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FOLLOWING YESTERDAY’S RELEASE of the bombshell USADA report on Lance Armstrong’s alleged history of doping, many are taking a second look at Armstrong’s past.
One of the most shocking moments of that past, first found by journalist Bill Gifford and posted by Robert Mackey to the New York Times’ Lede Blog, comes from this sworn deposition from 2005.
At the time Armstrong’s company was suing SCA Promotions after they refused to honour an agreement to pay him for winning five consecutive Tours de Frances.
The group argued he must been using performance enhancing drugs, but Armstrong — under oath — said he did not. He went on to add that he didn’t use these drugs, not just for professional reasons, but also he would lose “the faith of all of the cancer survivors around the world.”
The section begins around 2.50.
YouTube: TheDosPelotas
This of course raises uncomfortable questions. Armstrong is perhaps one of the most well-known cancer survivors in the world — he was famously given just a 40% chance of survival — and has established a large and successful charity that shares his name and is devoted to cancer awareness.
Just this week the Lance Armstrong Foundation announced plans for its 15th anniversary, and since it’s foundation the foundation is said to have raised $480 million, a good deal of money.
Will people abandon it after today’s damning report? A quick scan of Twitter finds many voicing support of Armstrong’s charity work, even if they are damning of his doping. It doesn’t appear that previous allegations have hurt the charity either — numbers provided by the foundation to ESPN suggest donations are up 5.7% in average dollar amount and 5.4% in quantity this year.
