The Slatest

Why Hasn’t Lance Armstrong Returned His Olympic Medal?

Lance Armstrong (L) departs at the start of the third day of the RAGBRAI en route to West Des Moines on July 23, 2013 in Perry, Iowa.

Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Over the last year, much of the hardware (along with other things) Lance Armstrong racked up during his cycling career has been stripped from the disgraced star. But there’s one thing that Armstrong is apparently still holding on to—his Olympic medal.

Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles last year and, after he admitted to using performance enhancing drugs in January, the International Olympic Committee also stripped the cyclist’s bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Games.

There’s just one problem: Armstrong hasn’t given the medal back, Reuters reports. “We still do not have the medal back,” IOC Vice President Thomas Bach said at an Olympic Committee session. “We will continue to work with the United States Olympic Committee to get this medal back as requested in our decision.”

“This (the IOC’s January) decision has been communicated to Mr Armstrong and the USOC. This decision has not been appealed neither by Mr Armstrong, nor by the USOC and what we are lacking, sadly, is getting back the medal. Legally the case for the IOC is closed,” Bach told other committee members.