Despite everything, he is ready to leave again. Because as a sportsman he still has a lot to say. The story of the South Tyrolean athlete Alex Schwazer is incredible. For years we have followed the judicial affair that has affected this great champion. And especially admired her willpower and her trying to prove the truth. Others like him would surely have given up all hope. Alex Schwazer, on the other hand, did not stop. And the acquittal sentence that arrived in recent days proved him right. So what really happened to this great athlete? Let's try to retrace the stages of this long ordeal. And the desire now to start over.
Alex Schwazer and doping
The Alex Schwazer "case" began in 2012. It was August 6 when the walker was found positive for erythropoietin on the eve of the London Olympics. A surprise doping control by Wada verified it. From that moment Schwazer was excluded from the blue group that had to participate in the competitions. After the successes in Beijing only four years earlier, now a forced stop. He will admit that he used erythropoietin "to be as competitive as the others". He will then be discharged from the Carabinieri and disqualified the following year for 3 years and 6 months. But the athlete does not stop at all.
In 2016 he returns to compete. Reinstated by Vidal, with one goal: the Rio Olympics. But not everyone welcomes his return. In Rome on 8 May 2016 he won the 50-kilometer walk with a time of 3 hours and 39 minutes. And while his dream of the Olympics now seems close, the new doping positivity is discovered. A new surprise check of the IAAF. It turns out he used anabolics and steroids. But this time he admits nothing on the contrary. And then we start talking about a conspiracy.
The disqualification of Alex Schwazer before the Rio Olympics and now the dismissal
And like a cold shower, the sentence arrives on 10 August: TAS sentences eight years of disqualification for Alex, confirming the Iaaf. Thus ends the dream of starting over. Until this year. Five years after that sentence, the filing arrives. For Schwazer the sentence of recent days. The investigating judge of the Bolzano Court, Walter Pelino, ordered the dismissal of the criminal proceedings. The motivation “not having committed the deed". According to what the judge retraces in 2016, the walker South Tyrolean had not taken drugs. It seems certain that his urine samples had been altered on that occasion.
The conspiracy theory
The judge's motivations also refer to the lack of collaboration of Wada and Iaaf, respectively the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Federation of Athletics. "They operated in a totally self-referential way - writes the investigating judge - not tolerating external controls to the point of producing false declarations". For the judge, therefore, the urine samples would have been altered with the aim of obtaining the disqualification and discrediting of the athlete and therefore preventing participation in the Olympics.
The athlete's moves to restart
Today Alex Schwazer is 36 years old. Now you could try to appeal to the Federal High Court of the Swiss Court. And if he is right, he may still hope to participate in the Tokyo Olympics. "It's been five years of tough battle - commented Sandro Donati, Schwazer's coach at Adnkronos -. And only in recent years the Federatletica had taken a more detached position, perhaps understanding that the accusation was indefensible ".
But stay "The bitterness of having waged this battle in solitude- added -. Now is the time for the others to make the necessary reflections. What will they say now? And what can we do to make these things no longer happen? I too was somehow framed: passed for fool or accomplice, and I'm neither one nor the other". AND the athlete to Corriere della sera he said: "on a sporting level I would say that it is my best day ever. Without a doubt. This archiving decree is even more important than the gold medal won at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. This is a far more strenuous victory. Much more tiring ".
