Tyler Hamilton to be officially stripped of his Gold Medal from 2004

Submitted by Kris Thompson on

FILE - In this Aug. 18, 2004, file photo, Tyler Hamilton holds up his gold medal after the men's road individual time trial of the 2004 Olympic Games in the outskirts of Athens. The IOC is set to formally strip American cyclist Tyler Hamilton of his gold from the 2004 Athens Games and reassign the medals after his admission of doping, according to an Olympic official familiar with the case. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

LONDON (AP) — The IOC is set to formally strip American cyclist Tyler Hamilton of his gold from the 2004 Athens Games and reassign the medals after his admission of doping, according to an Olympic official familiar with the case.

With the eight-year deadline approaching, the official told The Associated Press the IOC executive board will meet Friday to readjust the standings from the road race time trial and award the gold to retired Russian rider Viatcheslav Ekimov.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision hasn't been announced yet.

After years of denials, Hamilton told CBS's "60 Minutes" last year that he had repeatedly used performance-enhancing drugs. The IOC asked for documents from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency before reallocating the medals.

The gold will now go to Ekimov, a former teammate of Hamilton and Lance Armstrong.
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6 Comments

Until yesterday, the cycling

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Until yesterday, the cycling media (well, that subset of the cycling media that I keep up with) has presented it as it was the IOC's initiative to strip him and they had only a few days before the statute of limitations expired to decide to move ahead or not. Since he's already confessed to his transgressions, it certainly would've seemed odd for there to be any question about this. Just saying, to see that he initiated this action is admirable. Only criticism is that he waited so late to do it.