Winner of 2012 Press Award for Sports Journalist of the Year, David Walsh talks here about his long and ultimately successful pursuit of cycling cheat Lance Armstrong in The Sunday Times.

How important was it to you to see Lance Armstrong exposed?

In terms of sport, it was very important because it sent out the message to all athletes who cheat that passing the drug test doesn’t guarantee you will get away with the fraud. Armstrong was officially declared a cheat seven years after his seventh and final Tour de France victory. On a personal level, I was pleased for those people who helped through the years of investigation, especially Betsy Andreu, Emily O’Reilly and Stephen Swart. His downfall was their vindication.

Was the pursuit of Lance Armstrong the toughest undertaking of your journalistic career so far?

No, definitely not. Telling the Irish public, through the pages of The Sunday Times, that Michelle Smith’s three gold medals in swimming from the 1996 Olympics were probably achieved through doping was harder. The Armstrong story just went on a lot longer. If I had been wrong in my belief that he was cheating, it would definitely have been the toughest and most important!

Does investigative journalism have an important role in the coverage of sports?

Very much so, particularly because of the sports’ writer’s natural starting point: we are not just reporters we are also fans. Being a fan is fine but it should come with a journalistic health warning. It can mean looking the other way when the public need you to ask hard questions. Also, doping has become so prevalent in sport there is a constant need to question performances before applauding. This may be sad but it is necessary.

Can we believe in what we see in professional sport?

Sadly, it depends upon the sport. Some are easier to trust than others. I don’t believe the Premier League has a performance enhancing drug culture but I have seen top European teams perform in the Champions League in a way that made me suspicious. Uefa is introducing blood tests for CL and EL games this season and this is long overdue. Anti-doping testing has also lagged behind in rugby. Tennis and golf have been painfully slow to understand the importance of drug controls. No surprise that it is the sports who have suffered the most through doping, cycling and athletics, who now have the best anti-doping programmes.

Print and digital journalism, how is the balance going to evolve in the next decade?

Print journalists have had to become more flexible and more able to work in a digital environment. With The Sunday Times now having rights to Premier League clips, anyone who works on football for the newspaper may have to become as adept in front of the camera as with hand hovering over a keyboard #wayoftheworld.

You’ve won multiple awards for your Lance Armstrong work, including 2012 Journalist of the Year, what do they mean?

For a long time I argued that libel writs were the “Oscars” of our profession, so I can’t make too much of a claim for the more traditional prizes. Still, it was a wonderful few months, I enjoyed it but never forgot that my sources were the people should have been receiving accolades. I was being paid to do my job, they received nothing but intimidation and notoriety.