Lance Armstrong Reportedly Apologizes to Livestrong Staff Prior to Oprah Show
Before Lance Armstrong admits to Oprah Winfrey and the rest of the world that he used performance-enhancing drugs, the former Tour de France champion reportedly apologized to his Livestrong staff.
The news comes from the Associated Press (via ESPN):
"Lance Armstrong apologized to the staff at his Livestrong cancer foundation before heading to an interview with Oprah Winfrey, a person with direct knowledge of the meeting told The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussion was private.
Stripped last year of his seven Tour de France titles because of doping charges, Armstrong addressed the staff Monday and said, "I'm sorry." The person said the disgraced cyclist choked up and several employees cried during the session.
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With Armstrong set to admit to the charges of cheating, it is unlikely that many people will feel the need to forgive the cyclist, and that's fine.
But there's a much more important detail that comes from this developing story. According to the report, Armstrong "said he would try to restore the foundation's reputation, and urged the group to continue fighting the charity's mission of helping cancer patients and their families."
That right there needs to take precedence over everything else.
Yes, Armstrong, who was known as one of the greatest cyclists ever, was stripped of a his seven Tour de France titles. Yes, he cheated, and yes, he will confess to arguably the most popular television personality ever.
Those are enormous, world-rattling stories.
But the fact that the Livestrong Foundation will live on despite its founder's name being tarnished is undoubtedly a "win." You can hate the man all you want, but the fact of the matter is his organization has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in the fight against cancer.
In a story that has been full of negatives, this is unmistakably a positive to take from it all.
