Lance Armstrong reflects on the “worst thing” he’s ever done in a new documentary about his rise and fall.
ESPN released the trailer for LANCE, which comes on the heels of the Michael Jordan series The Last Dance, on Wednesday.
An interviewer can be heard asking Armstrong: “What is the worst thing that you did?”
The former athlete pensively answers: “What is the worst thing... Everybody in the world needs to get this question. ‘What is the worst thing you’ve ever done?’”
The trailer includes footage from Armstrong’s Tour de France performances, including his 2005 victory speech in which he took to task “the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics, the sceptics”, telling them: “I’m sorry for you. I’m sorry you can’t dream big and I’m sorry you don’t believe in miracles”.
Seven years later, in 2012, the International Cycling Union stripped him of his seven Tour de France titles.
Armstrong admitted to using banned, performance-enhancing substances including EPO in an interview with Oprah Winfrey the following year.
LANCE will air in two parts on ESPN. The first instalment will be broadcast on 24 May, with the second one following one week later, on 31 May.
ESPN has described the programme as “a fascinating, revealing, comprehensive, chronicle of one of the most inspirational – and then infamous – athletes of all time”.
“Based around extensive interviews and conversations with Lance Armstrong, the two-part, four-hour film tells the story of the cyclist’s rise out of Texas as a young superstar cyclist; his harrowing battle with testicular cancer; his recovery and emergence as a global icon with his seven consecutive Tour de France titles; and then his massive fall after he was exposed in one of the largest doping scandals in history,” the description adds.
The documentary is part of the 30 for 30 series about major moments in sports history, which began in 2009 to mark the network’s 30th anniversary.
ESPN decided to release LANCE and two other documentaries earlier than planned in order to fill the programming void caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing lack of live sports events.
The same strategy was deployed for The Last Dance, which was released in April on ESPN and Netflix.
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