Lance Armstrong Returns 2000 Olympic Medal
Lance Armstrong returned his 2000 Olympic bronze medal on Thursday. The disgraced cyclist was ordered by the International Olympic Committee to return the medal earlier this year.
Armstrong tweeted a photo of the medal before he sent it off to the US Olympic Committee headquarters, writing, “The 2000 Bronze is back in possession of @usolympics and will be in Switzerland asap to @olympics.”
The former cyclist was accused of doping several times before he finally admitted to it in January. Since then, CNN reports that Lance has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.
Armstrong, born in Texas, was a rising star in the cycling world when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996. He received treatment and returned to the sport, winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times between 1999 and 2005. He then left the sport, but came back four years later to place third in his final Tour.
He also received the Olympic bronze for cycling at the 2000 summer games in Australia, but his doping finally caught up with him. CBS News notes that Lance Armstrong gave the Olympic medal back to the US Olympic Committee, which will return it to the IOC headquarters in Switzerland.
In his doping confession to Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong called himself “deeply flawed.” He added that he used several performance enhancing drugs during his career and also took blood transfusions to compete in the already scandal-ridden world of professional cycling.
He added in the interview, “This is too late, it’s too late for probably most people. And that’s my fault. [That was] one big lie, that I repeated a lot of times.” The IOC asked for Armstrong’s bronze medal back the same day the first part of his interview aired.
Armstrong is also facing lawsuits by multiple sponsors and the US government. All of them are asking for the money back that they gave him in endorsement deals and other transactions related to his cycling career. While Lance Armstrong has given back his Olympic medal, it isn’t known if he will have to give up his seven yellow jerseys as well.
[Image via s_bukley / Shutterstock.com]
