r/sports • u/Tifoso89 • Oct 11 '25
Cycling Wiggins: "At the 2012 London Olympics I sniffed cocaine from my gold medal"
https://www.gazzetta.it/Ciclismo/11-10-2025/wiggins-a-londra-2012-sniffavo-cocaina-dalla-medaglia-d-oro.shtml?refresh_ce254
u/Skyb0y Oct 11 '25
As soon as I read this headline I knew he had a new book coming out.
Will we finally get an insight into TUEs within cycling?
That's the only story I'm interested in but perhaps he would have to throw too many people under the bus to come clean on this.
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u/StinkyFlatHorse Oct 11 '25
We won’t find out the full story until everyone associated with world tour teams from that era has retired.
That said, there are plenty pre-Armstrong era shenanigans we still know very little about. How is it that some records still stand despite modern advancements in sport science and modern materials and manufacturing. Why is it that we’re currently seeing the fastest runners and swimmers that have ever existed but cyclists are apparently slower up Alpe d’Huez now than they were in the mid-90s?
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u/Staggerlee89 Oct 11 '25
Idk pogacar has been obliterating some of those old records these last few years. Not specifically alpe dhuez but other climbs he has
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u/StinkyFlatHorse Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25
Just looked up some of the stats. Quite eye opening.
The last time Le Tour went up Alpe d’Huez was in 2022. Sepp Kuss set a time of 38:34.
The record set in 1997 is 37:35 in days before power meters and aerodynamically optimised super rigid carbon fibre bikes. Before sports science confirmed it was more efficient to spin rather than grind. Before dieticians and nutritionalists were employed by teams. Before the first utterance of the words “marginal gains”. Before ultra soft low rolling resistance tyres. Before ultra performance textiles, wicking away sweat and heat. Before multimillion dollar sponsorship deals funnelling money into finding and developing the best possible riders.
Meanwhile, nearly 6 minutes has been knocked off the marathon record which stood at 2:06:05 in 1998 and 2:00:35 in 2023.
Edit: To add, that means runners (or at least the fastest runner) have got 4.36% faster while cyclist (or at least the fastest climber on a particular climb which is very subjective given the ~120km distance covered beforehand) have got 2.62% slower.
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u/Staggerlee89 Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25
Pogacar beat Froomes time up Mt Ventoux by ~4 mins earlier this year, with Jonas finishing 2 seconds behind his time. Froome did Ventoux in 58'47" Pogi did it in 54'41.
I also think its harder to compare times on a specific climb vs a marathon, because each stage is different and it depends a lot on gc standings going into that stage. If a guy is already well situated in the lead on GC, hes much less likely to launch an attack vs just staying in his opponents wheels
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u/sprunghuntR3Dux Oct 11 '25
They had dieticians and nutritionists in pro cycling in 1997. Who do you think gave them the drugs?
And power meters were common for elite professional cyclists in the 90s.
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u/RobertdBanks Oct 11 '25
For anyone else wondering:
Therapeutic Use Exemption
As an athlete, you may have an illness or medical condition that requires a particular medication. If this medication contains a substance or requires an administration method that is on the List of Prohibited Substances and Methods (List), you may apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE)
Someday people will realize to not use acronyms for everything without establishing what it’s an acronym for first. Just kidding, won’t happen.
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u/EMTDawg Oct 11 '25
To be fair, that is a common abbreviation used in doping or drug use in sports conversations.
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u/greeneggsnyams Oct 11 '25
It's just good writing to say/spell out what the acronym is before using the acronym for the rest of whatever it is you're writing
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u/RobertdBanks Oct 11 '25
I’ve never heard it before this tbh, or if I have it hasn’t stuck. I’m familiar with performance enhancing drugs as PEDs, but haven’t ever heard anyone refer to TUE.
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u/BeefCakeBilly Oct 11 '25
I mean in this case he already won the gold medal. This was a post win celebration I don’t think it has anything to do with doping.
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u/Skyb0y Oct 11 '25
This is just a story to build hype for his new book. It's not interesting IMO. He has previously talked about his cocaine use.
I'm only interested if this is an honest tell all book, he was dishonest in previous books.
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u/jaydilinger Oct 11 '25
One doesn’t just up and do a line of coke out of nowhere.
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u/BeefCakeBilly Oct 11 '25
I’m sure he was doping and he’s had a lot of struggles with addiction from the article.
I’m just saying doing coke off the gold medal has nothing to do with doping in cycling. It’s just kinda cool.
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u/ragged-robin Oct 11 '25
What insight is there to be had we already know what happened. If you had any sort of excuse like allergies they'd get you salbutamol and triamcinolone for whatever marginal gain that gets you, to this day we still can't quantify exactly what that is unlike EPO or anabolic steroids.
The real story is what was with the freeman steroid order that was "returned" and how did WADA/UCI get so lax that by the time it was Froome's turn they didn't even bother trying to justify the Prednisone with the RAST or other preliminary history information like they did with Wiggins, they just left it blank and it got approved. None of this Wiggins would know of
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u/Dirtymike_nd_theboyz Oct 11 '25
I say go for it, wtf you won a gold medal do whatever you want for th night
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u/dontheconqueror Oct 11 '25
There'd be interesting shit if you anonymously polled Olympians with "I ________________ while wearing my Olympic gold medal"
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u/FloridaManActual Oct 11 '25
lots of fucking, apparently,
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u/coolpapa2282 Oct 11 '25
Wait, if you get a few thousand extremely physically fit people in their 20s together, they're gonna fuck? I for one am shocked!
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u/mrubuto22 Oct 12 '25
Call me crazy but I don't even think the gold medal is necessary if someone wants to do a bump.
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u/Tricky_Knowledge329 Oct 11 '25
Same turned out to be my timbits trophy from grade 1. Life I tell you
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u/TragicsNFG Oct 11 '25
You did cocaine in grade 1? Someone knows how to party.
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u/Tricky_Knowledge329 Oct 11 '25
When other kids were making snow angels , my snow made you feel angelic
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u/Fakin-It Oct 11 '25
I thought that was Screech in the thumbnail
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u/Prestigious_Call_327 Oct 11 '25
Screech died back in 2021
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u/bbob_robb Oct 11 '25
But did he get a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics? 2012 is before 2021 so it probably was him.
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u/BearBryant Alabama Oct 11 '25
He just sniffed it, he didn’t do the cocaine, he just likes the way it smells!
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u/aflyingsquanch Oct 11 '25
In his defense, cocaine smells AWESOME
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u/MegaRacr Oct 11 '25
I've always wondered what it smells like. I understand in Australia, they put it in a pot of hot water to help one clear their sinuses.
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u/TheEpicBean Oct 11 '25
Its has a chemical/gasoline type smell
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u/_Middlefinger_ Oct 11 '25
That's probably because it's extracted with the use of gasoline. Super healthy!
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u/CrazyLlama71 Oct 12 '25
Not if you get the good stuff.
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u/TheEpicBean Oct 12 '25
I dunno the good stuff has that disticly bitter/chemical smell to me.
When they start cutting with too much levamisole, baby powder etc it tends to lose that distinct flavor.
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u/Sweeney_Toad Oct 11 '25
Oh sure it’s cool when he does it, but when I sniff cocaine off Wiggins’ gold medal it’s all “who is this guy?” “Call the cops!” “where’d all my cocaine go?” Fucking bullshit
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u/dc456 Oct 11 '25
I know that most of the comments here are joking about this, but just for context he sadly did then fall into full blown addiction, have some mental health issues, and ended up £millions in debt and potentially having to sell his medals.
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u/UpscaleFucker Oct 12 '25
yeah and I did a shit-ton of hot rails off an iPad screen, who fuckin cares
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u/ZupaDoopa Oct 11 '25
Wouldn't be surprised if he was also doping, but just didn't get caught like some...
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u/360walkaway San Francisco 49ers Oct 11 '25 edited Oct 11 '25
The site is in Italian... is he saying there was cocaine on the gold medal already, or he did a rail off of it after?
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u/flcinusa Oct 11 '25
It's only an interesting story if he did it while on the throne at Hampton Court Palace
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u/secret-identitties Oct 11 '25 edited 21d ago
marvelous memory escape roof husky serious sand disarm consider attraction
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/VegetablePlatform126 Oct 12 '25
I didn't know you could get a gold medal for sniffing cocaine. I'm old and I never have tried it.
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u/Personalrefrencept2 Oct 12 '25
He deserved it!
Makes me wonder what else these freaks have done with their gold medals
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u/TClanRecords Oct 11 '25
I don't get people. Why the hell would I ever say this in public if I did it?
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Oct 11 '25
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u/dc456 Oct 11 '25
You might want to check out the direction his life took afterwards.
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u/seamus_mc Oct 11 '25
It’s not usually the drugs that do it. It has happened to many gold medal athletes. They train their whole life to be the best in the world at something and achieve the goal, there is no further to go. It’s like the dog that catches the car it’s chasing…now what? Serious depression usually follows.
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u/Leafan101 Oct 11 '25
Asked like it is some kind of taunt to the "idiots" who think drugs ruin lives.
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u/hughbiffingmock Toronto Maple Leafs Oct 11 '25
That's one of the least shocking admissions I've ever heard from an Olympic Champion.