Sir Bradley Wiggins could have all his assets, including the numerous trophies and medals he won over the course of 15 years during his stunning professional cycling career, seized after the former Tour de France winner was declared bankrupt in court.
Wiggins, who retired in 2016 having won eight Olympic medals, five of them gold, and becoming the first British rider to win the Tour, had been facing financial difficulties for the last few years, although a spokesperson for the rider disputed such claims. In 2020, his company Wiggins Rights Limited entered voluntary liquidation, with creditors including HM Revenue & Customs, who were owed over £300,000.
In November last year, there were already reports that the 43-year-old was facing bankruptcy over unpaid debts totalling nearly £1 million, after documents filed at Companies House by liquidators revealed that he was yet to repay any of the money he was said to have agreed to satisfy about to a loan made to him.
According to a report from The Times, Wiggins was officially been declared bankrupt earlier this week at Lancaster County Court, with trustees now set to be appointed to seize and dispose of Sir Bradley’s assets, which could include medals and trophies.
Sir Bradley Wiggins UCI Hour Record (credit Harry Dowdney from Rapha)
> Sir Bradley Wiggins reportedly facing bankruptcy over £1 million debts
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.
“A bankruptcy trustee will be appointed to seize and sell his assets, potentially including medals and trophies of his successful sporting past, as was the case with Boris Becker recently.
“As you would expect, those involved in elite sport are often focussed solely on their primary goals of winning titles and striving for sporting excellence.
“Professionals will surround them to advise on the financial benefits that follow that success, and they would be wise to ensure that their chosen advisors are trustworthy, and that they are safeguarding their client’s long-term position”.
In December 2020, not long after his company entered liquidation, a spokesperson said that Wiggins’s involvement in the business side of things was "not day to day," and that "this in no way affects Bradley's personal solvency."
As we reported in the past, now Wiggins also risks losing the trademark rights to his own surname as well as his nickname ‘Wiggo’ which had been put up for sale by liquidators, while the supervisor of his Individual Voluntary Agreement (IVA), which the rider entered in 2020, had also issued him with a notice of breach of the terms of that agreement.
Wiggins had previously claimed the financial difficulties are “a very historical matter that involves professional negligence from [others] that has left a s*** pile with my name at the front of it to deal with.
“Happens to a lot of sportsmen while they’re doing the grafting and on that there’ll be a number of legal claims from my lawyers left, right and centre as a result.”
The former Team Sky star shone most brightly in the heady few months of 2012 when, 10 days after becoming the first Briton to pull on the race winner’s yellow jersey on the Champs-Elysees podium, he triumphed in the individual time trial at the London Olympics, performances which led to him being named BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2012, as well as earning him a knighthood as part of the 2013 New Year Honours.
> Bradley Wiggins says "borderline rape" by former coach led to him using "cycling as distraction"
Since his retirement in 2016, however, he has spoken candidly of the pressures of coming to terms with fame, his struggles with depression and about the break-up of his marriage to his wife Cath, with whom he has two children, Ben and Bella.
A year ago, he also spoke out about the abuse he suffered as a child, calling it "borderline rape" and even let out the fact that he turned to cycling as a distraction. A few months later, he named Stan Knight, who died in 2003, as the coach who sexually abused him and other young riders.
He said that the coach would take him on training camps to a youth hostel in Dorset aged 12, sleep in the same bed and abuse him in the shower, accusations repeated in the account of another victim. He explained how the abuse would begin with "minor acts" presented under the pretence that Knight's actions were just to help with sporting performance.