(Reuters) – Former Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins said he became addicted to cocaine after his cycling career and was “lucky to be here” after getting sober a year ago.
Wiggins, who retired from the sport in 2016, became the first Briton to win the Tour de France in 2012 and collected a then-British record eight Olympic medals, including gold in the time trial at the 2012 London Games.
In an interview with the Observer published on Tuesday, the 45-year-old spoke about how his drug use had affected his family.
“There were times my son thought I was going to be found dead in the morning. I was a functioning addict. People wouldn’t realise. I was high most of the time for many years,” Wiggins said.
“I had a really bad problem. My kids were going to put me in rehab. I was walking a tightrope. I realised I had a huge problem. I had to stop. I’m lucky to be here. I was a victim of all my own choices, for many years.”
Wiggins also revealed that former cycling champion Lance Armstrong, who was involved in a doping scandal that led to him being stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles, had been helping him, adding: “My son speaks to Lance a lot.
“He’d ask my son, ‘How’s your Dad?’ Ben would say, ‘I’ve not heard from him for a couple of weeks, I know he’s living in a hotel’. They wouldn’t hear from me for days on end. I can talk about these things candidly now.”
In December last year, Wiggins said Armstrong had offered to fund his therapy for mental health issues.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
