Lance Armstrong made a public admission of his cheating, drug use and general unacceptable behaviour on Oprah recently.
I know very little about Lance Armstrong and I care very little.
What does interest me is the negative impact of his behaviour on others.
I think there are a number of distinct groups here (I am omitting people like his family here).
The first group contains people like Paul Kimmage, David Walsh, Emma O'Reilly and others. These people spoke and wrote about his doping and cheating and he attacked them (and even sued some of them) for doing do. They are now vindicated and he is shown to be the cheat and the liar. I saw David and Emma on The Late Late Show on Friday. They observed (quite rightly in my opinion) that Armstrong has no remorse for what he did, and no remorse for the consequence of his actions. His remorse seems to relate to the fact that he was caught and to the money which he has lost.
The second group contains people who looked up to or were inspired by Armstrong . I am thinking of the people who worked in his Foundation. I am thinking of Michael J. Fox who spoke so highly of Armstrong in his second book "Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist". I can only imagine what these people are feeling. I see that the charitable organisation has taken various steps to distance itself from Armstrong including changing its name in November 2012 to the "Livestrong Foundation".
The third group are the riders who did not achieve what they should have in cycling because they were unwilling to participate in the cheating which contributed to the success of Armstrong and people like him. Can you imagine what it is like to participate in a sport where a man who was cheating won the Tour de France every year from 1999 to 2005? Paul Kimmage referred to Armstrong as the "cancer" of cycling. Paul Kimmage was right.
Here are some interesting videos:
Armstrong swears under oath that he never did or took anything on the banned list (2005)
Armstrong lies in interview (2006)
Armstrong attacks Paul Kimmage (2009)
Michael J. Fox interview Armstrong (date unknown)
Interview with Paul Kimmage
Interview with David Walsh
Emma O'Reilly interview
Interview with Frankie Andreu, former cycling team-mate of Lance Armstrong, and his wife Betsy
Betsy Andreu angry and upset in interview