The Olympic medal stripped from Lance Armstrong is now in an International Olympic Committee vault.
Armstrong, the disgraced seven-time Tour de France champion, won a bronze medal in the 2000 Olympic time trial. He was stripped of it eight months ago after admitting to doping during his career.
“It’s in a vault,” IOC spokeswoman Nadia Bonjour told Agence France-Presse.
Another IOC spokesman, Mark Adams, told The Associated Press that the return of the medal marked “the end of a sad chapter for the sport.”
The medal will not be redistributed, which is no surprise given the leaderboard from that 2000 Olympic time trial.
Armstrong, a three-time Olympian, finished third behind one of his longtime U.S. Postal Service Team members, Russian Viatcheslav Ekimov, and German rival Jan Ullrich.
According to court documents, another stripped Tour de France winner, Floyd Landis, said Ekimov received blood transfusions with other USPS team members during the 2004 Tour de France.
In June, Ullrich admitted to blood doping during his career but has not been stripped of his 1997 Tour de France title.
“I am no better than Armstrong, but no worse either,” Ullrich said.
The fourth-place finisher from that 2000 Olympic time trial, Spain’s Abraham Olano, was fired from his technical director role with the Vuelta a Espana Grand Tour in July after his name came up in French senate report of cyclists who doped in the 1998 Tour de France.
The fifth-place finisher from that race, France’s Laurent Jalabert, acknowledged a positive drug test from the 1998 Tour de France in July.
The IOC wrote to Armstrong to return the medal in January, but he didn’t give it up until Sept. 12.
https://twitter.com/lancearmstrong/statuses/378235125961461760
Postcard from Munich 1972 Olympic venues; massacre site today
