Lance Armstrong will be stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said on Thursday after the cycling icon announced he would no longer fight the drug charges that have stained his legacy.
The USADA said Armstrong would be barred from cycling for life for using performance-enhancing drugs to win cycling’s most prestigious race from 1999 to 2005, charges that Armstrong has vehemently denied.
Armstrong, while maintaining his innocence, announced his decision after a US federal court dismissed his lawsuit against the USADA on Monday, paving the way for the agency to continue its case against him.
Photo: AFP
The agency said in June it had evidence that Armstrong used banned substances, including information supplied by former teammates.
Armstrong accused the agency of launching an “unconstitutional witch hunt” against him as he declined to pursue procedures that could take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“Today, I turn the page,” Armstrong said in a statement on his Web site. “I will no longer address the issue, regardless of the circumstances. I will commit myself to the work I began before ever winning a single Tour de France title — serving people and families affected by cancer, especially those in underserved communities.”
The 40-year-old said he was growing weary of the fight, and the strain it had put on his personal and professional life.
“There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say: ‘Enough is enough.’ For me, that time is now,” he said. “The toll this has taken on my family, and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today — finished with this nonsense.”
USADA chief Travis Tygart said that Armstrong would be stripped of all his results dating back to Aug. 1, 1998.
In a separate written statement, Tygart called the move a “sad day” for the sporting world and said the “win-at-all-costs culture of sport” needs to change.
He also expressed hope that future crackdowns on athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs would create a “level playing field.”
“It is a sad day for all of us who love sport and our athletic heroes,” Tygart said. “This is a heartbreaking example of how the win-at-all-costs culture of sport, if left unchecked, will overtake fair, safe and honest competition, but for clean athletes, it is a reassuring reminder that there is hope for future generations to compete on a level playing field, without the use of performance-enhancing drugs.”
Tygart said Armstrong did not officially notify the agency that he was dropping the fight.
The USADA claims Armstrong used banned substances, including the blood-booster EPO and steroids, as well as blood transfusions dating back to 1996.
It also says it has 10 former Armstrong teammates who were ready to testify against him.
Armstrong argued that the agency was usurping the jurisdiction that should belong to world cycling’s governing body, the International Cycling Union (UCI).
Armstrong, who retired from cycling last year, sued in federal court to try to halt the USADA’s proceedings, but the case was dismissed on Monday.
He said he passed hundreds of drug tests during his career and that he adhered to the rules that were in place at the time of his Tour de France wins.
“The bottom line is I played by the rules that were put in place by the UCI, WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency] and USADA when I raced,” Armstrong wrote. “The idea that athletes can be convicted today without positive A and B samples, under the same rules and procedures that apply to athletes with positive tests, perverts the system and creates a process where any begrudged ex-teammate can open a USADA case out of spite or for personal gain, or a cheating cyclist can cut a sweetheart deal for themselves.”
Armstrong also alleged the USADA had used heavy-handed tactics to pursue him and that it had even broken the law.
The agency “turned its back on its own rules and stiff-armed those who have tried to persuade USADA to honor its obligations,” he said.
“I refuse to participate in a process that is so one-sided and unfair,” Armstrong added, alleging that from the start the investigation had been “about punishing me at all costs.”
Allegations of doping by Armstrong were made in two books, LA Confidential and L.A. Official.
In 2005, the French magazine L’Equipe reported that retested urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France indicated use of EPO.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but