Lance Armstrong has been stripped of the Olympic bronze medal he won at the 2000 Sydney Games, the International Olympic Committee has confirmed.

The IOC acted after the International Cycling Union (UCI) disqualified all of Armstrong’s results as a consequence of the American rider being found guilty of systematic doping.

Armstrong had 21 days to appeal against the UCI’s decision and once it was confirmed he had not done so, the IOC took action.

An IOC spokesman said: “We have written to Armstrong asking for him to return the medal and informed the US Olympic Committee.

“It was a decision taken in principle at the executive board before Christmas. We were waiting for confirmation from the UCI that he hadn’t appealed against his disqualification.”

The IOC’s announcement came only hours before Armstrong’s ex-pected public admission of cheating on talk-show host Oprah Winfrey’s programme late last night.

Winfrey has already revealed Armstrong came clean over his sordid past, which saw him stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life, when the interview was recorded on Monday in his home city of Austin, Texas.

The 41-year-old received the life ban after the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) found he had been at the heart of “the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that the sport has ever seen”.