Lance Armstrong claims stepfather used to beat him with fraternity paddle

New York, May 26 (IANS) Tainted American cyclist Lance Armstrong recently revealed he was beaten up a lot by his stepfather Terry Armstrong during his childhood days.

In his new ESPN documentary ‘Lance’, Armstrong spoke about the minor things that got him beaten up profusely by Terry.

“I mean you talk about disciplinarian, if he said ‘Don’t leave your drawer open or you’re gonna be in trouble’ and sure enough I’d leave the drawer open, he’d pull out his fraternity paddle and just beat the s*** out of me,” Armstrong said in the documentary as per New York Post.

“If I did that, my kids would be getting spanked every minute of every day! Like, who cares? F****** drawer’s open.”

Terry agreed that he was tough on Lance but defended his methods by calling himself a hard task master, which he got in him from millitary training.

“I was tough on him as far as cleaning his room up and being orderly, and Linda was always there when I did it,” Terry said in the first episode of the documentary released on Sunday.

“It wasn’t a belt, it wasn’t hitting him. It was just, ‘bend over and take your licks.’ That came from five years in military school. Very regimented, so I was kind of by the book.

“The failure of my bringing up Lance, I was the taskmaster, but I didn’t put my arms around him enough and tell him I loved him. I was always there, always coaching him, always pushing him, but I didn’t show him the love that I should have.”

Armstrong was stripped off his seven Tour de France titles in 2012 after being found guilty of doping and his Olympic Bronze was also taken away which he won at Sydney 2000.

–IANS

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