Lance Armstrong stripped of his 7 Tour de France titles
due to “doping”
Lance Armstrong, who used to hold seven Tour de France titles, was a heavy
doper, who had been investigated for many years. Lance Armstrong was stripped of his
record seven Tour de France titles after he refused to fight allegations that he used
performance-enhancing drugs. He was banned from competing in Olympic and other
elite-level sports for the rest of his life. On Oct. 22, 2012, the Union Cycliste
Internationale (UCI) agreed to strip Lance Armstrong's titles including his seven Tour de
France championships. They stripped him of his victories back to 1 August; 1998. The
International Olympic Committee demanded that he give back the bronze medal he won
in 2000. On Oct. 17, 2012, Nike terminated its contract with Armstrong, "due to the
seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and
misled Nike for more than a decade."
In an interview with Oprah on January 13, 2013, Armstrong admitted to having
used performance enhancing drugs, including EPO, testosterone, cortisone, HGH, illegal
blood transfusions and other blood doping, starting from the mid-1990s through his final
Tour de France win in 2005. He said, "I viewed it as very simple. You had things that
were oxygen-boosting drugs that were incredible beneficial for endurance sports, and
that's all you needed. My cocktail was only EPO, transfusions, and testosterone."
However, he insisted he didn’t use drugs in 2009 or 2010.
Written by : Ahmed Koptan