Olympic cycling star Sir Bradley Wiggins has revealed he snorted cocaine off his London 2012 gold medal and smashed up his knighthood in front of his children.
The 2012 Tour de France winner, 45, also recalled visiting “a crack house in Middlesbrough” and sleeping on park benches at his lowest ebb.
Divorced father-of-two Sir Bradley, a five-time Olympics champion, admitted he hid in a wardrobe and sniffed drugs from the London 2012 gong.
Speaking to The Times ahead of the release of his new autobiography, The Chain, later this month, he opened up on a range of topics including his addiction and recovery, the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a coach when he was a boy, a troubled upbringing, his recent bankruptcy, and doping allegations at Team Sky.
Sir Bradley began doing cocaine “anytime, anywhere” in 2018 after retiring from the sport two years prior.
He said: “One of the great moments of London 2012, and there I am in a wardrobe, snorting cocaine, mocking my achievement, hating it for what I believed it had brought me.
“I raged as I smashed up my 2012 Sports Personality of the Year trophy and my knighthood.”
Sir Bradley also recalls an appearance on BBC Breakfast in April 2022 in which he was “totally manic” after being up for 24 hours taking drugs.
“The reality of cocaine is finding yourself hunched in a toilet cubicle, knees in someone else’s p***, snorting a line off a lavatory seat.
“If I had three pints now and then someone put a line in front of me, I would probably [snort them],” he confided. “Well, I don’t know. But I don’t drink any more.”
He is now sober, but was constantly worried he might start again. Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong has helped his recovery, including offering to pay for therapy.
