And for your daily dose of Lance news: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has officially stripped Lance Armstrong of his road time trial medal from the 2000 Olympic Games. The IOC has asked the disgraced cyclist to return the medal.
Rather than awarding his medal to the fourth-place finisher, Abraham Olano Manzano, the IOC plans to leave Armstrong’s spot vacant. The decision is a departure from the IOC’s stance in August, when the committee awarded Tyler Hamilton’s 2004 gold to Vyacheslav Ekimov following the former’s doping confession. The IOC is currently deciding whether to strip Levi Leipheimer, who also confessed to doping in his testimony to USADA, of the time-trial bronze that he won at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The suit also raises disturbing questions about the links between Weisel, the wealthy banker who founded Armstrong’s team, and officials of USA Cycling, the parent organization of the sport’s governing body in the United States.
The suit says USA Cycling executives Steve Johnson and Jim Ochowicz had financial ties with Weisel’s investment bank, as well as Tailwind Sports and Capital Sports and Entertainment, corporate entities controlled by Weisel and Armstrong. Ochowicz, the president of USA Cycling’s board from 2002 to 2008, was also a broker at Weisel’s investment bank.
Armstrong is widely expected to confess to doping in a two-part interview with Oprah Winfrey, the first segment of which will air tonight.
Read our ongoing coverage of the Lance Armstrong confession.