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Alex Schwazer won gold in Beijing 2008 (archive picture)
Photo: OLIVIER MORIN / AFP
A civil court in Bolzano has set the criminal proceedings for sports fraud against the Italian Olympic walker Alex Schwazer.
Judge Walter Pelino found no wrongdoing by the 36-year-old who was banned for doping.
Instead, Pelino criticized the World Athletics Federation and the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) for their allegedly "opaque" approach.
Both organizations worked very self-centered and did not allow any outside controls.
The court assumes that the urine sample submitted by Schwazer on January 1, 2016 for a positive test result was manipulated "in order to suspend and discredit the athlete."
There was strong evidence of this, it said.
Schwazer tested positive for Epo in 2012 shortly before the Summer Games in London.
At that time he had confessed to intentional doping.
However, shortly after his four-year suspension had expired, the Olympic 50-kilometer walking champion in Beijing tested positive again in 2016, this time for testosterone.
He is still serving the eight-year ban that was then imposed.
Wada is horrified
In a reaction, the Wada was "appalled by the ruthless and baseless accusations" by the judge.
During the trial, "overwhelming evidence" had been submitted, which had been confirmed by experts.
Anabolic steroids had been detected in Schwazer's sample.
The South Tyrolean Schwazer always protested his innocence and claimed to have been the victim of a plot.
Possibly because he testified as a key witness in a doping trial in 2015.
“After four and a half years, justice has finally triumphed.
I will not be able to forget everything that happened to me, "said Schwazer now:" However, this judgment is compensation for all that I have suffered in these years. "
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