Lance on Oprah

Lance Armstrong on Oprah brings the cycling and gossip worlds together in a giant peloton likely to crash on their own speculation. Lance Armstrong will appear on Oprah’s show on her OWN network on Thursday, January 17.

Lance Armstrong on Oprah has led to lots of gossip as to why he is appearing. There were reports that Oprah Winfrey had a breast cancer scare last fall and Lance Armstrong’s visit on Oprah may be related to that because of Lance’s reputation as a cancer survivor. But many have speculated that Lance will confess to Oprah and then ask forgiveness for cheating during his cycling career.

Lance Armstrong has been pretty quiet since he gave up his fight against the various cycling governing bodies who have been trying to strip him of titles after accusing him of cheating last fall. There is a lot of speculation that he will use this appearance not only to finally confess to using performance-enhancing drugs during a cycling career that included winning the Tour de France seven times in a row, but to also ask forgiveness for breaking the rules in a sport where nearly every top cyclist cheated just to compete.

Of course Lance has been portrayed as the leader of a team who used science, doctors, and just plain sneakiness to gain an advantage and then threaten anyone who might question or accuse what he and his team were doing.

In late summer last year Lance released a statement saying he was giving up the legal fight against the accusations he was facing from the US agency charged with overseeing drug abuse in sports, USADA. This was just days before USADA released an announcement accusing Lance Armstrong and others on his team, including some of the team management, with use of performance enhancing drugs. Many of the accused have since publicly admitted using various types of performance-enhancing drugs as well as blood-doping.

Blood doping is the practice of taking an amount of your own blood, storing it and then re-injecting it at a later time, usually during a stage race such as the Tour de France, in order to increase the number of blood cells that store oxygen. The amount of oxygen an athlete can use during a race is often the defining factor in performance, especially in endurance races. Blood doping is very difficult to trace because it uses the athlete’s own blood and is not a foreign substance.

Before the doping scandal, Lance Armstrong was most famous for overcoming testicular cancer and then go on to win the most difficult sporting event, the Tour de France bicycle race seven years in a row. He used his fame to start LiveStrong, a foundation which supports cancer patients with information and encouragement. The LiveStrong foundation was one of the most visible non-profits of the last decade, with millions of people wearing yellow Livestrong armbands in support of their programs.

There is a lot of speculation about Lance Armstrong on Oprah, but we will find out on Thursday!