Tyler with his Olympic Gold medal in 2004
A copy of Marblehead Magazine signed by Tyler Hamilton in 2003 with a broken collar bone on the day after his accident in the Tour de France.
The hometown hero who had a Marblehead day named after him, who at one point marquised on the Town’s entering sign with “The Home of Tyler Hamilton,” and who town’s people and officials nearly swooned over in ceremonies after he “won” the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal, has fallen off his high horse, or we should say, his bike.
Appearing on CBS’ 60 minutes, Tyler’s statements were previewed in the press and on the Evening News with Katie Couric. He says he personally “doped” with Lance Armstrong and saw Armstrong use performance enhancing drugs in 1999 and two other sessions in preparation for the Tour de France.
His comments, the same as his testimony before a grand jury, indicated that doping was common and essential if a cycylist wanted to be included in the elites. In Tyler’s eyes on television it was obvious that he is full of regret and sorrow over this situation, but he said that if he had chosen not to use performance-enhancing drugs the team sponsors and leaders would have just turned to the next cyclist in the pecking order and all of the years of effort, his life’s purpose, would have been for nothing. Tyler has been granted limited immunity from prosecution: if it turns out he is lying the full weight of the law will be used to bring him to justice. But there was no visual evidence of that in his appearance on 60 Minutes. But the implications of his testimony bring into question the validity of the seven Tour de France victories of Lance Armstrong, and in turn, it brings the integrity of international cycling into question as well.
A close up of the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal.
Armstrong denies the allegations. Tyler has turned in his Gold Medal. Marblehead has long-since changed its sign.
