American cyclist, and former U.S. Postal teammate to Lance Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton has returned his 2004 Olypic Gold medal in the individual time-trial race after confessing to doping.
According to Chris Manderson, Hamilton's attorney the once American Star Cyclist returned his Gold medal from the 2004 Olympics to to the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
“Tyler didn’t want to hand it in for any reason other than he knew people were going to make a stink about it,” Manderson said.
Manderson went on to say that Hamilton had returned the medal because "he did not want it to be a distraction from his recent admission to doping or his comments about Armstrong in a “60 Minutes” television interview."
In the 60 Minutes interview Hamilton says that he personally watched as Lance Armstrong injected himself with EPO in preperation for the Tour de France.
"Hamilton and Armstrong were teammates on the U.S. Postal Service team in 1999, 2000 and 2001. In an interview with “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley, airing on CBS on May 22, Hamilton said Armstrong used erythropoietin, or EPO, during the first of his seven Tour de France victories in 1999, and again to prepare for the race in 2000 and 2001.
Hamilton, who was suspended in 2005 and 2009 for doping, said he saw EPO in Armstrong’s refrigerator, and witnessed Armstrong inject himself with the drug multiple times. EPO boosts the number of oxygen-carrying red blood cells and improves stamina."
According to the New York Times:
After Hamilton’s admission became public on Thursday, Armstrong posted on Twitter an early and perhaps presumptive congratulatory note to his former teammate Viatcheslav Ekimov for being elevated to gold medalist from silver medalist in the 2004 Olympic time trial.
“Congratulations to @eki_ekimov on his 3rd Olympic Gold Medal!!” Armstrong wrote.
The Russian Olympic Committee appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2006, asking the court to strip Hamilton of his medal and award it to Ekimov, but its request was denied.
In this case, the silver medal would go to the American Bobby Julich and the bronze to the Australian Michael Rogers, the world champion from 2003 to 2005.
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