Can I stop writing about this now? Can I please stop writing about it?
Although the media attention is heightening, we’re getting diminishing returns from the Lance Armstrong doping story now. He appeared on Oprah and said some stuff, but the whole of it can be neatly packaged away in one box thanks to one, simple fact, expressed best by the man himself:
“I’m not the most believable guy in the world right now.”
No, you’re really not. The picture was clearer when 90 per cent of what you said was complete bullshit. At least then we knew roughly where we stood. Now you’re telling a bit more of the truth, but we don’t know whether we’re getting 20 per cent bullshit or 60 per cent bullshit. Why should any of us have to expend any energy working out what is and isn’t the true story?
In the Oprah interview, he kept talking about being ‘flawed’, but flaws are what you find on something that is otherwise sound. They are imperfections and are only recognisable as such in reference to perfection itself. Lance Armstrong simply has too many bad qualities to be considered flawed – the bullying, harassment and intimadatory litigation are bigger crimes than the doping itself in my eyes, although it’s all wrapped up together, really.
Armstrong is basically a pretty bad person who happens to also have some inspirational qualities. It’s an odd and fascinating mix and this will probably see him continuing to thrive in some warped form or other for years to come.
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