GENEVA (AFP) — The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Thursday said it had formally begun an investigation into whether to strip Lance Armstrong of the bronze medal he won in the time trial at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
“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,” it said in a statement.
The body, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, applauded the decision by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to confirm Armstrong’s lifetime ban from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
The IOC said it welcomed “all measures that will shed light on the full extent of this episode and allow the sport to reform and to move forward.”
Armstrong won bronze in the individual time trial in Sydney behind gold medalist Viatcheslav Ekimov of Russia and Germany’s Jan Ullrich, who took silver.
In 2011, confessed doper Tyler Hamilton, one of 11 former teammates who testified against Armstrong, handed back the time-trial gold medal that he won at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
The IOC awarded the medal to Ekimov.
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