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Gold medal winner Schwazer in Beijing 2008:
Victim of a plot?
Photo:
imago sportfotodienst / imago images / PanoramiC
It was February 18 when Alex Schwazer, 36, achieved what was supposedly the most important victory of his career, on unfamiliar terrain.
The Italian actually fights in running shoes on the street, as one of the world's best walkers, in 2008 he won Olympic gold.
His latest success is not rewarded with a medal, but with the termination of criminal proceedings.
Schwazer had to answer at the Regional Court of Bolzano on suspicion of sports fraud.
The charge: doping.
In 2016, exogenous testosterone was detected in a urine sample from the once exceptional athlete.
He was banned for eight years and faced criminal conviction in Italy.
But now the responsible judge in South Tyrol confirms what Schwazer has been trying to prove for almost five years: that he is innocent.
"It is very credible that the urine samples taken by Alex Schwazer were manipulated in order to make them positive," says the 87-page court order, with which the proceedings were discontinued.
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