Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life in October after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) produced evidence of widespread doping by him and his former team-mates.
But the IOC said it would not be stripping Armstrong of his bronze medal because of a technicality that demands that world cycling's governing body the UCI be first to inform the American, who would then have recourse to sport's highest court, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).