Disgraced cyclist lance Armstrong has said he should be forgiven after suffering a lot of humiliation for doping and lying, but defended himself, insisting he would do it again. Armstrong was stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in 2012.
“If I was racing in 2015, no, I wouldn’t do it again because I don’t think you have to,” he told BBC on Tuesday. “If you take me back to 1995, when doping was completely pervasive, I would probably do it again.”
Armstrong began his career as a professional cyclist in 1992 and won the World Championship in 1993. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996. But he won the battle to return to competitive cycling, dominating the event from 1999 to 2005.
He staunchly denied the doping claims until USADA released ample evidence of his deliberate wrongdoing in 2012, forcing the 43-year-old to confess his guilt on a US talk show in 2013.
“I would want to change the man that did those things, maybe not the decision, but the way he acted,” he added. He confessed that his life had “thinned out” and “slowed from 100 mile per hour to 10” and he wanted it to return to “50, 55”.