Paul Kimmage appeared on the Ray D'Arcy show on RTE One last night, and the conversation had two tenets. The first was a discussion on the medicalisation of rugby - something Kimmage has been very vocal on this week - before conversation turned to the inevitable: Lance Armstrong.
Lance is on his way to Dublin to speak at the One Zero conference this month, and along with his recent interview on Off the Ball, the disgraced cyclist is back among the Irish sports pages. Armstrong will be interviewed on stage by Ewan MacKenna, although Kimmage said on radio that he would love to be the journalist interviewing Lance on stage at the conference.
Armstrong then took to twitter to call out Kimmage over twitter, saying that he would happily sit down with a man he has shared a room with just once previous.
Hey @PaulKimmage, here's a thought. How about you and I do the interview @OneZeroCon?
— Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong) September 27, 2016
That one occasion was upon Armstrong's return to the sport in 2009, in which Armstrong picked out Kimmage and told him he's "not worth the chair he's sitting on".
Kimmage responded to Armstrong's tweet:
You're confusing me with one of those muppets that used to dance to your tune.
— Paul Kimmage (@PaulKimmage) September 27, 2016
While Kimmage won't be chairing the conference, the prospect of Kimmage and Armstrong doing an interview at some stage is plausible, and one that clearly excites Kimmage.
Kimmage admitted that Armstrong is one of the most interesting sports people on the planet, and then delved into what he would ask him, and the prop he would bring along for the occasion. While some see Kimmage as relentless and dogmatic regarding doping and cheats, it's very interesting to see Kimmage so clearly enthused by the idea of picking apart the Armstrong character.
Watch below. The clip begins with Kimmage listening to the section of Armstrong's Off the Ball interview pertaining to him.
