The sportsman’s confessions on the eve of the release of his autobiography
«At London 2012 I snorted cocaine from my gold medal, I hated the result I had achieved». The confession is brutal and it speaks volumes Bradley Wigginsone of the myths of British sport, former cyclist who won the Tour de France in 2012. On the eve of the release of his autobiography The Chainthe former champion spoke to Times without filters. According to what was revealed, success would have pushed him towards an abyss of self-destruction: «It was like urinating on someone’s grave, and at that moment I was urinating on my own. The gold medal, the Tour de France: all this for me it was something dead». Drugs, alcohol, mental breakdown, a shattered marriage, until, he says, he even found himself homeless.
Wiggins’ rebirth: «I don’t drink anymore, I have a house»
Today Wiggins, 45, claims to have gotten back on his feet: «I don’t drink anymore. I go to the gym every day and have a routine that starts at 6.15am. I live as if I were a professional athlete, I plan everything.” Then he proudly claims his rebirth: «Now I earn more than I have earned in the last six years. I have a house of my own, I’m no longer homeless. At the weekend I still ride my bike, with the same feeling of freedom I felt as a child.”
Team Sky and the doping accusations
In the book, however, there is also a poisonous chapter on Team Sky and south doping case which overwhelmed him in 2018. The British Standing Committee accused him of abusing the therapeutic exemption system by taking corticosteroids with a convenient diagnosis of asthma. Wiggins rejects the accusations but raises the issue again, this time pointing the finger at his former team: «The team threw me under the bus to cover for someone else. But the truth will come out.”
