Lance Armstrong stripped of Olympic bronze medal
Photo
In this Saturday, Sept 30, 2000 file photo Russia's Viacheslav Ekimov, center, winner of the gold medal in the men's individual time trials, celebrates with Germany's silver medal winner Jan Ullrich, left, and U.S bronze medal winner Lance Armstrong at the cycling road course in Sydney, for the Summer Olympic Games. Officials familiar with the decision tell The Associated Press the IOC has stripped Lance Armstrong of his bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Olympics because of his involvement in doping. Two officials say the IOC sent a letter to Armstrong on Wednesday night Jan. 16, 2013, asking him to return the medal.
LONDON — On the day he went public with an admission of doping after years of denials, Olympic officials disclosed one more embarrassment for Lance Armstrong: He was stripped of a bronze medal won at the 2000 Sydney Games.
The International Olympic Committee sent a letter to Armstrong on Wednesday night asking him to return the medal, just as it said it planned to do last month. The decision was first reported Thursday by The Associated Press.
On Monday, Armstrong taped an interview with Oprah Winfrey for broadcast Thursday and Friday on her network. A person familiar with the situation told the AP that the winner of seven straight Tour de France titles confessed to Winfrey to using performance-enhancing drugs.
The timing of the IOC move, however, was not related to the TV interview.
The IOC executive board discussed revoking the medal in December, but delayed a decision until cycling's governing body notified Armstrong he had been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and all results since 1998. He then had 21 days to appeal.
Now that the deadline has expired, the IOC decided to take the medal away. The letter to Armstrong was also sent to the U.S. Olympic Committee, which would collect the medal.
"Having had confirmation from UCI that Armstrong has not appealed the decision to disqualify him from Sydney, we have written to him to ask for the return of the bronze medal," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told the AP. "We have also written to USOC to inform them of the decision."
Two months after winning his second Tour de France title in 2000, Armstrong took the bronze in Sydney in the road time trial behind winner and U.S. Postal Service teammate Vyacheslav Ekimov of Russia and Jan Ullrich of Germany.
The IOC opened a disciplinary case in November after a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report detailed widespread doping by Armstrong and his teammates. The report called it the most sophisticated doping program in sports.
The IOC will not reallocate Armstrong's bronze medal, just as cycling's ruling body decided not to declare any winners for the Tour titles once held by the American. Spanish rider Abraham Olano Manzano, who finished fourth in Sydney, will not be upgraded and the bronze medal will be left vacant in Olympic records.
In August, the IOC stripped Tyler Hamilton, a former Armstrong teammate, of his time-trial gold medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics after he acknowledged doping. In that case, Ekimov was upgraded to gold.
The IOC is also investigating Levi Leipheimer, a former Armstrong teammate who won the time-trial bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games. The American confessed to doping as part of his testimony against Armstrong in the USADA case.
The IOC is looking into the details of Leipheimer's admitted doping, including when the cheating took place, before moving to strip his medal. Finishing fourth behind Leipheimer in 2008 was Alberto Contador, the Spaniard who was stripped of the 2010 Tour de France title after testing positive for clenbuterol.
Jan 21, 2013 at 2:33 p.m.
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Well... again, not everyone, but an extremely large part of America thought he was the next coming. I knew something was going on when he won his 3rd. Is it right to lie, cheat, or steal, no matter what "good" came out of it. This great organization (Livestrong) was born, and lived out of fraud. I wonder how employees feel? What do we (the US) call people who defraud... Criminals. Also, on the PED's, that's why I said "most" in my last post. The friends that I've had, who have made the professional level, have not used PED's. Maybe they'd still be playing :) From my experience, over the last 25 yrs, my guess had been around 60-70% involved in experimenting or using PED's.
Jan 21, 2013 at 10:49 a.m.
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So funny how when he was riding after battling cancer...everyone prased him. He comes forward admitting he "cheated" and everyone wants to crucify him. The irony is that without him Livestrong would not have raised that much money to help others...yet people want to deamonize him. How ironic
Jan 21, 2013 at 10:31 a.m.
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Actually Mongo is partially correct...first off there are several different kinds of PED Performance enhancing drugs. They can't test for HGH-human growth hormone. Then there's anabolic steroids...but you can only test when levels are elevated so if someone uses during training and stops...they would never now. Than theres EPO or doping which can be accomplished 4 ways (2 allowed). Legal ways would be sleeping in oxygen chamber or training at higher altitude. The illegal ways would be injecting EPo or having red blood cells removed weeks earlieer and reintroduced shortly before competeing...all those do the same things. When Victor Conte got nailed for dealing drugs from Balco...he named atheltes in every sport...his estimite is that 80-90% of competetive atheletes have used things deemed to be banned...including things that are legal to purchase over the counter. Even the great Jessie Owens failed his drug test when they stripped Ben Johnson of Canada from his gold medal. He tested positive from ehpedrine...but used bs story that it came from cold medicine...and he didnt know. The people we idolize aren't always what they seem.
Jan 20, 2013 at 1:43 p.m.
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Mongo, your "All" statement is wrong. If you said something like "seems like most", you MAY be right. If Armstrong is ever allowed to run, or bike in ANY competition, he should NEVER be allowed to be recognized for ANY placement at the end of the race... Pay his own way, and no recognition
Jan 19, 2013 at 3:51 a.m.
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NVgrf:
I don't believe Armstrong is affiliated with either political party. At least he never endorsed either side publicly during his career. However; he now SHOULD get involved in the Democratic party. I mean what a PERFECT person to have in public office. He would fit right in with John Edwards, Anthony Weiner, Elliot Spitzer, Bill Clinton, and all your lying, cheating, unethical, immoral scoundrels.
Jan 18, 2013 at 3:05 p.m.
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frusion, that would actually be kind of funny, I would check that out on PPV. lol
Jan 18, 2013 at 12:14 p.m.
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Political?? What???
The guy is a lying, bully, cheater.
I want to put him on a 20" Huffy and push him down a big hill and half way down have the front wheel fall off. Yes, I want to see that.
Jan 18, 2013 at 12:01 p.m.
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billnewbie, NVgrf is one of those partisan nuts that only sees things from a very superficial level. I am pretty sure if he was such a rabid right winger Sheryl Crow would have never dated him, Good lord. I guess considering he started a private charity automatically puts him in the right winger category for people like NVgrf, they want all charity to start and come from the government, because that seems to work like a charm.
Jan 18, 2013 at 8:49 a.m.
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Here are a few observations easily acquired on the internet about Lance Armstrong's politics.
Armstrong has described himself as "middle to left".
Although he is acquainted with George W. Bush, and even calls him friend, Armstrong has pointed out that he and his friend don't see eye to eye politically. For some folks though, just having been within a hundred yards of the ex-President without a protest sign and a bullhorn with which to scream obscenities at him qualifies you as a "right winger".
Armstrong claims to be pro-choice, "not keen on guns", against the Iraq war, and for separation of church and state.
I seems to me that Mr. Armstrong's political leanings are more to NVgrf's side of the fence. I guess NVgrf's been shooting off his mouth again without regard to facts, as usual.
Jan 17, 2013 at 6:50 p.m.
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"Only a pathetic human being would say this is a political issue."
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Either that or a complete idiot......something that NV has proven herself to be time and time again:)
Jan 17, 2013 at 6:23 p.m.
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grdf,
Who is they? The entire sport is dirty. Notice that the Tour officials cannot "award" the victories taken away from Armstrong to anyone? Why? because the entire sport is dirty-they cant find anyone clean!
Only a pathetic human being would say this is a political issue.
Jan 17, 2013 at 5:50 p.m.
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They should "strip" this guy naked and parade him over the course of the Tour for what he did to people and their families. Another self-serving right winger.
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