Lance Armstrong has already lost his seven Tour de France titles, been fired by everyone from Nike to his own cancer charity, and been systematically deleted from the hearts and minds of his fans. The only thing that seems to be missing is a small kid shouting, “Say it ain’t so, Lance.”
Now all the disgraced cyclist has left is the yellow jerseys he recently Tweeted himself lounging under, and an Olympic medal from the Sydney Games.
Well not so fast there, Lance. The IOC is thinking about ignoring it’s own eight-year statute of limitations on revoking medals and changing results in order to take back the road cycling bronze Armstrong won in 2000. The executive board will discuss the matter at a meeting in Switzerland next week.
“The board is following a zero-tolerance policy on doping,” IOC vice president Thomas Bach told the AP.
The IOC might demand the medal’s return next week, but is more likely to wait until after the International Cycling Union officially notifies Armstrong about the loss of his seven TdF titles.
Armstrong’s loss of his medal seems imminent at this point. The only thing really holding the IOC back is that pesky eight-year statute of limitations, but the IOC is hoping they can legally prove that it doesn’t apply in this case, if only to “get this one behind us.”
“USADA and the UCI went outside the eight-year limit on the basis that the statute simply doesn’t apply if you have broken the law,” Australian IOC member John Coates told a national newspaper. “So I imagine our lawyer will see if that applies with us.”
