2004 gold medalist Tyler Hamilton will be formally stripped of his medal by the IOC after he admitted to doping during the 2004 Athen Games. (Mandatory Credit: Alain Mounic/Presse Sports via US PRESSWIRE)
Eight years after realizing a dream and winning gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics, American cyclist Tyler Hamilton is having his gold medal stripped, and his dream crushed after he admitted to using performance enhancing drugs. The IOC executive board will be meeting tomorrow to readjust the standings in the wake of Hamilton’s medal strip.
The new official gold medalist from the 2004 will be Russian Viatcheslav Ekimov while American Bobby Julich will be moved up from bronze to silver, and Aussie Michael Rogers from fourth to bronze.
The reallocation of medals comes after a CBS “60 minutes” interview in which Hamilton finally admitted to doping during the games, an allegation he had denied for years. The interview made headlines as Hamilton not only admitted he used performance enhancing drugs, but claimed he got them from fellow user Lance Armstrong.
The IOC is holding off on reallocating the medals to see if there is any other information in the U.S. investigation that involved Hamilton that will implicate other riders. Ekimov also has a history of interacting with Armstrong, whom Hamilton claims he got eh drugs from. The IOC wants to be positive Ekimov and the other medalists are clean before giving them their new medals.
Another option for the IOC is to just disqualify Hamilton and leave the standings as they are, only with a vacant gold medal.
Hamilton had already turned over his Olympic gold medal to the USDA during the investigation into doping allegations, but the IOC had yet to receive the medal and readjust the standings. Hamilton is another in a long line o Olympic athletes that have been stripped of the gold.
