Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports Lance Armstrong’s seven Tour de France titles are gone, his Olympic medal is in jeopardy, and his reputation is destroyed now that he’s been banned from the sport for life. But while cutting off a Livestrong bracelet is now more popular than wearing one, the IOC says the sport of cycling is safe.
A report by Belga explains that the committee will not investigate the International Cycling Union’s roll in a doping culture that has persisted in the sport for nearly fifteen years. The report also concluded that that cycling is not at risk of being removed from the Olympics anytime in the near future.
“It would not be correct to punish the vast majority of clean athletes if we exclude the UCI from the Games,” said the IOC, which admonished the UCI for the breadth and depth of the doping scandal, but also called it a “pioneer” in the fight against drugs in sports.
President Jacques Rogge said the IOC is likely to implement even stiffer penalties for doping, including four-year suspensions and bans from Olympic competition.
Events like baseball and polo have been removed from the Olympic program for various reasons, including a lack of interest or an inadequate governing body. But no sport has been ejected from the Games for anything illegal, amoral, or lacking in principle, so dropping cycling would have set a dangerous precedent.
Still it’s not a surprise that the UCI feared this reality after former World Anti-Doping Agency president and IOC vice president Dick Pound told CNN he believed this was a “watershed moment” for cycling.
“We have to get this act together very quickly,” Pound said. “It is entirely likely that this was not the only team in the peloton involved in organizing cheating… If they don’t get their act together, it could spin out of control.”
We’re probably well beyond out of control after seeing the sport’s most popular athlete dubbed a fraud, but the problems have been addressed and some even removed. Cycling’s perception is tarnished worldwide, but London couldn’t have gone better for the sport. Where it goes from here is the important next step.
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Wrestling officials implement significant rules changes at Moscow meeting
May 18, 2013, 10:34 AM EDT
John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
FILA, wrestling’s governing body, is spending the weekend in Moscow cleaning house before an upcoming IOC vote will determine if they end up on the 2020 Olympics schedule. And apparently the meeting has been productive. On Saturday, acting president Nenad Lalovic, who took over after the forced resignation of president Raphael Martinetti, was officially elected…
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Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The swimming world went a little nuts Friday when NBC Fort Myers anchor Peter Busch, son of U.S. national swim team director Frank Busch, tweeted that he confirmed what many of us have hoped: Olympic champ Michael Phelps was already “planning a return to competitive swimming” after only a year or so away from the…
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Amateur International Boxing Associating president C.K. Wu of Taiwan has also apparently thrown his hat into the ring in hopes of becoming the next IOC president when current leader Jacques Rogge’s tenure is up this September. “Dr Wu handed over a letter this morning to Dr Rogge informing him about his candidacy,” a source explained…
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After the Iranian national wrestling team put a 6-1 whooping on the U.S. at Wednesday’s “Rumble on the Rails” at New York’s historic Grand Central Station, the two teams were preparing to square off again in Los Angeles Sunday as part of the “United 4 Wrestling” event to help save the sport. But USA Wrestling…
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Nintendo Global
In addition to Olympic champs like Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn, and Evan Lysacek all prepping for the Sochi Games next February, a couple other familiar faces are getting ready to compete as well: Mario the plumber and Sonic the hedgehog. Nintendo Global president Satoru Itawa announced Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter…
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While many were simply mourning the IOC’s recommendation to remove wrestling from the 2020 Olympics schedule, Billy Baldwin was busy doing something about it. And trust us, he went full Baldwin. Billy named himself Hollywood Point Man for the “Keep Olympic Wrestling” effort and has has asked Olympic champs, Hollywood friends, and strangers on the…
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Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE
After the World Baseball Softball Confederation was unceremoniously shot down by MLB commissioner Bud Selig, who said he won’t stop his season for the Games, the governing body is giving one last ditch effort to earn a spot in the Olympics before the IOC votes on its fate. Members of the WBSC met with the…
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For those intently waiting for the IOC to reveal the Sochi Olympics medals – and yes, we’ve received emails – you only have to hold out a couple more weeks. The medals will be unveiled by Sochi organizing CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko at the IOC’s meeting in St. Petersburg on May 30. “A record number of…
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NYWrestlingNews.com
A day after four-time NCAA wrestling champ Kyle Dake beat Iran’s Hassan Tahmasebi at Wednesday’s “Rumble on the Rails” – the lone American win against the world’s top team – Dake woke to a much simpler task: taking down Dan Patrick radio show producer Paulie Pabst. Dake pinned him in eleven seconds. Check out the…
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Q&A: Mark Ruffalo joins effort to “Keep Olympic Wrestling”
May 16, 2013, 12:00 PM EDT
Sue Schneider, MGP Agency
On top of all the incredible athletes wrestling at Wednesday’s “Rumble on the Rails,” many familiar faces showed up to the event in support of the Keep Olympic Wrestling movement, including champions like Dan Gable, Cael Sanderson, and Kurt Angle, NFL hall of famer Ronnie Lott, ESPN personality Mike Golic, and Hollywood point man Billy…
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VIDEO: Jordan Burroughs hopes the flair of events like “Rumble on the Rails” can save wrestling
May 16, 2013, 9:48 AM EDT
Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports
Just ahead of Jordan Burroughs match against Russia’s Saba Khubetzhty, which Burroughs won to go 53-0 in his international career, the London Olympic 74kg champ chatted with NBC’s Jimmy Roberts about what events like “Rumble on the Rails” mean amid the effort to save Olympic wrestling. “Huge events like this are awesome. I think we…
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IOC Vice President Ng Ser Miang of Singapore officially entered the race for IOC president on Thursday, announcing his candidacy at the Sorbonne in Paris where the Games were originally founded back in 1894. Ng, 64, a former vice president of the international sailing federation, has served the IOC since 1998, including time spent as…
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AP Photo/Paul Sancya
After being suspended by the IOC last December for failing to comply with the Olympic Charter, India is on the road back to the Games. The IOA has agreed, during a meeting at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne Wednesday, to hold new elections and a new Annual General Meeting. “It was a good and fruitful…
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Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE
Because “nobody remembers losers,” and because winning a gold on his home ice in Sochi next February is something that might help that problem, two-time NHL MVP Alex Ovechkin is going to join his national team in Finland and Sweden for the IIHF World Championships. Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals were ousted from the NHL playoffs in…
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As part of Hollywood Pointman Billy Baldwin’s campaign to Keep Olympic Wrestling, he’s enlisting friends and former athletes to take part in an upcoming series of public service announcements. First up: Swimming legend and nine-time gold medalist Mark Spitz, who, despite earning every medal in the pool, admits in this new video that, “There is…
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AP Photo/Georgy Abdaladze
Despite spearheading Georgia’s recent unanimous decision to compete at the Sochi Olympics, newly elected Prime Minster Bidzina Ivanishvili said that received an invite to attend next February’s Winter Games just yet. “I haven’t received an official invitation,” Ivanishvili told R-Sport. “I don’t know if I’ll go to the Olympic Games. We will see how our…
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Matt Kryger-USA TODAY Sports
The U.S., Iranian, and Russian wrestling teams are set to square-off Wednesday at New York’s historic Grand Central Station for “The Rumble on the Rails,” in hopes that their competitive cooperation can save their beloved sport from being removed from the 2020 Olympic Games. “In this crisis, we all stick together. Wrestlers maybe can do,…
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ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
Following the lead of Oscars organizers, the Grammys have fled their normal spot on the second Sunday of February in order to avoid conflicting with next year’s Sochi Games. The Grammys would have traditionally been on Feb. 9, the third night of the Olympics, so the CBS broadcast will instead be moved up two weeks…
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eBay.com
You there. You will likely never win an Olympic gold medal. Because very few are awarded each year, and to earn the ones that are, you’re probably forced to go up against the likes of Michael Phelps. But, good news: You, yes you, can purchase your very own 1952 Helsinki gold medal for the low…
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London 100m hurdling champ Sally Pearson of Australia suffered another setback Sunday, injuring her already ailing hamstring during a rare 4x100m relay appearance in Sri Lanka. Pearson, who was expected to make her season debut on the hurdles two weeks from now in Manchester, had already missed the Australian season. Now the fresh grade-one tear…
