Former Tour de France champion Wiggins on drug addiction: "High most of the time for many years"
Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France and won five gold medals at the Olympics. After his career, his downfall began. In a book, he talks about his bad time.
12.10.2025, 08:13
dpa
Former Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins has spoken openly about the dark chapters of his past shortly before the publication of his autobiography. In an interview with the "Times" newspaper, the five-time Olympic champion spoke about his drug addiction after the end of his career, sexual harassment by a trainer as a teenager, his financial bankruptcy and his recovery with the help of Lance Armstrong.
After his career ended, Wiggins' drug addiction began in 2018. "I was high most of the time for many years," said the 45-year-old. He had snorted cocaine on his gold medal from London, was "completely manic" on a BBC program after taking drugs for 24 hours and smashed the trophy for Sports Personality of the Year 2012 and his knighthood out of anger, as he also reports in his excerpts from the book "The Chain".
Help from Armstrong
His drug addiction had left him financially bankrupt and he had even slept on park benches in the meantime. The Briton later received help from Armstrong. The former cycling star, who had been stripped of all seven Tour victories for doping, had already helped Jan Ullrich in a similar way. Armstrong had brought Wiggins to the USA and placed him in a rehabilitation program.
He is now sober, says Wiggins, who also talks about the difficult times as a teenager. As a teenager, he was abused by a trainer who had already died. Wiggins' autobiography will be published in a few weeks.
