2000 Sydney Olympic time trial podium: Jan Ulrich, Viatcheslav Ekimov and Lance Armstrong
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Calls on Armstong to provide “complete and open testimony”
Lance Armstrong should “come clean with a complete and open testimony,” IOC vice president Thomas Bach has said. He also added that Armstrong may lose his Olympic medal – a bronze medal he won in the men’s time trial in Sydney in 2000.
“For this procedure to be comprehensive, it would be good for the sport and for himself if Lance Armstrong would stop burying his head in the sand and come clean with a complete and open testimony,” Bach, a German lawyer who heads the International Olympic Committee’s legal panel and manages doping investigations, told the Reuters news agency. “It is late but not too late; it would be a cleansing process.”
The IOC cannot act on the matter until there is further action on the USADA’s Reasoned Decision.
“This case is now with the UCI ,which has to determine whether Armstrong should have taken part in the Sydney Olympics or not,” Bach said.
“If the case is that he should not have taken part, that he should have been banned for that period, then the IOC will take its decision on this basis and will need to decide on the stripping of the medal.”
Although there is generally an eight-year statute of limitations, Bach thought this case might prove an exception. “USADA’s report has given some pointers that the statute of limitation was interrupted through Lance Armstrong lying about doping. We will have to examine to see if this is a way we can follow according to Swiss law.”
Meanwhile, the case is in the hands of the UCI. “I am certain that they will examine it carefully and then take the necessary consequences. I am confident the UCI will react in a comprehensive and appropriate way.”
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