Sally Jenkins, the co-author of Lance Armstrong’s book “It’s Not About The Bike” and Washington Post sports columnist, still believes Armstrong did not use performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Jenkins wrote in an online chat that her opinion is based on her personal relationship with Armstrong in which she judges her friends based on her personal interactions with them. She had asked Lance Armstrong “point blank” if he had used steroids or PEDs and he denied it. However, she acknowledges that she cannot be completely objective when it comes to the issue. Jenkins admits that Lance Armstrong could “never disappoint” her even if he lied about his use of PEDs.
Everybody has their version of Lance Armstrong, and I have mine. The things we’ve heard don’t line up with the guy I know. That’s my best answer. He told me point blank, “I didn’t use performance enhancers,” and I accept his answer because he’s my friend and that’s what you do with friends. I judge him the way I suppose anyone on this site would want to be judged: based on personal interactions. […]
I hope for Lance to be clean, I wish for him to be clean, mainly because he told me he was. That said, anyone who has watched cycling over the last 15 years would have to be in a state of willful denial not to know it’s a possibility. And obviously its a far more difficult question today than it was last week — but here’s the thing. My respect for Lance and my relationship with him has never been based on what he did in the Tour de France. It was based on doing a book together about cancer that we both took a lot of pride in, and I want to make something clear. Lance can never disappoint me. He’s a good and even fine human being in my estimation. […]
I can only pass on what Lance always told me — and we wrote this in It’s Not About the Bike: he said that he didn’t use performance enhancers but he explored every inch of the gray area. He looked for ways to simulate EPO, for instance, he slept in an altitude tent, which can boost your red blood cell count, and which the governing bodies have considered banning.
Sally Jenkins, of the Washington Post, is one of the few journalists who has consistently been critical of the steroid hysteria that has permeated American culture over the past decade. She has been an outspoken critique of the government’s witch-hunt and its pursuit of celebrity athletes.
Jenkins believes criminal law should be reserved for serious crimes not offenses like the personal use of anabolic steroids. She questions the role of the federal government in ensuring fair play in sports. She thinks the current anti-doping procedures are unfair and should focus on the athlete’s health rather than prohibition. She also condemns the Anabolic Steroid Control Acts of 1990 and 2004 as a prime example of a law that “overcriminalizes” trivial acts like steroid use that could be more effectively handled with civil or administrative penalties rather than time in prison.
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