Already have an account?
Get back to the

Lance Armstrong Mostly Plays Golf After Doping Scandal, Says He’s Bored

Lance Armstrong attends an event on October 30, 2009
Lance Armstrong (photographed here in October 2009) revealed to Esquire magazine in its August 2014 issue that he largely only plays golf now, following his public cycling doping scandal.

Lance Armstrong has gone from spinning to swinging. The disgraced athlete opened up to Esquire in its August 2014 issue, revealing that golf is his sport of choice after his doping scandal made headlines in 2012.

"The game isn't natural to him," writer John H. Richardson observed of Armstrong's golf game. "You have to swivel your hips and his legs were all about up and down. Now he takes lessons, plays eighteen holes, then goes home to watch golf on TV. [Girlfriend Anna] Hansen jokes about being a golf widow, but Armstrong just shrugs. 'What else am I gonna do?'"

Related: PHOTOS: Biggest Olympic scandals of all time

The once-seven-time Tour de France title holder, 42, said he occasionally goes for bike rides, but nothing close to the caliber at which he previously competed. "It's like, I don't really care," Armstrong said. "It's weird."

While Armstrong's athletic prowess has diminished, his competitive nature remains intact. With his glory days of cycling long behind him, Armstrong, according to the author, "still loves to win. When he sinks another birdie putt, he crows. 'Booyah! Line zero, baby! Wooh!'"

Related: PHOTOS: Athletes turned TV and movie stars

While golf is Armstrong's current game, he has no plans to hit the links every day for the rest of his life. "If I'm still playing golf five days a week at fifty," Armstrong told Richardson, "my head will explode."

Armstrong, though, expressed again that he hopes to reconcile with the Livestrong Foundation, a nonprofit cancer organization he founded in 1997 and stepped down as chairman in October 2012. 

Related: PHOTOS: Biggest, most recent celeb scandals

"People here are waiting for him to express to them his authentic passion to be back," Doug Ulman, president of Livestrong and fellow cancer survivor, told Esquire. "Both are waiting for the other to, like, make a move."

Armstrong, responding to Ulman's statement, said: "I've mentioned numerous times that ultimately I'd love to go back, but nobody's ever directly said that to me… That's a pretty significant statement."

In this article

Got a Tip form close button
Got a tip for US?
We're All Ears for Celebrity Buzz!