Within the last few days this commercial featuring Lance Armstrong from 2001 began making the rounds again. When it was released it was stood as a defiant brush off of the few vocal critics of Armstrong who were accusing him of using illegal performance enhancing drugs.
It feels a bit different now.
After the massive release of the “Reasoned Decision,” USADA’s document outlining the case that Armstrong was engaged in and helped direct a massive decade-long doping operation during his 7 Tours de France victories and beyond, this commercial seems less like a denial and more like bragging. Here’s the text:
This is my body and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it, and study it, tweak it, listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I’m on. What am I on? I’m on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?
Interestingly, he never says he isn’t doping.
