Only Oprah Winfrey and her crew have heard the words directly from Lance Armstrong, but his interview this week could result in his sport being bounced from the Olympics, according to a report.

News agency Reuters reported Tuesday that a member of the International Olympic Committee would consider dropping cycling from the Olympics if the sport's governing body were implicated in doping.

In an interview with Reuters, IOC member Dick Pound said the drastic action could be considered if the International Cycling Union has acted improperly, particularly in covering up suspicious drug-test results.

"The only way it is going to clean up is if all these people say, 'Hey, we're no longer in the Olympics and that's where we want to be, so let's earn our way back into it,'" Pound told Reuters.

Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles last year after a report by the US Anti-Doping Agency in October concluded he and his teammates cheated by using steroids, the blood booster EPO and blood transfusions. After years of denials, Armstrong reportedly admitted his transgressions to Winfrey in an interview on Monday at his home in Austin, Texas.

That interview will air Thursday and Friday on Winfrey's cable network, OWN.

The USADA report raised suspicion that the cycling union acted in concert with Armstrong to protect him from allegations of cheating. There have been media reports that Armstrong is considering testifying about his interaction with the ICU.

That governing body on Tuesday called for Armstrong to testify to an independent committee formed in November in the wake of the USADA report.

"We would strongly urge Lance Armstrong to testify to the Independent Commission established to investigate the allegations made against the UCI in the recent USADA reasoned decision on Lance Armstrong and the United States Postal Service team," the federation said in a statement.

It is that issue, rather than Armstrong's reported admission of cheating, that could lead to action from the IOC, Pound suggested. He is the former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

"The IOC would have to deal with it; the (UCI) is not known for its strong actions to anti-doping," Pound told Reuters.

"It was the same in weightlifting a few years ago. All of a sudden when you get right up against it, things go fuzzy and they say, 'Well, we can't punish innocent athletes in these sports by dropping the sport from the program.'"

Lance Armstrong was not contrite when he acknowledged that he used performance-enhancing drugs over his cycling career during his sit-down on Monday with Oprah Winfrey, a source familiar with the 2½-hour session at an Austin hotel told the Daily News.

The blockbuster report released by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency last year portrayed Armstrong as the leader of the most sophisticated doping ring in sports history, one who bullied other riders to use banned drugs. But Armstrong described himself during the Winfrey interview as just another cyclist who chose to use banned substances in order to compete in the grueling sport.

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Winfrey said on Tuesday that she was “satisfied” with Armstrong’s confession that he had used banned drugs on his way to seven Tour de France titles. But her satisfaction was qualified.

“I would say he did not come clean in the manner that I expected,” Winfrey said on “CBS This Morning.”

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Armstrong declined to address testimony from former teammate Frankie Andreu and his wife, Betsy, that they heard him tell doctors treating him for cancer in 1996 that he had used a slew of performance-enhancing drugs. Armstrong had previously contested that testimony and described Betsy Andreu as an angry woman jealous of his success.

“I’m not going to fight that anymore,” the source said he told Winfrey.

Armstrong did acknowledge that he tried to damage people who refused to assist his doping cover-up, the source added.

The two-part interview will air beginning Thursday on Winfrey’s OWN network and will continue on Friday. Winfrey said she felt viewers would be cheated if the interview was condensed into only one segment, so she and her team decided to extend it over two nights.

The independent doping investigation cycling’s governing body promised to conduct in October, meanwhile, doesn’t appear to be so independent after all, anti-doping officials said on Tuesday.

The World Anti-Doping Agency said it would not participate in the investigation conducted by a commission appointed by the International Cycling Union to examine the governing body’s role in cycling’s doping scandal because it had “serious concerns” about the commission’s independence.

WADA president John Fahey said the agency is concerned that UCI has too much influence over the commission appointed to examine the role of officials in doping. WADA, Fahey added, is also concerned that the investigation is focusing too narrowly on Armstrong and not enough on the sport’s “widespread and ingrained” doping problem.

Fahey also ripped the investigation for failing to provide immunity to cyclists and other witnesses who come forward.

“An approach that does not allow individuals to give evidence without the fear of retaliation will merely perpetuate the ‘omerta’ that has been an obstacle to cycling investigations in the past,” Fahey said.

Travis Tygart, the chief executive officer of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, echoed WADA’s concerns: “UCI’s refusal to agree to allow a limited opportunity for riders to come forward and be truthful without fear of retribution or retaliation from the UCI obviously calls into question the UCI’s commitment to a full and thorough investigation,” he said.

Tygart is the leader of the USADA team that compiled the extensive report released in October.

UCI officials declined to comment on reports about Armstrong’s doping confession.

“We would strongly urge Lance Armstrong to testify to the independent commission established to investigate the allegations made against the UCI in the recent USADA reasoned decision,” UCI officials said.

The commission is set to hold a hearing on the matter in London in April and is expected to deliver its report to the UCI by early June. According to testimony by former Armstrong teammates Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis, Armstrong told them he had made a positive drug test disappear with a payment to UCI in 2001. UCI officials have denied that Armstrong bribed the organization, but they acknowledge the cyclist made a $100,000 donation for anti-doping work to UCI in 2002.

A report from “60 Minutes Sports” last week stated that one of Armstrong’s representatives offered a $250,000 “donation” to USADA in 2004. Tygart said the organization believed the offer was inappropriate and quickly rejected it.

Kathy LeMond, the wife of American cyclist Greg LeMond, also testified under oath during a 2006 deposition that Nike and Thom Weisel, a Bay Area banker who sponsored Armstrong’s team, had paid $500,000 to former UCI president Hein Verbruggen to cover up a positive drug test.

LeMond was a witness in a lawsuit filed by Armstrong and Tailwind Sports, the firm that managed his cycling team, against SCA, a Dallas company that indemnifies sponsors who offer prizes based on athletic achievements, in a Texas court. The suit was filed after SCA, because of doping allegations, refused to pay Armstrong a $5 million bonus that Tailwind had promised the cyclist for winning the 2004 Tour de France.

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