AIBU to think Lance Armstrong is a total narcissist?

[rhinestone]

I've watched parts of the Oprah interview and he's just unbelievable. No remorse, his eyes are cold and dead, denied cheating based on the dictionary definition, admitted he called a team mate's wife a 'bitch', joked about suing his former masseur who it turns out was telling the truth all along. And he STILL won't reveal the full extent of the doping programme.

I want his wife to come on here so we can tell her to LTB. Sheryl Crow had a lucky escape.

[lovelyladuree]

He's still fucking gorgeous though. I would.

[JakeBullet]

YANBU at all. Weird bloke.

[JakeBullet]

YANBU at all. Weird bloke.

[rhinestone]

Really lovelyladuree? I think he looks like a Great White shark, creepy and ruthless.

[ExitPursuedByABear]

Didn't see it but heard it on the Radio. Snivelling creep came to mind. And saying that everyone does it - "NOT OUR WIGGO" I yelled at the Radio.

[ToeCap]

yabu - a bit. He did fight cancer, and raise awareness, and start the livestrong foundation. Twat for the doping yes, but I still admire him for other stuff.

[gazzalw]

Was the cancer before or after he cheated? Maybe having survived that he has gone into 'nothing can touch me' overdrive - it does sometimes happen to people.

[goodiegoodieyumyum]

It took him long enough to come clean, just because everybody is doing something doesn't make it right.

[ToeCap]

yes it was before. And before he had his dc I belive. Have read some books about him but they were a while ago so forgotten the detail.

[gazzalw]

He did not seem remorseful at all, but on the other hand he's had a long time to work up to doing a mea culpa interview. I'm not so sure we would have believed any better of him had he cried crocodile tears and pleaded for forgiveness...

But he will always be regarded as a cheat now and that he has to live with for years to come...

[poozlepants]

He used his cancer and his cancer charity as a front to hide behind. How could the great cancer survivor and general saint possible be guilty of doping? He used to say I am a cancer survivor I'm not going to putting dope like that in me because I don't want to mess with my body.
Just because you have survived cancer does not make you a good honest person and it certainly didn't make Lance Armstrong one. IMO he defrauded people of their money. How many people would've given him anything if he said- look at me I survived cancer but I won the T De F seven times by using EPO, blood transfusions, steroids etc. Oh and by the way I used them before I got cancer as well.
A personality as flawed as Lance Armstrongs will never feel remorse for anything. He's pissed off he's been caught but I doubt he fels any sort of guilt for anything he did.

[Spatsky]

The whole suggestion that it didn't give him an advantage implies everyone is doing it which taints everyone in the sport. I like to think he's wrong about that.

Disappointed in Lance.

[wannaBe]

it's his arrogance more than anything.

Tbh I can see why he would have cheated. It's not right but reality is that in a sport where at the time everyone cheated and that in order to be able to achieve you had to be doping it must have been almost impossible not to, even if you were of the mindset that you didn't want to cheat. And it could be argued on some levels that as they were all cheating they were all competing on a level playing fielld so to speak. As I said it's not right but I can see why they did it. Bearing in mind that as Armstrong has been stripped of the title there is realistically no-one to give it to as all those in the following places are presumed or have been proven to have been doping as well. That says a long about the state of doping in cycling at the time.

[Floralnomad]

I think in his era everybody ( who was anybody ) did dope ,so he did still win on a fairly level playing field , that however doesn't make it right . I hope the cyclists now are clean , but I got interested in cycling right at the beginning of the Lance era and I'm not sure i will ever be able to watch again with the same interest . Shame , but to me he didn't look remotely sorry .

[coldinthesun]

Re: The calling a mate's wife a 'bitch'.

He called Betsy recently to make amends. This is what he said to Oprah about it:
"I did call her crazy," he said. "I did. I did ? I think she'd be OK with me saying this, I said, 'Listen, I called you crazy; I called you a bitch; I called you all of these things, but I never called you fat.' "

Betsy's response to the above (on CNN)?:
"I guess we know why I was [a bitch] all these years, putting up with that. How was I supposed to act? Sweet as apple pie? ? That exchange right there, it has me furious."

So yeah, he's quite clearly remorseful and wants to sincerely apologise.

[difficultpickle]

Definitely not remorseful in the slightest. Such a shame that OW did the interview rather than someone who knows about cycling. Lots of questions that she didn't ask.

Not everyone cheated and the ones that didn't were targeted by Armstrong and ended up leaving the sport altogether due to his bully boy threats. It is easier to excuse his behaviour if you think that everyone cheated. Christophe Bassons did not and called Armstrong and his career was destroyed.

[PartTimeModel]

Narcissistic socio-path I'd say.

[ThingummyBob]

Because illegal drugs affect everyone in the same way do they?

Sorry Floral, not you personally, but the whole 'well it levelled the field because eveyone was at it' being pedalled by certain people is clearly bullshit of the highest order.

What about others, who may have become champions fairly, who were never given the opportunity to compete at the highest levels, because they were not also taking performance enhancing substances?

[AngryTrees]

YANBU. This guy ruined lives. He bullied and attacked anyone who dared defy him- not only those who spoke about what he'd done but those who went against doping or didn't do what he wanted. He sued a hell of a lot of people and organisations when they were telling the truth. He ran fellow cyclists out of the sport and made sure other people lost their careers.

He is not a good man. He is entirely self-involved and I'm glad the people he went after have been shown to be right.

[mollymole]

It would be far better if he just crawled into a hole and kept out of public sight, but he is so far up himself that he craves the publicity. Horrid Man.

[wannaBe]

no-one is saying it was ok to take drugs though, but that it's easy to see why people did.

[poozlepants]

Doping doesn't make an even playing field it skews it. As far as I understand it people respond differently to EPO and steroids. Some like Armstrong respond much better and it works well for them for others it doesn't have the same effect. People with naturally high haemocrit levels don't respond as well I think I read.
Riders said no to drugs- what about them. The dopers basically cheated them of any sort of meaningful career. There is NO defence.

[AuntieMaggie]

What angrytrees said...

[Floralnomad]

I did say it didn't make it right ! I'm appalled and personally I don't think it's enough for him to back away from Livestrong ,I think , however much good work it has done it needs closing down. He has done good things but they are all now tainted .