Lance Armstrong has a message for the cancer-fighting community: He wants back in.
Armstrong, 45, listed rejoining the cancer fight as a difference-maker as a top goal for the next year.
The disgraced cyclist was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996 and started the Lance Armstrong Foundation (later changed to Livestrong) in 1997.
He won a record seven straight Tour de France titles from 1999 through 2005, but in 2012 was banned for life and stripped of those titles for doping. His ties with Livestrong were also severed in 2012.
“I think I know how to effect change. I’ve done it for a long time,” Armstrong said in a podcast posted Sunday. “It’s obviously touched my life significantly, continues to touch all of our lives on a daily basis. I want back in that fight. It’s not through Livestrong. It’s not through, probably, places you would think, but I want in. I’ve got my gloves on, and I want to fight, and I want to effect change and make a difference.
“I’ve seen the fight against cancer for 20 years. … I got to learn it as I built an organization that, I think, did great things. And then I’ve seen it as a cynic and as a skeptic and as a person that’s 10 steps removed from the fight. … I can help.”
Armstrong also said his last legal case, a federal lawsuit that could cost him $100 million, is set to go to trial in May.
“That’s a big deal for me and my family,” Armstrong said. “But the trial, which basically takes a month, isn’t a goal. The goal is to get that part of my life behind me and move forward.”
In 2014, Armstrong reportedly said he might start a new cancer foundation.
Armstrong competed in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympics.
In 2013, he was stripped of his only Olympic medal, a bronze from the Sydney 2000 time trial, where former U.S. Postal Service teammate Viatcheslav Ekimov took gold and longtime rival Jan Ullrich, who admitted to blood doping during his career, took silver.
MORE: Armstrong intrigued by ultra marathon, obstacle-course races
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