Lance Armstrong became a professional cyclist in 1992 and 1996; he underwent surgery and chemotherapy to treat testicular cancer. The period between 1996-2005, he won the Tour de France record seven times but retired from active cycling in 2005 but returned in 2009 before retiring a second time two years later.
Despite the persistent doping allegations, no official investigations had been conducted on Armstrong up until 2006.
The first break in the case was in 2004.
2010 – 2012 Federal inquiry – The US federal prosecutors took upon themselves to pursue Armstrong and press charges on him for the year 2010-2012.
On Feb 2, 2012 – The US federal prosecutors dropped their criminal investigations with no accusations.
USADA Investigation – 2011-2012: In June 2012, USADA was accused of using drugs and trafficking them, and this was according to results posted from his blood samples. Primarily, this led to him being suspended from cycling competitions. USADA reported showed that Armstrong utilized banned substances including blood booster EPO, steroids as well as blood transfusions starting from 1996.
June 2012 – Armstrong filed a lawsuit requesting the court to deter USADA from conducting a search on him. However, Judge Sam Sparks dismissed the initial lawsuit for being overly lengthy, and Armstrong filed a revised lawsuit. However, the judge ruled for USADA on August 20 and August 24, 2012, USADA he was finally charged with doping. After that, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) asked USADA to issue a “reasoned decision” detailing on why they felt that Armstrong should be denied the titles he had held. On October 10, USADA gave their detailed report of the findings in a 200-page report accompanied by a 1000 pages evidence including testimonials from 11 former teammates and 15 other witnesses. In the report, Armstrong was reportedly the mastermind behind his massive doping program. On October 22, UCI said that they would not appeal USADA’s decision to the court of arbitration for sport and this was another way of saying that it accepted the report findings. Consequently, all Armstrong titles from August 1, 1998, including his Tour de France titles were scrapped. WADA also confirmed that it would not appeal USADA decision.
On January 17, 2013 – the International Olympic Committee erased all his 2000 Summer Olympics records and asked him to return the medals.
The French Cycling Federation (FCF) also admitted to claims and said that Armstrong had used the doping materials.
On October 17, 2012 – Armstrong resigned from being the chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. However, this was followed by the cutting of ties with him by Nike, Trek Bicycles Corporation, FRS Healthy Performance, Honey Stinger, 24 Hour Fitness and RadioShack.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey show on January 13, 2013, Armstrong agreed to have used performance-enhancing drugs