Cycling
IOC probes Armstrong medal
2012-11-01 13:05
Berlin - The International Olympic Committee
(IOC) will investigate Lance Armstrong's 2000 Olympics bronze medal
after the American was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles in
the biggest doping scandal to hit the sport.
"The IOC will now
immediately start the process concerning the involvement of Lance
Armstrong, other riders and particularly their entourages with respect
to the Olympic Games and their future involvement with the Games," an
IOC official said on Thursday.
Armstrong, who won a time
trial medal at the Sydney Games, was stripped of his 1999-2005 Tour
victories last month when the International Cycling Union (UCI) ratified
a US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) decision to erase his results from
August, 1998.
A USADA report that included testimony from several
former team mates against him and themselves, called it the "most
sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport
has ever seen".
Apart from stripping Armstrong's titles, the
UCI also said it was setting up an independent commission to investigate
allegations made against the UCI over the Armstrong affair.
"The
IOC has taken note of the UCI's decision and welcomes all measures that
will shed light on the full extent of this episode and allow the sport
to reform and to move forward," the IOC official said.
"We await
the findings of the independent commission which will look into the
UCI's role, and the recommendations they will make to ensure a healthy
future for cycling."
Armstrong, who overcame cancer to dominate the sport, has always denied doping and maintains he never failed a drugs test.
The IOC has an eight-year statute of limitation for changing Olympic
results and stripping medals from doping offenders but IOC
vice-president Thomas Bach hinted last month there could be ways around
the time limit in this case.
"USADA's report has given some
pointers that the statute of limitation was interrupted through Lance
Armstrong lying about doping," Bach, a lawyer who heads the IOC's
juridical commission told Reuters in an interview.
"We will have to examine to see if this is a way we can follow according to Swiss law."