Alex Schwazer

Alex Schwazer

Alex Schwazer (2008)

nation

Italy

birthday

26th December 1984 (age 35)

place of birth

Sterzing , Italy

job

Carabiniere

Career

discipline

Go

status

blocked

End of career

August 2012

Medal table

Olympic games	1 ×	0 ×
World championships	0 ×	2 ×
European championships	1 ×	0 ×

Olympic games
gold	2008 Beijing	50 km
World championships
bronze	2005 Helsinki	50 km
bronze	2007 Osaka	50 km
European championships
gold	Barcelona 2010	20 km

last change: November 11, 2018

Alex Schwazer (born December 26, 1984 in Sterzing ) is an Italian athlete . In 2008 he was Olympic champion in 50 km . In 2012 he was banned for doping.

Career

Schwazer won the bronze medal at the World Championships in 2005 and 2007 , and was ninth in the 20 km walk in Osake . At the 23rd Walker World Cup in Tscheboksari, Russia, Schwazer again secured the bronze medal in 2008 with a time of 3:37:04 h and thus made a significant contribution to the second place for the Italians in the team standings. At the Olympic Games in Beijing , he was Olympic champion ahead of the Australian Jared Tallent and the Russian Denis Nischegorodow .

At the 2009 World Championships Schwazer had to give up. The following year he won the gold medal over 20 kilometers at the 2010 European Championships . The original Russian winner Stanislaw Jemeljanow was subsequently withdrawn from the medal for doping .

Alex Schwazer holds the Italian record for 20 km and 50 km walking. He is 1.85 m tall and weighed 73 kg at competition times.

At the 2011 World Athletics Championships , Schwazer was ninth over the same distance.

2012 doping ban

Shortly before the 2012 Summer Olympics , he was tested positive for the illegal use of the doping agent erythropoietin and was disqualified before he even arrived. He then declared his career over. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) excluded Schwazer one day before the 50 km walking competition at the London Games , he was banned until January 2016. In September 2014, the Bolzano public prosecutor brought charges against Schwazer, two doctors and a functionary of the FIDAL athletics association. A meeting between Schwazer and the doping doctor Michele Ferrari had become known to the association, but he preferred "rather to do nothing". At the end of 2014, Schwazer reached an agreement with the Italian judiciary. He received eight months probation and a fine of 6,000 euros. In February 2015, his doping ban was extended by three months to April 29, 2016 due to missed doping tests.

Alex Schwazer then took on the well-known doping fighter Sandro Donati as his coach and prepared for his comeback at the Olympic Games in Rio in summer 2016. Shortly after the expiry of his four-year ban, Schwazer was convicted of taking anabolic steroids on June 21, 2016. On August 11, 2016, the International Sports Court banned him for eight years. At the beginning of 2018, a court in Bolzano sentenced the doctors Pierluigi Fiorella and Giuseppe Fischetto, who previously worked for the Italian association Fidal, to two years' imprisonment for their support in Schwazer's manipulations.

Club affiliations

He started for the SV Sterzing (1997–1999), the SC Meran (2000–2004) and for a sports promotion group of the Carabinieri in Bologna (2005–2012).

Trivia

Schwazer lives in the hamlet of Kalch on the Jaufenpassstrasse in South Tyrol and trained (2011/2012) with Settimo Milanese and in Oberstdorf , since his new trainer Michele Didoni lived there. After his Olympic victory it became known that he was in a relationship with the Val Gardena figure skater Carolina Kostner . This relationship lasted from 2008 to 2014.

Sporting successes

Alex Schwazer at the 2007 World Championships

year	success
2005	Italian champion (50 km walking)
2005	3rd place World Championships (50 km walking: 3:41:54 h)
2007	Italian champion (10,000 meters of track walking)
2007	3rd place World Championships (50 km walking: 3:44:38 h)
2008	Italian champion (50 km walking)
	Olympic Champion (50 km walking: 3:37:09 h)
	3rd place 2008 IAAF World Race Walking Cup (50 km walking: 3:37:04 h)
2010	1st place European Athletics Championships 2010 (20 km walking: 1:20:38 h)

Personal best

discipline	power	date	place
10,000 meters of walking	38: 50.28 min	July 23, 2011	Pergine Valsugana , Italy
10 km walking	39:15 min	May 30, 2009	Krakow , Poland
20,000 meters of walking	1: 23: 21.2 h	March 17, 2007	Milan , Italy
20 km walk	1:17:30 h	March 18, 2012	Lugano , Switzerland
35 km walk	2:28:10 h	January 29, 2012	Latina , Italy
50 km walk	3:36:04 h	February 11, 2007	Rosignano Solvay , Italy

Performance development

year	10 km walking (in min)	20 km walking (in h)	50 km walking (in h)
2004	40:16	-	4:00:51
2005	-	1:25:10	3:41:54
2006	-	1:21:38	-
2007	-	1:25:18	3:36:04
2008			3:37:04
2009	39:15	1:24:23
2010	40:10	1:18:24	3:50:22
2011	39:50	1:21:50	-
2012	-	1:17:44	3:40:57