Why Nike Is a Star Witness in Lance Armstrong Case

To help prove its case against Lance Armstrong, the federal government is seeking information from Nike that shows the company wouldn’t have sponsored him if it knew he was using performance-enhancing drugs.

It’s a big issue in the government’s civil fraud lawsuit against the former cyclist—the theory that Armstrong concealed his doping for years in order to keep getting rich off of sponsorships.

But another issue involving Nike looms just as large in Armstrong’s defense: Didn’t those sponsors get their money’s worth while sponsoring him at the height of his success?

Armstrong says they did.