Olympic gold medallist Ryan Lochte has said that he has been left disappointed by the controversy surrounding Lance Armstrong.

The 40-year-old was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles on Friday by the United States Anti-Doping Authority after deciding not to contest charges relating to performance-enhancing drugs.

Triumphant London 2012 swimmer Lochte said: "If Lance is innocent, it's a sad time in sports history, I know that it would be awful to go through that.

"I don't like making assumptions based on what the media reports. None of us will know, so ultimately none of us should judge, there's always two sides to the story.

"It should not take years after seven wins for this to be so heavily investigated and debated."

Armstrong has also been issued with a lifetime ban from competitive cycling by the USADA after he decided he had no desire to carry on fighting the accusations.