Hamilton, who is now 40, tested positive for blood doping at Athens in 2004 but was allowed to keep the medal in the individual time-trial event because no back-up test could be done.

He returned the medal to the USADA, following accustions to be made in a programme to be broadcast on CBS on Sunday (May 22) that Armstrong, the seven-time winner of the Tour de France, used Erythropoietin (EPO).

Chris Manderson, Hamilton's lawyer, claimed he delivered the medal to USADA last week because he did not want it to be a distraction from his recent admission to doping or his comments about Armstrong.

"Tyler didn't want to hand it in for any reason other than he knew people were going to make a stink about it," Manderson said.

Hamilton and Armstrong were teammates on the US Postal Service team betweeen 1999 and 2001.

In an interview with "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley, Hamilton said Armstrong used EPO during the first of his seven Tour de France victories in 1999, and again to prepare for the race in 2000 and 2001.

Hamilton, who was suspended in 2005 and 2009 for doping, said he saw EPO in Armstrong's refrigerator, and witnessed Armstrong inject himself with the drug multiple times.

Armstrong denied the accusation through his spokesman, Mark Fabiani.

"Hamilton is actively seeking to make money by writing a book, and now he has completely changed the story he has always told before so that he could get himself on '60 Minutes' and increase his chances with publishers," Fabiani said.

The spokesman claimed that Armstrong has taken and passed more than 500 doping tests over 20 years of competitions.

USADA, which said it does not comment on the details of active investigations, said it is working with the·International Olympic Committee and the·United States Olympic Committee as appropriate "concerning the final implications of our overall investigation."

"USADA continues its ongoing investigation into the sport of cycling," the agency said in the release.

"Where there is credible evidence of doping, a fair and thorough process exists for resolving such violations."


If the IOC officially strip Hamilton of his Olympic title then it should pass to the runner-up, Russia's Viatcheslav Ekimov.

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) had appealed against the decision which allowed Hamilton to keep the medal in the first place.

Hamilton's initial blood sample tested positive for blood doping, but the lab mistakenly froze the backup sample, rendering it unsuitable for the required second test, meaning that under the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency the IOC could not disqualify the American.

It would be the third Olympic gold medal of Ekimov's career.

He was a member of the Soviet Union team that claimed victory in the track team pursuit at Seoul in 1988 and he also won the individual time trial at Sydney in 2000.

With Hamilton disqualified, the bronze medallist Bobby Julich would move up to silver while Australian Michael Rogers would be awarded the bronze.

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