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USADA has notified Mr. Armstrong that unless he initiates an arbitration proceeding with USADA under USADA’s rules by 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, July, 14, 2012, USADA will strip Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles and all other cycling victories and accomplishments and impose a lifetime ban on further competition, including banning Mr. Armstrong from competing in certain triathlon competitions in which he now earns a living.
Throughout his twenty-plus year professional career, Mr. Armstrong has
been subjected to 500 to 600 drug tests without a single positive test. Mr. Armstrong’s
drug testing has included urine testing and blood testing. These tests have been
conducted by a variety of anti-doping agencies, including USADA. These agencies have
tested for substances professional athletes are banned from using, including erythropoetin
(“EPO”), anabolic steroids, and testosterone.
Defendants now seek to ban Mr. Armstrong from competitive sports for
the rest of his life and to strip him of his seven Tour de France titles based, not on
positive drug tests, but instead on what is referred to as a “non-analytical positive”—i.e.
allegations not supported by a positive drug test. On June 12, 2012 Mr. Armstrong
received notice of a request sent by Defendants to the USADA Anti-Doping Review
Board to authorize formal action against Mr. Armstrong and five other individuals for
alleged anti-doping violations over a 14-year period from 1998 through the present, as
well as allegations about events prior to 1996, more than sixteen years ago. Defendants’
allegations lacked specificity of precise dates or years. Defendants claim that violations
occurred over the course of an extraordinarily broad, sixteen-year period that stretches
from the present to before 1996. Alleged violations involve four different teams;
however, Defendants charged only one rider: Mr. Armstrong.