Former TDF winner could lose his Olympic Gold Medals after being declared bankrupt!

Cyclist Bradley Wiggins is one of Britain's most successful Olympic athletes, winning eight Olympic medals, including five golds.

Wiggins, who became the first Brit to win the Tour de France, retired in 2016 and has now been declared bankrupt by Lancaster County court, The Times reports.

The 44-year-old has faced well-publicized financial difficulties with his company, Wiggins Rights Limited, and entered voluntary liquidation in 2020.

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Wiggins Rights Limited, which owns the trademarks of Bradley Wiggins, Wiggo, and Wiggins, saw debts of £650,000 (€768,547, $825,955) in 2020, with HM Revenue and Customs being owed nearly half of that.

The Telegraph reports Wiggins was facing bankruptcy in November 2023 over unpaid debts that totaled nearly £1 million (€1.18m/$1.27m) after documents revealed at the Companies House by liquidators showed he failed to repay any of his previous debts.

Trustees will now be appointed to 'seize and sell' the 2012 Sports Personality of the Year's goods, which could include his treasured gold medals and trophies.

Paul Rouse, head of client services at the accountancy firm Forvis Mazars, said: "Sir Bradley Wiggins is a British sporting icon, and for him to find himself in this financial position, a decade on from his peak, will be an extremely distressing fall from grace."

The former Olympic star is not the first elite sportsman to go bankrupt in recent years, with tennis star Boris Becker becoming bankrupt in 2022 and was required to hand over his Wimbledon trophies.

In recent years, Wiggins has spoken openly about his struggles with depression, having broken up with his wife Cath and revealing his troubling past with his dad and being abused by a former coach when he was a child.

After an already troubling few years since his retirement from sports, Wiggins faces another battle in holding the medals and trophies that mean the most to him.

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