Three days before the scheduled broadcast of his interview with Oprah Winfrey, where he will admit doping to the general public for the first time ever, Lance Armstrong and the talk show host recorded the segment in Texas on Monday.
The former professional rider spoke for a considerable length of time, according to a Twitter message by Winfrey. “Just wrapped with @lancearmstrong More than 2 1/2 hours . He came READY!” she tweeted.
There are no indications yet as to precisely what he said but an unnamed source has confirmed to AP that he did indeed admit PED use.
On Saturday he had told the same press agency that there would be no limitations. “I told her (Winfrey) to go wherever she wants and I'll answer the questions directly, honestly and candidly. That's all I can say,”
Prior to today’s recording, Armstrong made a series of apologies to unnamed individuals. The Washington Post reported that he made a number of phone calls to speak what were described as ‘key people in the cycling community with whom he had not been truthful about his part in sports doping.’
According to USA Today, Armstrong also wants to make a reconciliation with former team-mate Floyd Landis, the person who owned up to his own doping in emails released May 2010, and who implicated Armstrong. He was a key witness in the case against Armstrong and his accusations were one of the major catalysts in others coming forward and corroborating what he said.
The newspaper said that two anonymous sources had said that those attempts at a reconciliation had not yet been successful. Landis has not officially commented yet on the story.
The former pro has an ongoing Qui Tam whistleblower case against the Texan, and it is possible that the federal government could also join in, thus strengthening his chances of success. Many were cynical Monday about any reconciliation attempt, seeing that Qui Tam case as being a major reason why Armstrong might seek to build bridges.
According to CBS News, he is currently in talks to return some of the millions of dollars of taxpayer money his former team received from the US Postal Service.
The channel states that senior Justice Department officials have made a recommendation to the government that it joins the lawsuit.
CBS news states that Armstrong has also indicated that he might be willing to testify against others who were involved in doping.
Meanwhile the former Livestrong chairman went to the headquarters of that foundation in Austin, Texas on Monday and made what its spokesperson Katherine McLane said was a “very sincere and heartfelt apology to the staff.”
The apology took place prior to his interview with Winfrey. He reportedly told approximately 100 staff members that he was sorry for what had happened and that he wanted to try to restore the foundation’s reputation. However it is thought that he did not specifically admit to them that he had broken anti-doping rules.
Armstrong stood down firstly as chairman and later from the board itself in 2012 after it became clear that he had used doping products for much of his career.
He had previously issued repeated denials, suing some of his accusers and slating others.