IOC awaiting return of Armstrong`s medal

Buenos Aires: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) are awaiting the return of disgraced American cyclist Lance Armstrong`s Olympic bronze medal from the 2000 Games in Sydney nine months after they asked for it back, the head of the IOC`s judicial commission, Thomas Bach, revealed on Monday.

The IOC had written to Armstrong -- who was third in the time-trial event in Sydney -- in January to ask him hand back the medal, but Bach admitted that while the cyclist had accepted the punishment he had yet to honour his promise to return the medal. "We declared his result null and void and decided not to bump up anyone into the bronze medal position (Spaniard Abraham Olano finished fourth)," said Bach, who is the favourite to succeed outgoing IOC President Jacques Rogge in Tuesday`s election in Buenos Aires. "This has not been challenged but we are sadly lacking the medal. We are working with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to get it back as we requested." The IOC had had to wait to punish the American until world cycling`s governing body the International Cycling Union (UCI) sanctioned Armstrong, which it did on December 6 last year, and the following three weeks in which the Texan had recourse to appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life in October, 2012, after the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) produced evidence of widespread doping by him and his former team-mates. AFP