I'm quite amazed that, in this day and age, anyone with access to media believes that any elite athlete is clean. Let's face it: Technology + money to buy it = people doing stuff they ordinarily couldn't do, including hiding the fact that they do it.

While I agree it's wrong to sign on to a set of rules and then set about cunningly breaking them, I don't see the benefit in taking it all so seriously. The hand wringing is just a social pastime. If folks truly cared they'd either walk away from elite sport (pro & amateur) and boycott the sponsors. Doping is only a problem for those who destroy themselves doing it, and that is ultimately their own responsibility.

From what I've seen, sport doping is now just another aspect of the entertainment value, something to be exploited. If it ever goes away the hand wringers will find something else about which to wring hands, and talking heads will find something else about which to talk. Ms Winfrey has a network full of air time to fill and the bucks to get Armstrong on camera. Oprah knows how to profit from people's stories. She knows how to build an audience that can be delivered to advertisers for a fee. It's not about morals any more, and hasn't been for quite some time.

If "...most people are horrified at the depths of his behaviour..." I suggest that it says more about their naiveté or their idea of fun than it does about Lance Armstrong or anyone else who got caught. People are entertained by watching someone destroy himself while he's trying to prove he's best at something, be it cycling, lying, or contrition.

Maybe my view sounds cynical but I submit that if one wants find morality and decency in this world, high-level sport is not the place to go looking for them. If that IS where you choose to go looking, plan for disappointment.