Lance Armstrong "was stripped of his 2000 Olympic Games cycling time trial Bronze Medal" by the IOC on Thursday, "continuing the once dominant American rider's spectacular fall from grace after a doping storm," according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. The 2000 Bronze Medal was the only Olympic medal Armstrong ever won "despite dominating cycling by winning" the Tour de France from '99-05. The IOC "had been preparing to make a move for the medal for months" but decided at its exec board meeting in December to wait for the Int'l Cycling Union (UCI) to inform Armstrong "of the titles taken from him and give him the right to appeal" (REUTERS, 1/17). An IOC spokesperson said, "We have written to Armstrong asking for him to return the medal and informed the U.S. Olympic Committee. It was a decision taken in principle at the executive board before Christmas. We were waiting for confirmation from the UCI that he hadn't appealed against his disqualification." The PA's Martyn Ziegler noted the IOC's announcement came only hours before Armstrong's expected public admission of cheating on Oprah Winfrey's program (PA, 1/17).
