Armstrong stripped of bronze medal from Sydney Olympics

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Lance Armstrong has been stripped of the bronze medal that he won in the time trial at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. The International Olympic Committee informed Armstrong of the decision in a letter on Wednesday evening.

Armstrong was last year banned for life and stripped of all results from August 1, 1998 onwards in the wake of the US Anti-Doping Agency’s investigation into doping at his former US Postal Service team.

At an executive board meeting in December, the IOC decided to strip Armstrong of his Olympic medal but waited confirmation from the UCI that Armstrong had not appealed against the sanctions imposed by USADA before formally proceeding with the matter.

“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, 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,” read a statement from the IOC on Thursday.

The IOC decision comes just ahead of Thursday night’s much-publicised screening of an interview between Armstrong and Oprah Winfrey, in which Armstrong is reported to have confessed to doping.

The IOC has requested that Armstrong return the medal and certificate to the United States Olympic Committee. It is as yet unclear as to whether Armstrong’s medal will be reallocated to Abraham Olano, who finished 4th. The Sydney time trial was won by Armstrong’s then US Postal Service teammate Viatcheslav Ekimov, ahead of Jan Ullrich.

Last year, the IOC awarded Ekimov with gold for the 2004 Olympic time trial in the wake of original winner Tyler Hamilton’s decision to return his medal, and announced that Michael Rogers would be elevated to 3rd place and awarded bronze.