Over twelve years after he finished third in the 2000 Olympic time trial, months after he was officially stripped of the majority of the big results in his career and hours before he will admit before a global audience that he used banned substances, Lance Armstrong has finally been stripped of that bronze medal.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed today that the rider will have that placing taken away from him, thus removing the only Olympic medal he won during his career.
Armstrong finished behind Viatcheslav Ekimov (Russia) and Jan Ullrich (Germany) in the race against the clock, a disappointing result for him in a race he had hoped to win.
The medal was the sole remaining result since August 1998, the point from which USADA stripped him of his various titles and performances. Now that too is gone. “Following the recent decisions of USADA and the UCI regarding the competitive cycling results of Lance Armstrong, the IOC has disqualified Armstrong from the events in which he competed at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games,” stated the IOC.
“Namely, the men's individual road race, where he finished 13th, and the men's individual time trial, where he finished 3rd and was awarded with a bronze medal and a certificate.”
It added that the decision was taken ‘in principle’ at the IOC’s executive board meeting in December, but that it had to wait until the appeal deadline passed before acting on it. Armstrong has been asked to return the medal and certificate to the United States Olympic Committee, who will in turn pass it on to the IOC.
The latter has yet to decide if it will reallocate the bronze medal to the rider who finished fourth, Abraham Olano of Spain.
He too has a question mark over his career, being a one-time client of Michele Ferrari, the doping doctor who treated Armstrong.
Meanwhile IOC spokesman Mark Adams has played down suggestions earlier this week by IOC member Richard Pound that cycling could lose its place in the Olympics.
Pound, a longtime critic of the UCI’s handling of doping in the sport, told Reuters that if Armstrong implicated the UCI in terms of improper behaviour, that cycling could be given a red card. “We could say, 'look, you've clearly got a problem why don't we give you four years, eight years to sort it out. And when you think you're ready come on back we'll see whether it would be a good idea to put you back on the program,” he said.
“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.”
Quoted by Sky Sports, Adams described the remarks as ‘a little premature.’ “Pound is basing his comments on the reports of an interview that has not yet been broadcast - once it has been and once UCI and USADA have commented I think it will be clear the direction we will all be going,” he said.
However he told AFP that he didn’t envisage that happening. “During the last years, the UCI have battled strongly in the fight against doping. An eventual exclusion of cycling from the Olympic program is very unlikely.”
Armstrong is reportedly considering providing evidence against senior cycling officials and possibly others connected with the US Postal Service team, handing over information in return for having a reduction to his ban.
One of those who could be affected is his former team manager Johan Bruyneel who, like Armstrong, is named as one of those charged of fraud in the Qui Tam lawsuit launched by Floyd Landis.
Bruyneel is planning a book on his time in the sport, where he is expected to address the accusations that he was part of running a big doping network on the US Postal and Discovery Channel teams.
He is due to appear before the US Anti Doping Agency at an as-yet unannounced point in time this year. “I will continue as long as I have the feeling I will get a fair hearing,” he said, according to De Telegraaf.
He was general manager of the RadioShack Nissan team in 2012 but lost his role after the allegations of doping with his earlier squads.