Admitted drug cheat Lance Armstrong has come under fire for his latest venture, with the international sporting pariah labelled as a hypocrite.
Armstrong announced on social media that he was launching a four-part podcast series alongside Olympian Caitlin Jenner around transgender athletes competing in sport, saying that he was “uniquely positioned” to lead “spirited debate” on the issue.
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In the announcement on Twitter, he asked: “Have we really come to a time and place where spirited debate is not only frowned upon, but feared?”
“Where people’s greatest concern is being fired, shamed, or cancelled?” Armstrong said.
“As someone all too familiar with this phenomenon, I feel I’m uniquely positioned to have these conversations.
“Of all the controversial and polarising subjects out there today, I’m not sure there are any as heated as the topic of trans athletes in sport.
“Is there not a world in which one can be supportive of the transgender community and curious about the fairness of trans athletes in sport yet not be labelled a transphobe or a bigot as we ask questions?”
Armstrong was heavily criticised online, with thousands of responses that called out his concern with fairness given his place as one of the most infamous cheats in sporting history, his treatment of the rights of a marginalised group of people as up for debate, and using the guise of “just asking questions” to ingratiate himself with conservative anti-trans commentators.
A Twitter Community Note was placed on Armstrong’s original tweet, refuting his inference that he was “cancelled” after becoming an international disgrace for systemically doping his way to a record seven Tour de France titles.
Community Notes were created by Twitter as part of a raft of anti-misinformation measures brought out by social media networks after the 2016 US presidential election.
“Lance Armstrong was not ‘cancelled’,” the Community Note read.
“Armstrong was the most dominant and successful professional cyclist in history, until 2013 when he was found to have been doping and was stripped of his titles and awards.
“Armstrong himself later admitted to cheating for over a decade.”
A 2012 United States Anti-Doping Agency report into Armstrong concludes that he was the ringleader of “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen”.
The criticism came thick and fast on social media, with on of the top replies to the announcement saying: “Lance, plenty of people are willing to discuss the rights of trans people in sports, what you’re actually doing is trying to get the right-wing grifter bag since no one else wants anything to do with you.”
Armstrong’s positioning as a leader on open debate was also criticised, with Australian sports journalist Richard Hinds noting that “Lance’s teammates (at the time) were ‘cancelled’ and journalists were shamed for telling the truth about the Tour.
“Can’t remember debate being encouraged then?” Hinds said.
Armstrong regularly and vigorously sued journalists, friends and teammates across the mid-2000s who accused him of doping, settling with News Corp’s Sunday Times in 2006 for A$572,000, as well as being involved in litigation against the United States government, promotional companies, and other sponsors.
Armstrong also called his former assistant, whistleblower physiotherapist Emma O’Reilly, “an alcoholic” and “a whore” for speaking out in 2004 against him, despite knowing her claims were true.
In his bombshell 2013 interview with Oprah Winfrey where he admitted to doping, he admitted he was a bully who “ran over” O’Reilly, saying he was “just on the attack.”
Armstrong said in the interview that the doping didn’t feel wrong and that he did not feel bad about it at the time.
He admitted he “controlled every outcome in my life”, and that he “viewed (the) situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times.”
CBC News’ Tom Harrington said he was “curious whether Mr Armstrong documents his own intolerance of debate.
“He fired, shamed, or cancelled anyone who had reason or knowledge to question his success,” Harrington said.
“Journalists, teammates, rivals, even close friends felt his wrath. An entire sport kept his secret. Will we hear that?”
Sportswriter Megan Maurice noted it was a “hell of a time to suddenly become interested in fairness in sport.”
Automotive journalist Victoria Scott noted Armstrong’s hypocrisy, joking “Lance Armstrong is so banned from sports that the IOC can legally call in an air strike on his location if he joins a game of pickleball, but here’s here to let you know that me playing ladies’ beer league hockey is a grotesque mockery of fairness in competition.”
Deadspin editor Julie Dicaro wrote: “Lance Armstrong, a cisgender man and notorious cheater with, as far as I can tell, no training in anything related to endocrinology, biology or gender-affirming care, has some thoughts on the fairness of transgender women competing in women’s sports.
“On a related note, irony died today,” Dicaro wrote.
Armstrong responded to the backlash on Twitter, telling one user to “climb down from the high horse.”
“I’m actually not lecturing anyone, rather bringing all sides to the table and inviting rational and open dialogue,” he said.
“And I might add, having a conversation that almost nobody dares touch. If they stream podcasts up in your rarefied air, check it out.”
The podcast is being produced alongside Caitlin Jenner, who won gold in the men’s decathlon in the 1976 Olympic Games.
Jenner came out as trans in 2015 and has been outspoken on transgender issues, but holds some conservative views that have been criticised by other LGBTQ+ activists.
Jenner spoke out earlier this year, saying that she had always been against transgender women competing in men’s sports.
She currently works for Fox News as an on-air contributor.
“When it comes to trans women in women’s sports – from the beginning, I honestly I’ve been against it,” Jenner said.
“I have always tried to protect women in women’s sports. I think it can become terribly unfair for women. And honestly, I don’t want to destroy women’s sports.”
Armstrong and Jenner’s podcast series airs on June 27.
