Armstrong answered questions world waiting for: Oprah

WASHINGTON (AFP) –

American Lance Armstrong celebrates on the podium after winning the 15th stage of the 90th Tour de France on July 21, 2003. Armstrong, the ex-cyclist drummed out of the sport for doping, answered the questions that “people around the world have been waiting to hear” in an two-and-a-half hour interview, talk show host Oprah Winfrey said Tuesday.

Lance Armstrong, the ex-cyclist drummed out of the sport for doping, answered the questions that “people around the world have been waiting to hear” in an two-and-a-half hour interview, talk show host Oprah Winfrey said Tuesday.

“I didn’t get all the questions asked, but I think the most important questions and the answers that people around the world have been waiting to hear were answered,” she said on CBS “This Morning.” “I can only say I was satisfied by the answers.”

Armstrong, who has consistently denied drug-taking, on Monday recorded a two-and-a-half hour interview with Winfrey in his hometown Austin, Texas.

The New York Times and USA Today newspapers both cited sources with knowledge of the taping that the seven-time Tour de France winner would admit using banned substances in his career.

A graphic on key allegations made by the US Anti-Doping Agency against Lance Armstrong. In the wake of the allegations, several top sponsors dumped Armstrong, and on November 14, Livestrong dropped his name from the foundation.

Winfrey said she and Armstrong had agreed as part of the terms for the interview that neither would talk about what he said and that it would “left for people to make their own judgments.”

“By the time I left Austin and landed in Chicago, you all had already confirmed it. So I’m like — how did you all do that? We all agreed that we weren’t going to say anything.

“I’m sitting here now because it’s already been confirmed. Here we are,” she said.

She described it as a difficult and sometimes emotional interview.

“I would say he did not come clean in the manner that I expected. It was surprising to me. I would say that for myself, my team, all of us in the room, we were mesmerized and riveted by some of his answers.”

“I felt that he was thoughtful. I thought that he was serious. I thought that he certainly had prepared himself for this moment. I would say that he met the moment, and at the end of it, two-and-a-half — literally two-and-a-half hours — we both were pretty exhausted. And I would say I was satisfied,” she said.