Lance Armstrong: I Want To Compete Again

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Disgraced U.S. cyclist Lance Armstrong said in an interview aired Friday that he wants to take part in competitive sports again, even after being banned for doping and stripped of his honors.

“Hell, yes. I’m a competitor. It’s what I’ve done my whole life. I love to train. I love to race,” Armstrong told Oprah Winfrey. “Not the Tour de France, but there’s a lot of other things I could do. I deserve to be punished. I’m not sure that I deserve a death penalty.”

When asked about telling his family that he had used performance enhancing drugs, Armstrong became emotional and said, particularly as he discussed telling his eldest son, Luke, to stop defending him in school.

“They didn’t say much. They just accepted it,” he said. “I told Luke, ‘don’t defend me any more. Don’t.’”

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For more coverage of the second part of the Oprah interview, visit Live.velonews.com.