Lance Armstrong Stripped of 2000 Olympic Bronze Medal in Wake of Doping Scandal

Shamed sports icon ordered to return the medal he won at the games in Sydney Australia

By Josh Grossberg Jan 17, 2013 3:07 PMTags
Lance Armstrong, OprahOWN

Another day, another humiliation for Lance Armstrong.

The International Olympic Committee has officially taken back the bronze medal the disgraced cycling star won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics due to his doping scandal.

Per the U.K.'s Daily Mail, a letter sent to Armstrong Wednesday night by the IOC executive board asked him to return the medal, which he earned after coming in third in the road time trial.

The IOC did so after the 41-year-old sports legend failed to appeal a decision by the International Cycling Union, cycling's governing body, to strip him of his seven Tour de France titles and disqualify all his results dating back to 1998. Armstrong was reportedly given 21 days to file an appeal.

"We were waiting for confirmation from the UCI that he hadn't appealed against his disqualification," an IOC spokesman told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, the first installment of an extensive interview Armstrong gave Oprah Winfrey earlier this week, in which he allegedly confessed to doping after years of adamant denials, is set to air tonight on the former talk-show queen's OWN cable network and on the Internet, starting at 9 p.m.