“I am and remain an athlete” – Corriere.it

“I am and remain an athlete, justice would have been to continue to compete». Alex Schwazer says it sparingly at the Roman presentation of the docuseries arriving on Netflix on April 13, which he reconstructs in four episodes the stages of the shocking story, from a sporting, human and judicial point of view, of the champion who won the Olympic gold in Beijing in the 50 km at the age of 23, only to find himself catapulted into the underworld after the disqualification of three years and six months at the London 2012 games for erythropoietin positivity, therefore still on track after the meeting with coach Sandro Donati in the direction of Rio 2016, where the second stop for doping arrived with disqualification until 2024, despite the sentence of the Bolzano court of 18 February 2022: dismissal for not having committed the crime. Measure the words but the meaning is accurate: The Alex Schwazer case, a series conceived and directed by Massimo Cappello and written by Marzia Maniscalco, a form of compensation is not the intention of the protagonist. He continues to consider himself the victim of an injustice, an interrupted alter but still an athlete who jumped at the opportunity to explain his truth about himself. «I wanted to make a point, tell how things really went. It wasn’t too painful to do that, because these are facts I’m done with. It’s my character, I’m not one to stop, either to enjoy the good things or to get blocked by the bad ones. I accepted the series because in four episodes there is enough time to explain everything well in detail. I cared a lot.” It wasn’t easy, even for someone used to clocking up the kilometres. “I was moved by seeing very beautiful and other harsh unpublished images”. Like those of the days in Rio. «We carried on until the last day, thinking that I could compete. I tried again for Tokyo and it was not possible». The disqualification would expire in time for Paris 2024 but by now, he says, it’s too late. “Preparation is no joke. And it’s too painful to delude yourself. I’ll do some competitions, maybe in the village. I said it, I’m still an athlete».

He is her coach and friend Sandro Donati to find more direct words to say it. Schwazer’s story, he argues, is a tragic and extraordinary synthesis of the short circuit that dominates sport. And it revolves around doping. “The whole history of doping is a history of complicity of the International Olympic Committee, of international federations with the approval of governments that rely on an extraterritorial power that no one controls”. The athletes, he says, have no say. “They should be able to keep, for example, a urine test tube too.” His bond with Schwazer, as is well known, began with a denunciation. «Alex was found positive because I had reported what seemed to me anomalies in his performance». He remembers the moments of the athlete’s career from Vipiteno. «After the success in Beijing Alex found himself alone, fell into depression. It was at that point that he got doped. It was abandoned as champions often are: you use them and throw them away. His is the story of a big scam, a lousy scam. This docu-series is a tribute to the truth.” In addition to the versions of Schwazer and Donati, others are heard: the athlete’s parents (the mother remembers one of the toughest moments, when Alex confessed to him that he was about to call it quits), Caroline Kostner, his girlfriend at the time who repeats what she has always maintained, that she lied because he asked her to do so, the president of Coni Giovani Malagò, Schwazer’s lawyer Gerhard Brandstätter, the Bolzano investigating judge Walter Pelino. In defense of the reasons of Wada, the World Anti-Doping Agency, Oliver Niggli speaks. While the heads of the IAAF, the international athletics federation, have not accepted the invitation. As for Alex, sport, he says, remains his life. At 38 he is the coach of amateur athletes. And he ventures a budget. «In difficult times I met a super woman (Kathrin Freund, ed), I have two children, on a human level I am happy, i am a better and complete man today. But like everyone, I have something that stays inside me».