Alex Schwazer

Last updated

Alex Schwazer
Alex-Schwazer.jpg
Schwazer in 2008
Personal information
Nationality Italian
Born (1984-12-26) 26 December 1984 (age 39)
Sterzing, Italy
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight73 kg (161 lb)
Sport
Country Flag of Italy.svg Italy
Sport Athletics
Event Racewalking
Club C.S. Carabinieri
Achievements and titles
Personal bests
  • 20 km walk: 1:18:24 (2010)
  • 50 km walk; 3:36:04 (2007)
Medal record
Olympic Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2008 Beijing 50 km walk
World Championships
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2005 Helsinki 50 km walk
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2007 Osaka 50 km walk
European Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2010 Barcelona 20 km walk

Alex Schwazer, OMRI (born 26 December 1984), is an Italian race walker. He was the 2008 Olympic 50k walk champion.

Contents

Just before the 2012 Summer Olympics, he was disqualified for two years for doping with EPO. He immediately admitted his guilt and retired. He subsequently decided to resume training with Sandro Donati, a prominent anti-doping advocate who was the one who had flagged him as suspicious to WADA in 2012. Their goal was to prove that it was possible to win even without doping. [1] He qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics but was found positive to micro-doping with testosterone and disqualified for eight years. Schwazer has always claimed his innocence in this case and has appealed the disqualification starting a complex judicial case. His appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport were unsuccessful. However, an Italian criminal court investigating the case acquitted him in 2021 per non aver commesso il reato ("for not committing the offence"), with Italian prosecutors accusing the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the IAAF of tampering and procedural fraud. WADA and IAAF have denied the allegations. Schwazer is currently still fighting the disqualification. [2]

Italian newspaper La Repubblica published an investigation on this affair, suggesting evidence indicating a plot to punish Schwazer and his trainer Donati for their whistleblowing efforts against state-sponsored doping and for exposing corruption in WADA and IAAF. [3] [4] [5]

Biography

Schwazer was born in Sterzing, South Tyrol, in northern Italy. Schwazer won the bronze medal in the 50 km race at the 2005 World Championships in a national record time of 3:41.54 hours. At the 2007 World Championships he finished tenth in the 20 km race and won bronze again in the 50 km race (with the quickest finish ever measured on this event, of 3:37:04.08). He was the runner-up at the 2008 IAAF World Race Walking Cup and went on to win gold at the 50 km walk at the 2008 Summer Olympics, setting a new Olympic record with his time of 3:37:09. [6]

He started his 2010 campaign with two wins on the 2010 IAAF World Race Walking Challenge circuit: first he won the 20 km at the Gran Premio Città di Lugano in an Italian record time, breaking Maurizio Damilano's 18-year-old record with a time of 1:18:23.20. [7] Just prior to the IAAF World Race Walking Cup he won at the Coppa Città di Sesto San Giovanni. [8] At the 2010 European Athletics Championships, he failed to finish the 50 km walk, but doubled up in the 20 km and took the silver medal behind Russia's Stanislav Emelyanov. He competed in the 20 km race at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, but managed only ninth place.

He began 2012 in strong form. First he walked an Italian record of 1:17:30 hours to win at the Memorial Mario Albisetti 20 km walk, then he had the fourth best 50 km time of his career a week later to win at the Dudinska patdesiatka. [9] [10]

Doping cases

Schwazer was excluded from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London after an "adverse result" from a doping test. [11] Schwazer said "My career is finished... I wanted to be stronger for this Olympics, I made a mistake". He announced his decision to quit athletics and described the result as the "biggest blow of my life". [11] He was subsequently given a three-and-a-half-year competition ban by the Italian National Olympic Committee in April 2013. Schwazer's girlfriend at the time of the offence, figure skater Carolina Kostner, later admitted to prosecutors in Bolzano that she had lied to inspectors from the World Anti-Doping Agency shortly before the 2012 Games when they visited her home looking for Schwazer, claiming that he was not there so he could avoid being tested. She also told the prosecutors that Schwazer slept in an altitude chamber, which is not banned by WADA but is illegal in Italy. [12]

In May 2016, a negative doping control sample from January was flagged as anomalous by the Athlete Biological Passport and upon further inspection was found positive for a microdose of testosterone. [5] Schwazer was informed about the positive in June, a few weeks before the Olympic Games. He appealed the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. On 11 August 2016 the court dismissed his appeal and imposed an 8-year period of ineligibility on him, until 7 July 2024. [13]

On 12 June 2019 FIDAL cancelled all results achieved by the athlete starting 18 March 2012, thus also cancelling his Italian record of 1:17:30 made in Lugano on 18 March 2012. [14]

Italian newspaper La Repubblica , however, produced a documentary with evidence, including police phone tapping, which cast serious doubt on the treatment of Schwazer and strongly suggests that the 2016 doping control sample was tampered with. [3] The documentary suggests that the real target was Schwazer's trainer since 2015, Sandro Donati, former trainer of the Italian sprint team, whistle-blower and a long term critic both of doping and corruption in sport, who had uncovered Italian state-sponsored cheating in the 1980s. [15] In 2020 La Repubblica published a long-form article on this affair, outlining the dubious aspects of this doping offence that could be a plot. [4]

In 2016 an Italian criminal investigation against Schwazer was also opened in the court of Bolzano. [16] On 17 March 2020 the doping ban was confirmed by the federal tribunal of Lausanne after a rejected appeal by Schwazer. [17] On 18 February 2021, the Italian criminal case against Schwazer was closed. [18] Schwazer was acquitted of all charges per non aver commeso il reato ("for not committing the offence") and the court accused WADA and the IAAF of samples tampering. [18] [2] However, his eight-year ban remains in place, because the WADA [19] rejected all accusations and the Lausanne federal court [20] finally refused to suspend the ongoing disqualification.

Schwazer hence wasn't eligible to take part in Tokyo 2020 Olympic (postponed in 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic).

Media

In 2023, Netflix released a 4 part miniseries on Schwazer's doping controversy. [21] [22] In September 2023 he began participating in the seventeenth edition of Grande Fratello , the Italian version of Big Brother. [23]

See also

Related Research Articles

The World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships is a racewalking event organised by World Athletics. It has been held since 1961, and generally on a biennial basis. The first women's edition of the event happened in 1979. It was formerly known as the Lugano Cup after the city that hosted the first event, then became the IAAF World Race Walking Cup until 2016 and then IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships until 2018. In 2004, a junior division was added for athletes between 16 and 20. Since 2008 it has been a constituent meeting of the World Athletics Challenge – Race Walking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elisa Rigaudo</span> Italian race walker (born 1980)

Elisa Rigaudo is an Italian race walker from Cuneo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergey Kirdyapkin</span> Russian race walker

Sergey Alexandrovich Kirdyapkin is a Russian race walker. He was stripped of the 2012 Olympic gold medal in the 50K walk, by decision of the Court of Arbitration published 24 March 2016, due to doping violations. Due to these doping violations, he was given a three-year-and-two-month ban from athletic competition, backdated to 15 October 2012, allowing him time to still qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics. However, Russia did not compete in athletics at the 2016 Olympics, due to the suspension of the governing body, the IAAF, due to widespread doping.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marco De Luca</span> Italian race walker

Marco De Luca is an Italian race walker. His best results at International level are 7th place at 2009 World Championships and 6th at 2006 European Championships and 2010 European Championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yohann Diniz</span> French racewalker

Yohann Diniz is a French race walker. He is the current world-record holder for the 50 km race, with a time of 3:32:33, and for the 50,000 metres track walk, with a time of 3:35:27.

Michele Didoni is an Italian retired race walker, world champion of the 20 km race walk at Gothenburg 1995.

Vladimir Alekseevich Kanaykin is a Russian race walker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Heffernan</span> Irish race walker

Robert Heffernan is an Irish race walker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jared Tallent</span> Australian race walker

Jared Tallent is an Australian race walker and Olympic gold medallist in the 50 km walk from London in 2012. He is a four-time Olympic medallist, three-time World Championship medallist and holds the current Olympic record in the 50 km walk.

The men's 50 kilometre walk at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics took place on August 21, 2009, on the streets of Berlin, Germany. The event started and finished at the Brandenburg Gate.

The 2010 IAAF Race Walking Challenge was the eighth edition of the annual international racewalking series organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Ten meetings are scheduled for the competition: the 2010 IAAF World Race Walking Cup, four IAAF permit meetings, and five area permit meetings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wang Zhen (racewalker)</span> Chinese racewalker (born 1991)

Wang Zhen is a Chinese race walker who specialises in the 10 kilometres and 20 kilometres race walk. He holds the senior Asian record for the 20 km with his time of 1:17:36 hours and is also the Asian, Chinese and junior world record holder over 10 km. He was the bronze medallist over 20 km at the 2012 London Olympics and the gold medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics</span>

The athletics competitions at the 2012 Olympic Games in London were held during the last 10 days of the Games, on 3–12 August. Track and field events took place at the Olympic Stadium in east London. The road events, however, started and finished on The Mall in central London.

The men's 50 kilometres race walk at the 2012 Olympic Games in London was held on 11 August on a route along The Mall and Constitution Hill. The event was marred by the disqualification of all three Russian athletes due to doping violations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italy at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics</span> Sporting event delegation

Italy competed at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics from August 27 to September 4 in Daegu, South Korea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">50 kilometres race walk</span> Olympic athletics event

The 50 kilometre race walk was an Olympic athletics event that first appeared in 1932 and made its final Olympic appearance in 2021. The racewalking event is competed as a road race. Athletes must always keep in contact with the ground and the supporting leg must remain straight until the raised leg passes it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandro Donati</span>

Sandro Donati is an Italian athletics coach and antidoping activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memorial Mario Albisetti</span>

The Memorial Mario Albisetti, also known as the Lugano Trophy and GP Città di Lugano, is an annual racewalking competition over 20 kilometres that is held in March on the streets of Lugano, Switzerland. It was first held in 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massimo Stano</span> Italian racewalker

Massimo Stano is a male Italian racewalker. He competed in the 20 kilometres walk event at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, China, finishing in the 19th position, and the same event at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, finishing in first place. On 24 July 2022, Stano won the 2022 World Athletics Championships with a championship record.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships</span> International athletics championship event

The 2016 IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships was the 27th edition of the global team racewalking competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations. It was held in Rome, Italy from 7 to 8 May 2016. It was the first edition of the tournament under its new name, having previously been known as the IAAF World Race Walking Cup since 1989.

References

  1. ↑ Brown, Andy. "Schwazer vs. Sport: A race walker's long and winding route towards rehabilitation" (PDF). Playthegame.org.
  2. 1 2 "Race walker Alex Schwazer continues his fight against sport's jurisprudence system". www.playthegame.org. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Operazione Schwazer, le trame dei signori del doping - la Repubblica". Repubblica TV - Repubblica (in Italian). 4 August 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  4. 1 2 La gloria e il fango. La Repubblica. Published October 25, 2020.
  5. 1 2 "IAAF sabotage alleged in testing of Alex Schwazer". Sports Integrity Initiative. 9 August 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
  6. ↑ "Athletics Men's 50km Walk Detailed Results" (Press release). The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. 22 August 2008. Archived from the original on 25 August 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  7. ↑ "Schwazer sets Italian record at European Athletics Race Walking meet in Lugano". European Athletics. 14 March 2010. Archived from the original on 16 March 2010. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  8. ↑ Sampaolo, Diego (2 May 2010). "Schwazer and Santos dominate in Sesto San Giovanni - IAAF Race Walking Challenge". IAAF . Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  9. ↑ Sampaolo, Diego (19 March 2012). "Schwazer clocks sensational 1:17:30 in Lugano". IAAF. Archived from the original on 21 June 2012. Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  10. ↑ Alfons, Juck (25 March 2012). "Schwazer clocks 50Km world leader in Dudince". IAAF. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  11. 1 2 O'Leary, Naomi (28 July 2012). "Walk champion Schwazer excluded for doping". Reuters. Archived from the original on 9 August 2012. Retrieved 6 August 2012.
  12. ↑ "Carolina Kostner skips hearing". ESPN. 19 September 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  13. ↑ Rio 2016 Olympics: 50km walker Alex Schwazer banned for eight years
  14. ↑ "Stano primatista italiano dei 20 km di marcia" (in Italian). fidal.it. 12 June 2019. Retrieved 15 June 2019. Annullati tutti risultati conseguiti da Alex Schwazer a far data dal 18 marzo 2012. L'1h17:45 ottenuto dall'azzurro delle Fiamme Oro sabato scorso a La Coruna è record nazionale assoluto
  15. ↑ "Anti-doping; The Fraud Behind the Stage". www.playthegame.org. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  16. ↑ "Doping, la procura indaga per un presunto complotto contro Alex Schwazer". Runner's World (in Italian). 17 September 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
  17. ↑ "Schwazer, fine della corsa: la condanna è definitiva". La Gazzetta dello Sport (in Italian). Retrieved 11 September 2020.
  18. 1 2 "Ex-Olympic walking champion Schwazer cleared of doping by Italian court". France 24. 18 February 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  19. ↑ "WADA Statement on Alex Schwazer Case (22 April 2021)". World Anti-Doping Agency. 22 April 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  20. ↑ "WADA welcomes Swiss Federal Tribunal rejection of Schwazer appeal". www.insidethegames.biz. 16 May 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  21. ↑ Running for the Truth: Alex Schwazer (TV Mini Series 2023) - IMDb , retrieved 27 April 2023
  22. ↑ Running for my Truth: Alex Schwazer - Netflix , retrieved 16 June 2023
  23. ↑ "ALEX SCHWAZER AL GRANDE FRATELLO". GRANDE FRATELLO (in Italian). grandefratello.mediaset.it. 30 August 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.