Lance Armstrong Update: Arrogant Even After Conceding Doping Charges, Asserts Former White House & WADA Spokesman Robert Weiner; Victory for Clean Sport but "Dark Message" Is Science Must Catch Up to Masking Agents Allowing Cheating

Armstrong Conceded Only after Witnesses Spoke, Despite Hundreds of 'Clean' Tests that Let Him Keep Racing, Weiner Points Out ; Armstrong's Latest Statement, "Everyone Knows Who Won," Outrageous and Wrong—Everyone Now Knows Who Cheated, Weiner Asserts

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Lance Armstrong's arrogance even now after conceding on doping charges by USADA  – his belief he knows more than the enforcement  system and can beat it  – is what finally brought him down," asserted Robert Weiner, the former White House Drug Policy spokesman and former WADA Olympics spokesman.  Weiner, who was the spokesman for the Office of National Drug Policy and worked to help create WADA and USADA, said, "Armstrong conceded only because he would be beaten by over ten witnesses' testimony in arbitration who saw him dope and who had spoken with investigators.  His statement that 'Everyone knows who won' is outrageous and wrong.  Everyone now knows who cheated. This is a sad but huge victory for clean sport, and for WADA and USADA's ongoing mission to end drug cheating and assure youth that they will have an even playing field without drugs determining the champion."

"The real victory in Armstrong's concession is children who can believe that even the most famous athletes can get caught if they cheat," Weiner stated.

"However, a dark message from Armstrong's final concession," Weiner said, "is that top athletes like him continue to use masking agents to beat the science of drug testing. It's only because over ten witnesses saw Armstrong dope and came forward that he was overwhelmed and had to give up his fight.  For years, he's defied the system because he successfully masked his drug use with other drugs that blocked positive tests. If you're rich enough, you can do that. Armstrong only conceded after witnesses spoke out, despite hundreds of tests that erroneously showed him clean and let him keep racing, while he smugly was asserting all the while that he 'didn't dope.'"

"I remember Frank Shorter, USADA's Chairman and an American Olympic marathon gold medalist, telling me during the Sydney Olympics, while were waiting to start a drug-testing news conference, 'Watch who comes late to the Games so they drop their positives before we can test them,' and Armstrong was one of those," Weiner said.  Armstrong then won his Olympic bronze in Sydney.  "There was nothing the science could do then, and now.  It misses huge quantities of dopers, though the testing is getting better and better and more sophisticated."

"That's why it's so important for WADA and USADA to continue using the new strategy—the same that unearthed Marion Jones' cheating despite her similar years of false claims of innocence – of collateral evidence and testimony, not just using the testing. That is a relatively new development," Weiner explained.

Weiner ran track in high school and college and continues to compete as a master, earning a bronze and making All-American in the steeplechase at this month's USA Masters Track and Field Championships in Illinois. "I want to see clean sport, and today's development is a huge step toward making that a reality," he concluded.

Contact: Robert Weiner 301-283-0821 or 202-306-1200

SOURCE Robert Weiner Associates

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