IOC to Strip Hamilton of Gold

[buckle]

Didn't Tyler sober up for the Olympics? In other words he was clean. If the IOC had any imagination they would let him keep the medal in exchange for dishing the dirt. Legally, they are stripping his medal on hearsay as in Tyler's own. If his hearsay is so powerful, why not ask him some pressing questions about the sport of cycling?

 

[BroDeal]

The smart move would be to vacate the title. Just a simple guess at what is likely to come out out of the hearing about U.S. Postal would show the danger of handing the title to Ekimov. There is a huge potential for it to be turned into a farce. Politically it seems to be a really stupid move.

A different event with a different second place would be a different situation.

 

[KayLow]

I tend to think d) podium positions should always be final. I've certainly never agreed with pretending that somebody else won - having no winner is preferable. If you don't want a doper winning your race then all the more incentive to prevent him riding / catch him before the race starts (and especially before it ends)

In this particular instance wasn't Hamilton warned about his values months before the race ? If you let him start your race under those circumstances then you either accept he was sufficiently clean as defined by your testing parameters, or accept you made a mistake in letting him start

I think it depends on the event as to whether you should rejigger the order when someone tests positive. In events where athletes do not compete directly against each other (e.g. high jump or time trials), I am okay with reordering the medals when a medalist is later DQ'ed. In strategic races where people compete directly against one another, having a doper in the field changes the complexion of the race completely. If you look at the men's 1500 meter final in this year's Olympics, the winner, an unheralded Algerian runner suspected by many of doping, blasted forward with about 300 meters to go. A few of the favorites gave chase but were not able to hold on due to how far out the final sprint started. This allowed slower runners who did not even try to chase the leader to grab the silver and bronze. If you take the winner and his miraculous 300 meter sprint out of the picture, the results of the race are totally different. It would be unfair to award the gold to a guy who would have finished in the back half of the field had the doper never entered the competition.

Since Hamilton's gold was in the time trial, I think it is fine to give it to Ekimov. Sure, Ekimov is probably a doper, too, but he already took home the silver anyway. If Ekimov cheated, the status quo is little changed by upgrading him to the gold.

 

[cyclestationgiuseppe]

One of the choices should have been to take all the medals and shove them up Fat Pat McQuaids ****!

 

[Dr. Maserati]

Just posted on the NYDailynews site that Hamilton wrote to the IOC requesting that his name be taken off the offical records.

In appreciation, Jacques Rogges wrote to Hamilton saying "I very much appreciate that you have expressed regret for having used performance enhancing drugs and that you hope that, through your example and future efforts, this will discourage others from using performance enhancing drugs,"

Also, noteworthy from the article is that Tyler is "co-operating" on a book with Daniel Coyle, who wrote Lance Armstrongs War.

 

[ElChingon]

With the statute of limitations up, the IOC has decided to strip Tyler Hamilton of his Gold medal from 2004, and hand it to the guy who was sitting just to his left on the infamous USPS blood doping bus. In case you forgot, Tyler already turned over his medal to the USOC voluntarily some time ago.

Ekimov now "wins" the gold. He is also on record saying that Tyler is a liar, and there was no doping on the USPS team by anyone, especially he and Lance.

Bobby Julich up to silver, Michael Rogers now gets the bronze.

Poll votes are public.

But why until now? Just because the statute of limitations are up? or about to be up? They could of done this sooner, waiting till the last possible moment and then if they do wait till the last possible moment then Eki will then also fall under hatchet a couple months later, leaving the same issue behind but outside the statute of limitations, right? Seems like a lot of nothing will end up transpiring and the IOC will end up looking like the UCI at the end.

 

[Hugh Januss]

But why until now? Just because the statute of limitations are up? or about to be up? They could of done this sooner, waiting till the last possible moment and then if they do wait till the last possible moment then Eki will then also fall under hatchet a couple months later, leaving the same issue behind but outside the statute of limitations, right? Seems like a lot of nothing will end up transpiring and the IOC will end up looking like the UCI at the end.

I think you got it backwards, the UCI is patterned after the IOC not the other way around.

 

[pugdog]

I think you got it backwards, the UCI is patterned after the IOC not the other way around.

At last! Someone who discerns the truth!

 

[ElChingon]

I think you got it backwards, the UCI is patterned after the IOC not the other way around.

So no info on the timing?

 

[Square-pedaller]

But why until now? Just because the statute of limitations are up? or about to be up? They could of done this sooner, waiting till the last possible moment and then if they do wait till the last possible moment then Eki will then also fall under hatchet a couple months later, leaving the same issue behind but outside the statute of limitations, right? Seems like a lot of nothing will end up transpiring and the IOC will end up looking like the UCI at the end.

Just my take: yes, I think it's exactly because the statute of limitations is about to be up. We may think that Eki was doping, but that doesn't mean that he shouldn't be awarded the medal (and everybody else moved up). If Hamilton had not even been in the race, and Eki had won, he would have been awarded the medal (even if everyone suspected him of doping), so he needs to be awarded the medal now. On the other hand IOC have left it until now because there is a chance that Eki will be implicated in the USPS stuff. They would have looked silly if they'd given him the medal before the SOL was up and he'd been exposed a week later.

The same logic applies to TdF wins, but I feel that those ought not to be filled if 7 wins are vacated. This is only a message board, and nothing I say is going to affect anything, so I reserve the right to be illogical on this

I don't think Hamilton would want the medal back. He gave it back in order to make peace with himself.

Did anyone else notice the bit in the CN article that said that although Hamilton said he's returned the medal, he hadn't done so until recently? Something for Arnstrnong to use to show that Hamilton's word is unreliable ... (but that's another thread).

 

[sittingbison]

It would be cool if...they should award all three medals to an asterisk. Not to riders with an asterisk, but to the asterisk itself.

*

Although I voted for no award, there is one slight problem with awarding the medal to Asterix:

which is THIS!!:

and THIS!!:

 

[sniper]

When Rogers retires, how many medals will he have that were handed down from dopers doing the same thing he was? How does he get up in the morning and look at himself in the mirror? Down in Australia does he actually promote himself as the winner or medal winner of these events?

The smart move would be to vacate the title. Just a simple guess at what is likely to come out out of the hearing about U.S. Postal would show the danger of handing the title to Ekimov. There is a huge potential for it to be turned into a farce. Politically it seems to be a really stupid move.

A different event with a different second place would be a different situation.

+1 to both.

Just posted on the NYDailynews site that Hamilton wrote to the IOC requesting that his name be taken off the offical records.

In appreciation, Jacques Rogges wrote to Hamilton saying "I very much appreciate that you have expressed regret for having used performance enhancing drugs and that you hope that, through your example and future efforts, this will discourage others from using performance enhancing drugs,"

Also, noteworthy from the article is that Tyler is "co-operating" on a book with Daniel Coyle, who wrote Lance Armstrongs War.

thanks for the heads up.
tyler is climbing fast on my list of alltime cycling heroes, which is still topped by floyd of course, and which furthermore stars names like Jaksche, Kohl, and the Spanish rider whose name doesn't occur to me now but who came clean after almost paying for doping with his life in 2001(?).

 

[Maxiton]

Although I voted for no award, there is one slight problem with awarding the medal to Asterix:

which is THIS!!:

and THIS!!:

Good one.

 

[sittingbison]

...the Spanish rider whose name doesn't occur to me now but who came clean after almost paying for doping with his life in 2001(?).

Jesus Manzano?

 

[the asian]

They shouldn't give it to anyone. It will be comedy stuff if they award the Gold to Ekimov and he goes down the drain in the USPS hearing.

 

[stainlessguy1]

Remove Professionals

Black out Tyler's result and proceed with removing Road Cycling from the Olympics all together.

I have to disagree.
The thing to be removed is professionals competeting in the olympics. They are more abt to have to dope , since it is their job and day in and day out must race for the benefit of the fans and sponsors.

Bring the Olympics back on track with what it was ment to be , and remove the professionals of any sport , in both summer and winter olympics.
Professional athletes can have their World Cup and World Championship competitions .

I see this as the only chance to rebuild clean athletes ( in the generations to come ) , because there will be less governing bodies in place , and less financial power athletes with abilities to bribe officials. The Issue of connections between all the official dignitaries in the governing bodies can be disrupted , when the world watches .
The olympics is still watched by more people than individual sports. So any country still continuing to dope their athletes will be wearing that black smudge internationally .

So amateur athletes , can say good by to all endorsements , all nike adds all tooth paste commercial adds and so on and so forth , Athletes get nominal government funding and parents and family and that is it .

No extra money for drugs .

Now if that were to happen , i guess you could just see the participation level drop to just the dedicated to the sport . NO HOLY Grail .. what race for Honour ? Are you Mad ?

Yes I am Mad , race for Honour .

 

[pugdog]

Avery Brundage fought the fight to keep the Olympics for amateur athletes only. What a mess it was! The eastern block countries were army officers, in the west there were policemen and customs officers galore. All full time athletes and all doped to the tip of their ears. It was ghastly.

They should call a moratorium on trying to correct the past. Let the results stand. Them choose a date, and try the impossible and make all sports federations behave responsibly. At present it's everyone for himself, and the inequalities are too numerous to mention.

 

[hrotha]

Although I voted for no award, there is one slight problem with awarding the medal to Asterix:

which is THIS!!:

and THIS!!:

Funny thing about that, Asterix was going to use the magic potion because he didn't know it was illegal. When they were informed they weren't allowed to use dope, they decided to have Obelix withdraw from the Games, as it wouldn't be fair if he participated, and Asterix actually ran clean. He won because every other athlete in the race (all Romans) were disqualified for drinking the magic potion.

 

[TheMight]

I don't think Hamilton would want the medal back. He gave it back in order to make peace with himself.

And I hope he finds it. I give him respect for coming clean, that's not easy.

 

[Radway]

They shouldn't give it to anyone. It will be comedy stuff if they award the Gold to Ekimov and he goes down the drain in the USPS hearing.

And so, if such were to be the case, then Julich would be awarded the gold medal?

 

[DirtyWorks]

They should call a moratorium on trying to correct the past. Let the results stand. Them choose a date, and try the impossible and make all sports federations behave responsibly. At present it's everyone for himself, and the inequalities are too numerous to mention.

That's not possible with an IOC that actively encourages non-life-threatening doping with bio-passport theater. Just don't get caught.

The IOC knows it's a bigger, better show with PED's than without.

Early on there was a very insightful post that got it exactly right. The rules of the Olympic games is to win and test clean. Until the IOC is completely embarrassed again and has to grant WADA more anti-doping authority, they are going to redo Sky's results too.

 

[The Hitch]

Funny thing about that, Asterix was going to use the magic potion because he didn't know it was illegal. When they were informed they weren't allowed to use dope, they decided to have Obelix withdraw from the Games, as it wouldn't be fair if he participated, and Asterix actually ran clean. He won because every other athlete in the race (all Romans) were disqualified for drinking the magic potion.

Few of us truly appreciate how much we learn everytime we visit the clinic.

 

[noddy69]

That's not possible with an IOC that actively encourages non-life-threatening doping with bio-passport theater. Just don't get caught.

The IOC knows it's a bigger, better show with PED's than without.

Early on there was a very insightful post that got it exactly right. The rules of the Olympic games is to win and test clean. Until the IOC is completely embarrassed again and has to grant WADA more anti-doping authority, they are going to redo Sky's results too.

Surely that should say...thinks its a better show. Wrongly obviously because that is a doping mentality.It of course would be more open to great racing on a clean even playing field rather than creating false heroes from drugs we might actually get racing.

Kudos to Tyler, hope he gets peace out of it. Too much to ask others to do the same.