The Sunday Times will this evening be live streaming a discussion, Chasing Lance, with its chief sports writer, David Walsh, who was last week named journalist of the year at the British Journalism Awards for his investigation of Lance Armstrong, dating back 13 years, which culminated in the Texan being banned from sport for life and stripped of hsi seven Tour de France victories.
USADA's decision in the Armstrong case vindicated both Walsh and The Sunday Times - in 2004 the newspaper had settled a libel action brought by the Texan out of court, and is now said to be considering whether to take steps to recoup the substantial sum it paid to him.
In 2004, Walsh, together with Pierre Ballester, pubished LA Confidentiel, which has never been published in English. Many of the allegations against Armstrong in that book were reported in USADA's Reasoned Decision. Walsh's latest book, Seven Deadly Sins, is published today.
Judges at the British Journalism Awards acknowledged that Walsh's determination to uncover the truth about Armstrong had resulted in him becoming a "pariah for years" with in cycling, according to a report in the Guardian earlier this month.
"He pursued it and pursued it and the US Anti-Doping Agency would never have pursued this if it hadn't been for David Walsh," said the judges. "It was a fine example of great investigative journalism."
Walsh also won the sports journalist of the year category.
The sold-out discussion, which will be hosted by Sunday Times News Review Editor Alan Hunter, starts at 7.45pm this evening and is available to watch free on the Sunday Times website.
Times subscribers also have an option to watch on Android or iOS devices, assuming they have the appropriate app downloaded. Twitter users will be able to ask Walsh questions using the hashtag, #WalshLive.
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Apparently will be available to download next week, @ST_Sport will tweet updates.
I really hope there is an on demand released of this, was getting right into it, then my dad called needing some technical advice about his work computer.
So had to walk him through stuff and missed alot of it, so switched it off