the entire situation and questioned Armstrong's honesty while speaking about the interview on CNN on Thursday.
"If he can't say the hospital room happened, how are we to believe everything else he said?" she said, still teary-eyed. "I want to believe that Lance wants to come clean, but this is an indication that I can't." This is a guy who used to be my friend, who decimated me. He could have come clean. He owed it to me. He owes it to the sport that he destroyed."
Here is an interview with Andreu with SportsIllustrated.com.
The day before Armstrong's interview with Oprah was set to air, the news about linebacker Manti Te'o's girlfriend dying being a hoax took the attention away from the disgraced cyclist, at least for a little while.
Armstrong has quickly gone from one of the most revered and respected athletes in the world to one of the most controversial. He was dogged by doping allegations for many years, but always fought back and claimed he was clean. Armstrong was stripped of all seven Tour titles following a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report that portrayed him as cheater and a ruthless cyclist who would do anything to win.
USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said that the doping ring ran by Armstrong was "The most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."
Click HERE for more information on the interview and where to watch it.
