Logo

Logo

Lance Armstrong says he was ‘probably 21’ when he first doped

Armstrong turned 22 just a month after becoming 1993 road race world champion, having turned professional just a season prior.

Lance Armstrong says he was ‘probably 21’ when he first doped

Lance Armstrong. (Photo: Twitter/@lancearmstrong)

Tainted American cyclist Lance Armstrong recently revealed the first time he took drugs was when he was ‘probably’ 21-years-old. Armstrong was stripped off his seven Tour de France titles in 2012 after being found guilty of doping and his Olympic Bronze was also taken away which he won at Sydney 2000.

Speaking during an interview which was part of an ESPN documentary, Armstrong was asked about his age when he first doped and his reply, as per The Sun, was: “Probably 21.”

Armstrong turned 22 just a month after becoming 1993 road race world champion, having turned professional just a season prior.

Advertisement

“The easiest way to define it, it’s breaking the rules. Were we getting injections of vitamins and other things from an earlier age? Yes. But they weren’t illegal,” Armstrong said.

“Of course (we knew). I’m not one of those guys. I always asked, always knew and I always made the decision on my own.

“Nobody said: ‘Don’t ask, this is what you are getting.’ I wouldn’t have gone for that. I educated myself on what was being given and I chose to do it,” he added.

Armstrong, for the first time, confessed to doping during an Oprah Winfrey show in 2013. During the show, he was asked about deliberately doping and the substances he took and he accepted everything, going on to extent of saying he was the ‘leader’ of the team.

Advertisement