Running for my Truth: Alex Schwazer (2023) s01e04 Episode Script
Episode 4
1
Welcome to the world-famous
Maracanã Stadium
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
of the Games of the 31st Olympiad.
It was my decision to go to Rio.
I was thinking of the journey I took
just to return to racewalking.
Even if you're hit by something this bad,
it's not bad enough to make you forget
all you've done in the last four years.
I can't allow it.
I thought
all the doors were closed.
It was almost like a film
we'd already seen.
Italy!
The Rio trip was a nightmare.
Alex was desperate.
He kept saying,
"Why'd they come after me?"
I remember the kindness
of some Italian athletes.
But some had no humanity.
"When I made a mistake,
it was fair for me to pay."
"But I play by the book now.
Why is this happening?"
I thought, "I have nothing to lose."
"You're an athlete."
"Everyone expects you to be there."
"And to win."
ALEX SCHWAZER: RUNNING FOR MY TRUTH
RIO DE JANEIRO
4 AUGUST 2016
It didn't feel like a trip
to the Olympics.
No one was there
to welcome us at the airport.
There, we were almost like outcasts.
Rua Bulhões de Carvalho.
Bulhões de Carvalho.
Miles away from the Olympic Village,
we stayed at this hotel in the suburbs.
We tried to keep our chins up,
constantly reminding ourselves that
we're here as innocent people.
That's important.
We tried to keep up our routine.
With daily training.
- Keep going back and forth.
- Okay.
It was hard for me to plan his training,
because I kept thinking,
"What can we do?"
"It's all been decided already.
It's over."
But he was building
a sort of protection shield.
His training, done in such
a professional and careful manner,
was his way of saying,
"I'm doing my part.
Till the end, let's say."
So I also tried to do my best,
so he'd stay motivated.
This is a good size for you.
A small bike.
No. Yes, but I need not only a bike,
but I need also for measuring kilometers.
We do not have a measure for this.
You don't have? This is important for me.
I need it
because it's a very important athlete.
- And I need to measure exactly his speed.
- You can use your cell phone.
When you have two people
in a situation such as this one,
if one person doesn't give up,
the other one won't give up either.
If he follows me on a bike,
and he doesn't get to the point
where he says,
"You know what? Screw them all."
"Let them do what they want.
We're going home."
If he doesn't do that, I keep going.
And we did keep going.
We stayed there and trained.
We ate at this place
outside our hotel, a kiosk.
We had chicken and rice every day.
During our stay in Copacabana,
the vice-president of CONI,
Carlo Mornati, showed up.
He spent the morning
watching Alex training.
He supported us.
It's the only human gesture I remember
from the sports organization,
because other than that,
they all vanished.
RIO DE JANEIRO
8 AUGUST 2016
Alex Schwazer's
hearing in front of the Sports Tribunal
in the center
of Rio de Janeiro is in full swing.
It has heard from Professor Donati
and Capdevielle for the IAAF.
If the head of the IAAF's
anti-doping team was attending in person,
it's obvious the credibility
of the International Federation
is at stake.
Thomas Capdevielle was there.
Capdevielle doesn't do anything randomly.
Like when he waited a month
before announcing my positive result.
It's unheard of, generally speaking,
that the head of anti-doping
shows up to a hearing.
But clearly,
he wanted to send a strong signal.
"We care about this."
"It's important."
I thought, "If I were the judge,
and I had factual evidence in my hands,
I could only reach one conclusion."
"Something's wrong here,
and we can't just say no to this athlete."
It emerged
that the judges themselves said,
"There are gray areas. Facts that are,
so to speak, not so clear."
By the end of the hearing,
I expected them to understand
the inherent contradiction
of the accusation,
and that Alex would be acquitted.
RIO DE JANEIRO
11 AUGUST 2016
The morning before the race,
Alex asked me to train.
Probably to blow off steam.
And so we did a monster training session.
I was shocked he had so much energy.
I did 36 kilometers at race pace,
and I only stopped there
because Sandro said, "That's enough."
So that's how we waited
for the verdict to come.
It was late afternoon,
and someone knocked at my door.
It was Sandro.
Alex opened the door.
He didn't hear me at first,
then he answered.
I had to tell him, "Look, Alex."
"You've been found guilty
and sentenced to eight years."
Hm.
He didn't
He barely replied.
He said, "Sorry, Prof,
I need to be alone."
And I stayed by the door,
because I was terrified.
That he'd kill himself.
It was painful.
Just the idea that
they were about to run two races,
and I wouldn't be there.
And I worked so hard for those races.
All these years.
Hm.
He called, but didn't say much.
He just said that
he had to come back.
With no medal.
With eight years of disqualification.
Devastated.
There was a sense of anger,
of frustration.
This pisses you off,
even because the timing
of the sentence is absurd.
And frankly,
comical, not to say tragic.
Do you really have to do this
when an athlete
is already accredited
with a number on his chest?
Give me a break.
It was a great pain for me,
but my pain was secondary
to the destruction of this young man.
Athletically, they had killed him.
I went out and walked
to Copacabana to sit down for a while.
Looking out at the sea.
On TV,
I saw those sad, empty eyes.
I felt so sorry for him.
He was so far away,
and not being able to be with him was
horrible for me.
Then I was spotted
by Italian journalists.
Are there
no words to describe it?
You should have some respect
for people, shouldn't you?
You can't understand
what it means not be able to race.
It's pointless, anyway.
What we have endured
is excruciatingly painful.
There's no point hiding that
from you. Excruciating.
For me, the worst ever.
It feels like a joke,
designed to humiliate.
On December 3rd,
Schwazer sent a declaration to WADA,
giving up his right to the test window
and making himself available 24/7.
You think that 28 days later,
he'd get caught red-handed
microdosing testosterone?
Do you realize how illogical all this is?
This shows you that, by hook or by crook,
they had to eliminate Schwazer.
The following day,
when we'd left the hotel
to go to the airport in a taxi,
we drove along the race path.
The path of the 20 and 50K race.
You wish you could stay there, you know?
You'd like to get out of the car and stay.
But you can't.
Instead, you go in another direction.
And as you go, you get further away.
There's no peace
for Italian racewalker Alex Schwazer.
After the eight-year disqualification
from sports imposed on him in Rio,
he now has to respond to accusations
of doping in the Bolzano court.
He risks up to three years in prison.
Schwazer is indicted.
Just like in 2012.
Italy is one of the few countries
where doping is a criminal offense.
As soon as a positive result
is communicated,
a criminal investigation must take place.
JUDGE
Initially, I was reluctant to believe
the hypothesis of the manipulation,
the hypothesis of a plot.
It's an uncommon hypothesis,
so I went in very cautiously.
The stakes at that trial
were high, very high.
Because it wasn't
just a matter of freedom.
Alex's name and reputation
were on the line.
And in order to remove that big stain
they had put on him,
he had to prove that his urine
had been manipulated.
That he was falsely accused.
The international federations,
the WADA and the IAAF,
brought a civil action,
as victims of the crime.
They were basically
supporting the prosecution.
We, as WADA,
were not involved in this case at all.
We did not collect the sample,
we did not deal with business management,
and so on.
But what we do sometimes
is we offer to the court
to become a civil party,
mainly to help the court.
The key to the trial was in those samples.
Sample A, sample B.
Stored in the Cologne laboratory.
Only a DNA test could have solved
the Schwazer mystery.
The DNA test will be done.
That is the decision
of the judge in Bolzano,
who today asked the German authorities
to collaborate by handing over
Italian racewalker
Alex Schwazer's urine samples.
The tests will be overseen
by the commander of the RIS in Parma,
Colonel Giampietro Lago.
The Bolzano Court contacted
me to establish beyond reasonable doubt
that the urine actually
belonged to Alex Schwazer.
Since the urine was in another country,
in Germany, the prosecutor
and the judge needed the collaboration
of the local judges,
the Cologne judges, specifically.
But there's an opposition by WADA and IAAF
to a new analysis of the samples.
The DNA request
clearly made them panic.
They said there
wasn't any legal precedent,
that the urine was their property,
and therefore it cannot be handed over.
As a matter of fact,
the samples don't arrive,
and obviously,
it doesn't take an expert to know
that without samples,
the tests cannot be done.
As the weeks passed by,
I thought,
"Will these samples ever get to Italy?"
ROME
7 JULY 2017
While the legal battle
in Germany is fought for the right
to bring Schwazer's samples to Italy,
a strange email from a group
of Russian hackers reaches newsrooms.
Fancy Bears is a group of hackers
who took it upon themselves
to ransack the archives
of the Athletics Federation,
looking for the rot inside.
And there was plenty.
Particularly within
the ruling bodies of the sport.
The message included an
attachment of several email conversations
smuggled from the server
of the International Athletics Federation.
They all had the same subject.
Alex Schwazer.
Sandro called me, telling me about some
hacked emails that concerned my case.
These emails contain a frenzied exchange
between Thomas Capdevielle
and the lawyer for the IAAF,
the International Association
of Athletics Federations, Ross Wenzel.
They want to deny the judge
access to the urine.
But they have a clear problem.
How to convince the laboratory.
Those emails are against sending
the two samples from that day.
And they want the Cologne laboratory
to side with them.
They write, "What can we do?
The lab wants to remain neutral."
Thomas Capdevielle
replies to Ross Wenzel and says,
"They can't remain neutral."
"Do they realize they, too,
are involved in the plot against A.S.?"
"Are they aware
of the consequences of this?"
A.S., Alex Schwazer.
I mean, this is a confession.
A confession act. It's the full evidence.
Capdevielle's role, in my eyes,
changed radically.
"Plot against A.S."
It means he knew, black and white,
what had happened with that sample.
If you read this email,
you can try to, you know,
read it in a conspiracy way.
But the reality, it is, if you read it,
the only way to read it,
is that the Schwazer defense team
was already out there
with a conspiracy theory,
and they were actually implying
that one of the leading laboratories
in the world, Cologne laboratory,
was part of a plot against Mr. Schwazer.
And all is being said
in this email from Mr. Capdevielle is,
do the lab realize the extent
of the accusation against them?
That's all it says.
If I were convinced that they were
strategizing around a false accusation,
I'd say that the emails
they exchanged reinforced the idea
that something shady was going on.
The laboratory was demonstrably
being pressured
and because of that eventually
sided with the WADA and the IAAF,
supporting their thesis.
The ill humor in
the Bolzano court is clearly evident,
and for good reason.
The Cologne laboratory, the WADA,
and the IAAF have made it clear
that they will not hand over anything,
arousing more than one suspicion.
In this insane mess,
another name emerges.
When everyone agrees on the version
to be offered to the German judges
in order to refuse urine samples
to the Italian judges,
the head of the WADA, Capdevielle,
suggests sharing their defensive strategy
with a certain gentleman.
The same man
who rigged Evangelisti's jump,
and who begged the Italian Federation
not to call Schwazer to
the qualification race for the Olympics.
Luciano Barra.
Unbelievable.
Barra was not an executive
of the International Athletics Federation.
Barra is not a chemical expert.
He's not a lawyer either.
How come Barra is involved in this attempt
to keep the urine from the Parma lab?
What's Barra's common interest with them?
The urine sample will reach Parma,
but only some of it and unsealed.
The judges in Cologne informed RIS
that it will only be sending
ten milliliters of sample A,
and the sample was opened, tested,
then closed again, but not sealed.
To avoid
handing over sample B,
they told the German judge
that sample B contained very little urine.
Six milliliters.
They will not,
therefore, be sending sample B,
the only one, clearly,
guaranteed by a seal
as never being touched.
The truth about this urine, as such,
is unlikely to be revealed.
It took over a year's battle
to perform a DNA analysis
on Schwazer's urine.
The German judge is convinced,
and orders to hand over not both samples,
but a little bit of urine
from each separate sample.
No technical evaluation was allowed
to ensure the containers
hadn't been compromised or breached.
So, those samples remained hostages
of the International Athletics Federation
in the Cologne laboratory.
We've both always,
always thought about the future.
And Alex, too, is someone
who always thinks forward.
He's amazing.
In these things,
he's one of a kind.
Kathy shows me
her pregnancy test right away.
And says, "Two lines mean I'm pregnant."
He was very
happy.
He hugged me, and
Yes, it was
It was wonderful news,
especially after all the horrible news.
This was maybe
the only tiny moment
when I felt
okay.
Except, then you start thinking
about that doping test.
COLOGNE
7 FEBRUARY 2018
I go to Cologne,
where I finally have
a chance to see the samples
everyone had been talking
and writing about for over a year,
but which nobody
had the possibility to see until then.
There were two bottles,
and a test tube with a screw cap,
which obviously had no seal whatsoever.
Bottle A had been thawed,
bottle B was still frozen.
You could really feel
the tension of these men
who were trying to oppose our requests
to hand over the samples.
Only then, when I'm there,
I'm told that they're going to give me
the unsealed test tube that was thawed,
which is the only sample presented to me.
As if to say,
"We won't even thaw bottle B."
"This is part of bottle B,
and that's what you get."
The head of the laboratory says,
"Here is sample B."
And the expert said, "What is this?"
"This isn't sample B."
"Uh, yeah, it's not sample B,
but it's urine B."
"What do you mean, urine B?"
"Sorry, but this urine is unsealed.
I need sample B."
I didn't know where the bottle came from.
It was unthawed, unsealed.
For all I knew, it was tap water.
When I said we wouldn't go
without the samples,
obviously the reaction was strong.
And the public officer said,
"Rather than giving you the samples,
you'll end up crucified
on top of that door."
That's when I said with
with a certain firmness,
"If that's what you're offering,
it's not what I'm supposed to get,
so I'll go back to Italy empty-handed."
I had to personally address
the director of the laboratory,
who, fearing criminal charges,
decided to thaw the infamous sample B.
Everything happened by the rules.
Completely.
When Colonel Lago came to the lab,
he was surprised
to be given the six milliliters
from the sample that had been opened,
but that was a decision
from the German court.
He said, "No, I want six milliliters
from the B sample that is still closed."
And that's what happened.
He took six milliliters from the B sample,
and in the end, that was fine,
he got what he wanted
and was able to do his work.
So they open
this sealed bottle.
Six milliliters are poured as planned,
but then we learned something
surprising about the quantity.
Lago realized that,
despite what had been declared,
which was that sample B
only had six milliliters of urine,
it actually had three times as much.
We're talking about the best
laboratory in the world
in terms of anti-doping.
So, a 30 to 40% error is, in my eyes,
completely unthinkable.
All the experts were agreeing
that there was synthetic testosterone.
Okay? That was out of the discussion.
So, the judge said, "Okay."
"I want to know
if really this is Mr. Schwazer's urine."
Okay?
Alex Schwazer proclaimed
himself innocent from the start,
and his defense thesis revolved
around the manipulation of the samples.
So, to determine this, we needed
a genetic analysis of the samples.
So they did a DNA test
on Mr. Schwazer's sample.
The DNA test came totally clear.
It was his sample.
The DNA test verified that the DNA
contained in the sample
belonged to Alex Schwazer.
Then, I searched for something else.
Some other DNA.
They even checked whether the sample
includes traces of foreign DNA,
indicating that someone
could have mixed Alex's clean urine
with another athlete's dirty urine.
They did the second one to make sure
that really there was
no more sophisticated way of doing it.
The second DNA test came back
and said not only it's his,
but there's absolutely nobody else's DNA
in this sample.
Not only was there
no evidence of a third person,
but not even the faintest trace.
It was him. No doubt.
So, in most cases, that would
be the end of the story, frankly.
I mean, you send people in jail
for a long time for DNA tests, you know?
Murder cases and so on.
In this case, it was not enough.
Schwazer has
received another blow to the plot theory
in the court of appeal in Bolzano,
where the doctors
of the Italian Athletics Federation,
Pierluigi Fiorella and Giuseppe Fischetto,
having been accused by the athlete
of being aware
of his intention to dope in 2012,
but kept it quiet.
If I could go back in time,
I would reconfirm the need
to confess all the doping.
So, turning himself in.
But I'd think more
about how to protect him.
I was able to,
with tremendous effort,
regain control of my life.
And have a life with Kathy.
And professionally, I had to decide.
What could I do now?
He had to be even stronger.
He'd say "When you have a family,
you have to be even stronger."
That's why our Ida came
at the exact right moment.
Kathy was great.
She was always there with him,
cheering him up.
Otherwise, I don't know
what would have happened.
Kathy saved him.
Building a family with Kathy
helped me see a future again.
BOLZANO
12 SEPTEMBER 2019
The time
for speculation is about to end.
This afternoon at the court in Bolzano,
a key scene in the legal story
will play out for Schwazer,
who has always claimed
that the samples that led to
his disqualification had been sabotaged.
Samples now also analyzed
by the RIS Carabinieri of Parma.
Today they will present their conclusions.
Alex's urine
didn't contain foreign DNA.
It looked like a dead end.
In this urine,
we find solely and exclusively
the profile of Alex Schwazer.
But there was something
that surprised the experts.
It is common practice
for us to evaluate
how much DNA is present in the sample.
In this sample, we observed
a very high level of DNA.
So, no foreign DNA,
but there was a great quantity
of Schwazer's DNA.
Colonel Lago, after conducting
experiments on over 200 samples,
realized that, over time,
this DNA was more rapidly
decreasing and degrading.
Schwazer's urine was over two years old.
Only a few units of DNA
should be left by now.
Instead, his urine contained
an enormous quantity, 1,200 picograms.
In relation
to the population average,
which, as you said,
is around 80 picograms,
are we able to confirm
with scientific accuracy
that this is an anomaly?
This concentration?
In terms of population distribution, yes.
We have also taken new samples
from the same Alex Schwazer.
And in relation to those samples?
Schwazer's urine is around 70, 80,
so absolutely within average values.
No further samples
taken from Schwazer showed above average
or otherwise anomalous concentrations.
Only the samples given to us
by the Cologne laboratory
showed this anomaly.
So the concentration of DNA
does not correspond to human physiology,
if I have understood correctly.
Either he's an alien
The DNA
concentration in Alex Schwazer's sample
taken on January 1st, 2016
is excessive compared to the norm.
So, this anomaly needs to be explained.
Such a high concentration
of DNA could be explained
if someone added it.
But why would someone do that?
Perhaps because they needed
to adjust Schwazer's urine,
which had been left unguarded
for 15 hours in a completely empty office.
There, someone could have mixed
Schwazer's urine with someone else's.
Perhaps doped.
To understand whether it was
really possible to manipulate DNA
and make it look
like it was Schwazer's urine,
I visited a genetic laboratory.
If someone had mixed the urine
of two different people,
the DNA test would have
immediately shown a mixed profile,
with both DNAs in the same urine.
They couldn't have given
the Italian authorities a urine sample
with two different DNAs.
So, the only solution would have been
to destroy it and cover up the tracks.
Destroying DNA is fairly easy.
You just need UV ray equipment
found in every lab,
then expose the sample
to thermal radiation.
Then it's like the urine
didn't belong to anyone.
They all knew
they couldn't deliver urine devoid of DNA.
It would have been like delivering,
I don't know, holy water.
The only possibility, then,
was to add Schwazer's DNA.
But his urine contained
an abnormal quantity of DNA.
So, if they added it,
it could not have been from urine,
but from something
that contains much more DNA,
like blood, for instance.
The evidence is clear.
That urine, which probably was not Alex's,
had been manipulated to look like his.
The scenario is so convoluted,
that it's not credible.
I mean, you have created a scenario
where a black hand, we don't know who,
took the sample,
put the sample of another athlete,
do some UV light
to kill the DNA of the other one.
It's so crazy
that, you know, you would not even think
of a scenario like that.
The thing is, no one
assumed that the Italian authorities
would eventually
get hold of those samples.
And when they understood
that the Bolzano judges meant business,
someone had to run for cover.
And they messed up.
Evidently, the urine had been
manipulated incorrectly,
because the DNA values
turned out to be unexplainable.
In this case
full of mysteries and questions,
I suddenly uncovered
an even stranger fact.
When the Bolzano judge,
Pelino, made it clear
he wasn't letting go of the DNA evidence,
a certain Mr. Holz
ordered the WADA laboratory in Rome
to transfer Schwazer's
blood and urine to Lausanne.
Secretly.
Mathieu Holz works for us.
He's a former policeman.
He used to work at Interpol.
And he's in charge
of a number of investigations
within our organization.
So, other samples
of Alex Schwazer's urine and blood
travel back and forth around Europe,
without anyone having any knowledge of it.
We have an investigation department,
and many of the things they do
is based on, uh, intelligence.
They were looking, maybe,
for something else.
But they were also
doing DNA tests in this case.
I cannot say more than that,
but they had information
which triggered this particular analysis.
Alex's blood and urine
ended up precisely in a genetics lab
where DNA is manipulated.
What if the urine taken from Alex
on January 1st, 2016 and stored in Cologne
was secretly taken to the same lab?
We'll never know.
EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW
Attorney for WADA.
- May I have the floor?
- Of course.
WADA would like
to produce a document.
Suddenly,
WADA's lawyer, as if in a legal drama,
got up from his seat.
"Your Honor, this may answer everything!"
It is related to a test
carried out on a urine sample
taken from Mr. Schwazer in 2016.
A sample on which several tests
have been conducted
by a laboratory in Lausanne,
which analyzed the concentration of DNA.
Yes, if you would perhaps tell us
what the result is, since you're
Yes. The result is
that the concentration is 14,000.
- Can you show me? Thank you.
- Yes.
It was creepy.
It looked like a copy of Schwazer's
urine test from January 1st.
And since it was done retrospectively,
it looked like an imitation.
There are no good guys here.
WADA and IAAF play dirty.
So, this was an
initiative of yours, that was taken when?
The test was conducted in 2017.
It was sent to us yesterday.
Why are we only getting it today?
Your Honor?
This seems like the umpteenth plot twist
in a very obscure chain of this story.
And honestly, this analysis
is not worth the paper it is written on,
because if, in 2017,
they initiated this analysis,
they should've flagged it
to the judge and prosecutor.
I find this behavior
once again very opaque
and offensive to those
who are working in this courtroom.
Attorney, I will take note
of your outburst and continue.
Your Honor, is it possible
to remind the defense
that we are not yet in the debate stage?
- You will not remind me of anything!
- I am talking to the judge.
- I asked the judge for the floor.
- So did I. Exactly.
You have filed a document today
in the incorrect manner!
You don't get to
tell me what to do.
All right, let's put an end
to this diplomatic incident,
and let me immediately take the stand
in regard to this new document
unexpectedly produced by WADA today.
I shall ask you this,
given this value,
analyzed a year later, in 2017,
if I have understood correctly,
at the date of sampling, I would expect
an absolutely enormous
concentration of DNA.
If this data is correct,
at time zero, the quantity of DNA
would be over 100,000.
Let's say 120,000, 125,000,
which, frankly,
is absolutely off the scale.
Tense moments
during the key hearing
in Alex Schwazer's criminal trial,
when the lawyer
for the World Anti-Doping Agency
presented a medical report
that apparently demonstrates
the Alto Adige native's tendency
to high DNA levels.
I would've made it even higher
if I had been them, even more inflated.
Maybe it would've reached a few million.
The killer cannot come here
and decide if he is guilty or not.
Understand?
We're not trying
to find someone guilty or not.
We're trying to find the truth.
And we're trying to make sure
that we have this based on evidence,
not on fancy theory or speculation.
Based on evidence.
The hearing ends with a deferment,
while awaiting the decision.
BOLZANO
18 FEBRUARY 2021
During that time,
I continued training,
even if no one knew whether or not
the day of justice would come.
The verdict
should have been filed.
Let's have a look at the conclusions,
and then we'll inform Donati and Alex.
I remember waiting
for the verdict.
Hello? Sandro?
We just received the verdict.
Don't worry. Relax. We'll send it to you.
Read it. We'll talk tonight.
I went to the car.
I knew from the missed calls it had come.
Do you want to know?
I won't hide my excitement.
It's been years of agony.
I said, "I can't look.
Please read it first."
"Then you can have me read it."
I saw your email,
but I still couldn't read it.
Look, don't worry.
Just read it. It's a bombshell.
I was so scared
it contained something like,
"Yes, but"
But it didn't.
"Alex Schwazer
did not use doping," writes the judge.
"The urine samples were altered
in order to obtain the disqualification
of Alex Schwazer
and his trainer Sandro Donati."
We witnessed an impressive
series of false declarations.
It clears you.
Judge Walter Pelino
takes aim at the athletics federations
that tried to hinder
the ascertainment of crimes,
committing offenses such as forgery
and misrepresentation of the facts.
Did you look?
- He crushed them.
- He crushed them. He really did.
The accusers
have now become the accused.
It's brutal.
An attack to the IAAF and WADA.
A victory on all fronts.
On that day,
I received what
I had been waiting for four years.
You've always stuck by me.
I was a prior offender,
so it took courage
to believe in me like you did.
Most people would've turned away,
and I would've been left alone, you know?
I hope I can pay you back.
We'll settle for two medals,
one for the 20K and one for the 50.
I was so at peace inside.
It was like meditating all the time.
I was so
happy.
Yeah!
The World
Anti-Doping Agency, the WADA, is horrified
by the verdict of the court of Bolzano
in the case of racewalker Alex Schwazer.
It is rejecting all accusations
and threatening legal action.
Judge Pelino in his decision
has very harsh words against WADA,
and, uh, to us, it was a real surprise
because we came to this case
to help the court.
Nobody can appeal his written,
and we consider
that it is completely wrong.
Judge Pelino's thesis is weakened
by how complicated the theory is.
An enormous plot involving
two world laboratories,
the International Athletics Federation,
and somehow the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Such a complex scheme,
just to hit Sandro Donati,
is hard to believe.
Judge Pelino ended up writing
his own fiction novel.
There is no evidence
to support what he wrote, as his own view,
as if, you know,
he knew better than the scientific.
At the moment,
the acquittal will not allow Schwazer
to participate in the Tokyo Olympic Games,
but in light of the decision
of the court of Bolzano,
the Olympic champion could ask
for his disqualification be quashed.
Alex's potential at that point
wasn't at the level of 2016,
before the Rio Olympics,
because he was younger
and more efficient then.
But it was still very high.
I felt the desire
to resume training.
All the steps I took afterwards
have always been, in my mind,
a way to find this pleasure again.
Today, Alex takes
back every centimeter of his honor
and dreams of taking part
in the Tokyo Olympics.
I wanted to follow him
closely to give him the best training,
but that was hard,
because I wasn't so young anymore.
On my bike, I followed him
for dozens of kilometers a day.
Mr. Donati, I think,
is a victim of Schwazer.
He had invested all his reputation
into an athlete
who took synthetic testosterone
behind his back.
Every murder mystery needs a motive
and a perpetrator.
After resuming his training,
Alex still managed to reach
an extremely competitive level.
I can't imagine who in Tokyo
could have beaten him.
There was hope again,
because there was another
Olympiad.
There was also a big media reaction.
Alex Schwazer.
We saw a lot of support,
satisfaction for an injustice
that had been punished.
Who will give you back
the life they stole from you?
Nobody, I think.
Nobody because there is no going back.
What you can do is put it right.
Will your baby see you
at the next Olympics?
Yes, my baby will see me compete.
I won in court, but I am a sportsman.
I win on the racetrack.
And I will return there.
Alex Schwazer
redeemed his name.
The Italian justice system
had restored his reputation.
But even after all this,
the sport institutions
have not budged.
A very strong statement in the chamber.
The international
sports organizations are asked
to consider the decision
of the court of Bolzano
to allow Schwazer to compete
in the Olympics.
This has resulted
in the indignant reaction
of the top men in World Athletics,
Sebastian Coe.
I don't want Italy to be
on the wrong side of history here.
Sebastian Coe has threatened Italy
by taking a stab
to the human story of Alex Schwazer.
They went after the judge
and sent a message
to the Italian people, saying,
"Be on the right side."
But what is the right side
according to
the International Athletics Federation?
Another no in Alex Schwazer's
pursuit of the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Both the World Anti-Doping Agency
and the International Federation
have spoken out
against revoking the eight-year ban
imposed on the Italian racewalker.
Alex Schwazer says goodbye
to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Rehabilitated
by the Italian justice system,
but not by the sport system.
His dream of the five rings,
therefore, is over for good.
Alex.
Hi, Prof.
How are you?
Disappointed.
Because I believed in it.
I gave it my all just to come back.
It's not fair to end your career
because someone else wanted you to.
I know you have a lot of pain inside.
But you have other things too.
So,
I'm certain you can make
a good and happy life for yourself.
I hope
after a lifetime of fighting
not one battle, but
a hundred battles,
you'll finally take time to yourself.
I had already made this choice
the moment I decided to train you.
My role is finished.
It's time for others to take over.
This story exposes
the world of international athletics,
full of rules, yet lawless.
A world that doesn't want
to be judged by anyone.
Inviolable, untouchable.
If I were to toss a coin,
I honestly think he's innocent.
But I no longer have the chance
to prove it to the sports system.
These gentlemen
should keep this in mind.
A dead lion
is still a lion.
A jackal will always be a jackal.
The thing that impressed me
about Alex is his lack of bitterness
towards his tormentors,
towards the people who staged this.
This scam.
Sandro didn't just
help me grow as an athlete,
but I learned
many things from him as a person.
He never compromises,
he can't be swayed,
and if that means to make a few enemies,
so be it,
but at least he will go his own way.
That's what he taught me.
I felt bad, because maybe,
were it not for my role,
these vendettas against him
wouldn't have been triggered.
I sort of plunged him towards these people
I call "the masters of doping,"
who use it as a weapon.
If Sandro Donati hadn't trained me,
I would have avoided that positive test,
but I would have also avoided
the opportunity to return to racing,
to be an athlete again and take joy in it.
Things I'm very grateful
to talk about now.
Sebastian Coe, Thomas Capdevielle,
Ross Wenzel, the GQS of Stuttgart,
the Cologne laboratory, and Luciano Barra
did not reply to our interview request
or preferred not to give any statements.
The proceeding for the criminal
association charge of Conconi,
the Biomedical Center of Ferrara
and CONI was dismissed in 2000.
According to the prosecutor,
the criminal association only existed
in the '80s, but is now statute-barred.
Professor Conconi
and several team members were charged
with facilitating doping.
In 2004, at the outcome of the proceeding,
the charges against all of them
were dismissed for facts up to 1995
as they were statute-barred,
the later actions for being non-criminal.
Conconi has always rejected
all accusations
claiming that his activities were always
aimed at producing scientific research.
Dr. Ferrari was banned
from sports competitions for life,
he rejected all accusations, and was
definitely never convicted in Italy.
Conconi, Ferrari, and Moser
have always denied
that the Hour record in Mexico in '84
was the result
of an auto blood transfusion.
Regarding the aiding
and abetting of Schwazer's doping,
Fischetto and Fiorella have been acquitted
by both the legal
and sports justice systems.
The IAAF and WADA denied that the database
contained sufficient data
to reveal doping cases.
The Australian scientists
interviewed by the Sunday Times disagree.
No judicial authority
has ever ruled on the issue.
In April 2022, WADA announced
the results of a study
aimed at confuting
the evaluation made by Col. Lago.
It was conducted
on 100 endurance athletes.
20% of them had higher quantities
of DNA than Schwazer's sample.
The study was conducted by a member
of WADA's team of experts.
All of Schwazer's appeals
against the sporting ban were rejected,
even those lodged
after the Bolzano court's ruling.
On 9 May 2022, Schwazer appealed
to the European Court of Human Rights.
The court will establish
if he had a fair trial in sports court.
Schwazer's ban expires on 7 July 2024.
The Paris Olympics will begin
on 26 July 2024.
Schwazer won't make it in time
to take part in
the Olympic Qualification Trials.
Welcome to the world-famous
Maracanã Stadium
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
of the Games of the 31st Olympiad.
It was my decision to go to Rio.
I was thinking of the journey I took
just to return to racewalking.
Even if you're hit by something this bad,
it's not bad enough to make you forget
all you've done in the last four years.
I can't allow it.
I thought
all the doors were closed.
It was almost like a film
we'd already seen.
Italy!
The Rio trip was a nightmare.
Alex was desperate.
He kept saying,
"Why'd they come after me?"
I remember the kindness
of some Italian athletes.
But some had no humanity.
"When I made a mistake,
it was fair for me to pay."
"But I play by the book now.
Why is this happening?"
I thought, "I have nothing to lose."
"You're an athlete."
"Everyone expects you to be there."
"And to win."
ALEX SCHWAZER: RUNNING FOR MY TRUTH
RIO DE JANEIRO
4 AUGUST 2016
It didn't feel like a trip
to the Olympics.
No one was there
to welcome us at the airport.
There, we were almost like outcasts.
Rua Bulhões de Carvalho.
Bulhões de Carvalho.
Miles away from the Olympic Village,
we stayed at this hotel in the suburbs.
We tried to keep our chins up,
constantly reminding ourselves that
we're here as innocent people.
That's important.
We tried to keep up our routine.
With daily training.
- Keep going back and forth.
- Okay.
It was hard for me to plan his training,
because I kept thinking,
"What can we do?"
"It's all been decided already.
It's over."
But he was building
a sort of protection shield.
His training, done in such
a professional and careful manner,
was his way of saying,
"I'm doing my part.
Till the end, let's say."
So I also tried to do my best,
so he'd stay motivated.
This is a good size for you.
A small bike.
No. Yes, but I need not only a bike,
but I need also for measuring kilometers.
We do not have a measure for this.
You don't have? This is important for me.
I need it
because it's a very important athlete.
- And I need to measure exactly his speed.
- You can use your cell phone.
When you have two people
in a situation such as this one,
if one person doesn't give up,
the other one won't give up either.
If he follows me on a bike,
and he doesn't get to the point
where he says,
"You know what? Screw them all."
"Let them do what they want.
We're going home."
If he doesn't do that, I keep going.
And we did keep going.
We stayed there and trained.
We ate at this place
outside our hotel, a kiosk.
We had chicken and rice every day.
During our stay in Copacabana,
the vice-president of CONI,
Carlo Mornati, showed up.
He spent the morning
watching Alex training.
He supported us.
It's the only human gesture I remember
from the sports organization,
because other than that,
they all vanished.
RIO DE JANEIRO
8 AUGUST 2016
Alex Schwazer's
hearing in front of the Sports Tribunal
in the center
of Rio de Janeiro is in full swing.
It has heard from Professor Donati
and Capdevielle for the IAAF.
If the head of the IAAF's
anti-doping team was attending in person,
it's obvious the credibility
of the International Federation
is at stake.
Thomas Capdevielle was there.
Capdevielle doesn't do anything randomly.
Like when he waited a month
before announcing my positive result.
It's unheard of, generally speaking,
that the head of anti-doping
shows up to a hearing.
But clearly,
he wanted to send a strong signal.
"We care about this."
"It's important."
I thought, "If I were the judge,
and I had factual evidence in my hands,
I could only reach one conclusion."
"Something's wrong here,
and we can't just say no to this athlete."
It emerged
that the judges themselves said,
"There are gray areas. Facts that are,
so to speak, not so clear."
By the end of the hearing,
I expected them to understand
the inherent contradiction
of the accusation,
and that Alex would be acquitted.
RIO DE JANEIRO
11 AUGUST 2016
The morning before the race,
Alex asked me to train.
Probably to blow off steam.
And so we did a monster training session.
I was shocked he had so much energy.
I did 36 kilometers at race pace,
and I only stopped there
because Sandro said, "That's enough."
So that's how we waited
for the verdict to come.
It was late afternoon,
and someone knocked at my door.
It was Sandro.
Alex opened the door.
He didn't hear me at first,
then he answered.
I had to tell him, "Look, Alex."
"You've been found guilty
and sentenced to eight years."
Hm.
He didn't
He barely replied.
He said, "Sorry, Prof,
I need to be alone."
And I stayed by the door,
because I was terrified.
That he'd kill himself.
It was painful.
Just the idea that
they were about to run two races,
and I wouldn't be there.
And I worked so hard for those races.
All these years.
Hm.
He called, but didn't say much.
He just said that
he had to come back.
With no medal.
With eight years of disqualification.
Devastated.
There was a sense of anger,
of frustration.
This pisses you off,
even because the timing
of the sentence is absurd.
And frankly,
comical, not to say tragic.
Do you really have to do this
when an athlete
is already accredited
with a number on his chest?
Give me a break.
It was a great pain for me,
but my pain was secondary
to the destruction of this young man.
Athletically, they had killed him.
I went out and walked
to Copacabana to sit down for a while.
Looking out at the sea.
On TV,
I saw those sad, empty eyes.
I felt so sorry for him.
He was so far away,
and not being able to be with him was
horrible for me.
Then I was spotted
by Italian journalists.
Are there
no words to describe it?
You should have some respect
for people, shouldn't you?
You can't understand
what it means not be able to race.
It's pointless, anyway.
What we have endured
is excruciatingly painful.
There's no point hiding that
from you. Excruciating.
For me, the worst ever.
It feels like a joke,
designed to humiliate.
On December 3rd,
Schwazer sent a declaration to WADA,
giving up his right to the test window
and making himself available 24/7.
You think that 28 days later,
he'd get caught red-handed
microdosing testosterone?
Do you realize how illogical all this is?
This shows you that, by hook or by crook,
they had to eliminate Schwazer.
The following day,
when we'd left the hotel
to go to the airport in a taxi,
we drove along the race path.
The path of the 20 and 50K race.
You wish you could stay there, you know?
You'd like to get out of the car and stay.
But you can't.
Instead, you go in another direction.
And as you go, you get further away.
There's no peace
for Italian racewalker Alex Schwazer.
After the eight-year disqualification
from sports imposed on him in Rio,
he now has to respond to accusations
of doping in the Bolzano court.
He risks up to three years in prison.
Schwazer is indicted.
Just like in 2012.
Italy is one of the few countries
where doping is a criminal offense.
As soon as a positive result
is communicated,
a criminal investigation must take place.
JUDGE
Initially, I was reluctant to believe
the hypothesis of the manipulation,
the hypothesis of a plot.
It's an uncommon hypothesis,
so I went in very cautiously.
The stakes at that trial
were high, very high.
Because it wasn't
just a matter of freedom.
Alex's name and reputation
were on the line.
And in order to remove that big stain
they had put on him,
he had to prove that his urine
had been manipulated.
That he was falsely accused.
The international federations,
the WADA and the IAAF,
brought a civil action,
as victims of the crime.
They were basically
supporting the prosecution.
We, as WADA,
were not involved in this case at all.
We did not collect the sample,
we did not deal with business management,
and so on.
But what we do sometimes
is we offer to the court
to become a civil party,
mainly to help the court.
The key to the trial was in those samples.
Sample A, sample B.
Stored in the Cologne laboratory.
Only a DNA test could have solved
the Schwazer mystery.
The DNA test will be done.
That is the decision
of the judge in Bolzano,
who today asked the German authorities
to collaborate by handing over
Italian racewalker
Alex Schwazer's urine samples.
The tests will be overseen
by the commander of the RIS in Parma,
Colonel Giampietro Lago.
The Bolzano Court contacted
me to establish beyond reasonable doubt
that the urine actually
belonged to Alex Schwazer.
Since the urine was in another country,
in Germany, the prosecutor
and the judge needed the collaboration
of the local judges,
the Cologne judges, specifically.
But there's an opposition by WADA and IAAF
to a new analysis of the samples.
The DNA request
clearly made them panic.
They said there
wasn't any legal precedent,
that the urine was their property,
and therefore it cannot be handed over.
As a matter of fact,
the samples don't arrive,
and obviously,
it doesn't take an expert to know
that without samples,
the tests cannot be done.
As the weeks passed by,
I thought,
"Will these samples ever get to Italy?"
ROME
7 JULY 2017
While the legal battle
in Germany is fought for the right
to bring Schwazer's samples to Italy,
a strange email from a group
of Russian hackers reaches newsrooms.
Fancy Bears is a group of hackers
who took it upon themselves
to ransack the archives
of the Athletics Federation,
looking for the rot inside.
And there was plenty.
Particularly within
the ruling bodies of the sport.
The message included an
attachment of several email conversations
smuggled from the server
of the International Athletics Federation.
They all had the same subject.
Alex Schwazer.
Sandro called me, telling me about some
hacked emails that concerned my case.
These emails contain a frenzied exchange
between Thomas Capdevielle
and the lawyer for the IAAF,
the International Association
of Athletics Federations, Ross Wenzel.
They want to deny the judge
access to the urine.
But they have a clear problem.
How to convince the laboratory.
Those emails are against sending
the two samples from that day.
And they want the Cologne laboratory
to side with them.
They write, "What can we do?
The lab wants to remain neutral."
Thomas Capdevielle
replies to Ross Wenzel and says,
"They can't remain neutral."
"Do they realize they, too,
are involved in the plot against A.S.?"
"Are they aware
of the consequences of this?"
A.S., Alex Schwazer.
I mean, this is a confession.
A confession act. It's the full evidence.
Capdevielle's role, in my eyes,
changed radically.
"Plot against A.S."
It means he knew, black and white,
what had happened with that sample.
If you read this email,
you can try to, you know,
read it in a conspiracy way.
But the reality, it is, if you read it,
the only way to read it,
is that the Schwazer defense team
was already out there
with a conspiracy theory,
and they were actually implying
that one of the leading laboratories
in the world, Cologne laboratory,
was part of a plot against Mr. Schwazer.
And all is being said
in this email from Mr. Capdevielle is,
do the lab realize the extent
of the accusation against them?
That's all it says.
If I were convinced that they were
strategizing around a false accusation,
I'd say that the emails
they exchanged reinforced the idea
that something shady was going on.
The laboratory was demonstrably
being pressured
and because of that eventually
sided with the WADA and the IAAF,
supporting their thesis.
The ill humor in
the Bolzano court is clearly evident,
and for good reason.
The Cologne laboratory, the WADA,
and the IAAF have made it clear
that they will not hand over anything,
arousing more than one suspicion.
In this insane mess,
another name emerges.
When everyone agrees on the version
to be offered to the German judges
in order to refuse urine samples
to the Italian judges,
the head of the WADA, Capdevielle,
suggests sharing their defensive strategy
with a certain gentleman.
The same man
who rigged Evangelisti's jump,
and who begged the Italian Federation
not to call Schwazer to
the qualification race for the Olympics.
Luciano Barra.
Unbelievable.
Barra was not an executive
of the International Athletics Federation.
Barra is not a chemical expert.
He's not a lawyer either.
How come Barra is involved in this attempt
to keep the urine from the Parma lab?
What's Barra's common interest with them?
The urine sample will reach Parma,
but only some of it and unsealed.
The judges in Cologne informed RIS
that it will only be sending
ten milliliters of sample A,
and the sample was opened, tested,
then closed again, but not sealed.
To avoid
handing over sample B,
they told the German judge
that sample B contained very little urine.
Six milliliters.
They will not,
therefore, be sending sample B,
the only one, clearly,
guaranteed by a seal
as never being touched.
The truth about this urine, as such,
is unlikely to be revealed.
It took over a year's battle
to perform a DNA analysis
on Schwazer's urine.
The German judge is convinced,
and orders to hand over not both samples,
but a little bit of urine
from each separate sample.
No technical evaluation was allowed
to ensure the containers
hadn't been compromised or breached.
So, those samples remained hostages
of the International Athletics Federation
in the Cologne laboratory.
We've both always,
always thought about the future.
And Alex, too, is someone
who always thinks forward.
He's amazing.
In these things,
he's one of a kind.
Kathy shows me
her pregnancy test right away.
And says, "Two lines mean I'm pregnant."
He was very
happy.
He hugged me, and
Yes, it was
It was wonderful news,
especially after all the horrible news.
This was maybe
the only tiny moment
when I felt
okay.
Except, then you start thinking
about that doping test.
COLOGNE
7 FEBRUARY 2018
I go to Cologne,
where I finally have
a chance to see the samples
everyone had been talking
and writing about for over a year,
but which nobody
had the possibility to see until then.
There were two bottles,
and a test tube with a screw cap,
which obviously had no seal whatsoever.
Bottle A had been thawed,
bottle B was still frozen.
You could really feel
the tension of these men
who were trying to oppose our requests
to hand over the samples.
Only then, when I'm there,
I'm told that they're going to give me
the unsealed test tube that was thawed,
which is the only sample presented to me.
As if to say,
"We won't even thaw bottle B."
"This is part of bottle B,
and that's what you get."
The head of the laboratory says,
"Here is sample B."
And the expert said, "What is this?"
"This isn't sample B."
"Uh, yeah, it's not sample B,
but it's urine B."
"What do you mean, urine B?"
"Sorry, but this urine is unsealed.
I need sample B."
I didn't know where the bottle came from.
It was unthawed, unsealed.
For all I knew, it was tap water.
When I said we wouldn't go
without the samples,
obviously the reaction was strong.
And the public officer said,
"Rather than giving you the samples,
you'll end up crucified
on top of that door."
That's when I said with
with a certain firmness,
"If that's what you're offering,
it's not what I'm supposed to get,
so I'll go back to Italy empty-handed."
I had to personally address
the director of the laboratory,
who, fearing criminal charges,
decided to thaw the infamous sample B.
Everything happened by the rules.
Completely.
When Colonel Lago came to the lab,
he was surprised
to be given the six milliliters
from the sample that had been opened,
but that was a decision
from the German court.
He said, "No, I want six milliliters
from the B sample that is still closed."
And that's what happened.
He took six milliliters from the B sample,
and in the end, that was fine,
he got what he wanted
and was able to do his work.
So they open
this sealed bottle.
Six milliliters are poured as planned,
but then we learned something
surprising about the quantity.
Lago realized that,
despite what had been declared,
which was that sample B
only had six milliliters of urine,
it actually had three times as much.
We're talking about the best
laboratory in the world
in terms of anti-doping.
So, a 30 to 40% error is, in my eyes,
completely unthinkable.
All the experts were agreeing
that there was synthetic testosterone.
Okay? That was out of the discussion.
So, the judge said, "Okay."
"I want to know
if really this is Mr. Schwazer's urine."
Okay?
Alex Schwazer proclaimed
himself innocent from the start,
and his defense thesis revolved
around the manipulation of the samples.
So, to determine this, we needed
a genetic analysis of the samples.
So they did a DNA test
on Mr. Schwazer's sample.
The DNA test came totally clear.
It was his sample.
The DNA test verified that the DNA
contained in the sample
belonged to Alex Schwazer.
Then, I searched for something else.
Some other DNA.
They even checked whether the sample
includes traces of foreign DNA,
indicating that someone
could have mixed Alex's clean urine
with another athlete's dirty urine.
They did the second one to make sure
that really there was
no more sophisticated way of doing it.
The second DNA test came back
and said not only it's his,
but there's absolutely nobody else's DNA
in this sample.
Not only was there
no evidence of a third person,
but not even the faintest trace.
It was him. No doubt.
So, in most cases, that would
be the end of the story, frankly.
I mean, you send people in jail
for a long time for DNA tests, you know?
Murder cases and so on.
In this case, it was not enough.
Schwazer has
received another blow to the plot theory
in the court of appeal in Bolzano,
where the doctors
of the Italian Athletics Federation,
Pierluigi Fiorella and Giuseppe Fischetto,
having been accused by the athlete
of being aware
of his intention to dope in 2012,
but kept it quiet.
If I could go back in time,
I would reconfirm the need
to confess all the doping.
So, turning himself in.
But I'd think more
about how to protect him.
I was able to,
with tremendous effort,
regain control of my life.
And have a life with Kathy.
And professionally, I had to decide.
What could I do now?
He had to be even stronger.
He'd say "When you have a family,
you have to be even stronger."
That's why our Ida came
at the exact right moment.
Kathy was great.
She was always there with him,
cheering him up.
Otherwise, I don't know
what would have happened.
Kathy saved him.
Building a family with Kathy
helped me see a future again.
BOLZANO
12 SEPTEMBER 2019
The time
for speculation is about to end.
This afternoon at the court in Bolzano,
a key scene in the legal story
will play out for Schwazer,
who has always claimed
that the samples that led to
his disqualification had been sabotaged.
Samples now also analyzed
by the RIS Carabinieri of Parma.
Today they will present their conclusions.
Alex's urine
didn't contain foreign DNA.
It looked like a dead end.
In this urine,
we find solely and exclusively
the profile of Alex Schwazer.
But there was something
that surprised the experts.
It is common practice
for us to evaluate
how much DNA is present in the sample.
In this sample, we observed
a very high level of DNA.
So, no foreign DNA,
but there was a great quantity
of Schwazer's DNA.
Colonel Lago, after conducting
experiments on over 200 samples,
realized that, over time,
this DNA was more rapidly
decreasing and degrading.
Schwazer's urine was over two years old.
Only a few units of DNA
should be left by now.
Instead, his urine contained
an enormous quantity, 1,200 picograms.
In relation
to the population average,
which, as you said,
is around 80 picograms,
are we able to confirm
with scientific accuracy
that this is an anomaly?
This concentration?
In terms of population distribution, yes.
We have also taken new samples
from the same Alex Schwazer.
And in relation to those samples?
Schwazer's urine is around 70, 80,
so absolutely within average values.
No further samples
taken from Schwazer showed above average
or otherwise anomalous concentrations.
Only the samples given to us
by the Cologne laboratory
showed this anomaly.
So the concentration of DNA
does not correspond to human physiology,
if I have understood correctly.
Either he's an alien
The DNA
concentration in Alex Schwazer's sample
taken on January 1st, 2016
is excessive compared to the norm.
So, this anomaly needs to be explained.
Such a high concentration
of DNA could be explained
if someone added it.
But why would someone do that?
Perhaps because they needed
to adjust Schwazer's urine,
which had been left unguarded
for 15 hours in a completely empty office.
There, someone could have mixed
Schwazer's urine with someone else's.
Perhaps doped.
To understand whether it was
really possible to manipulate DNA
and make it look
like it was Schwazer's urine,
I visited a genetic laboratory.
If someone had mixed the urine
of two different people,
the DNA test would have
immediately shown a mixed profile,
with both DNAs in the same urine.
They couldn't have given
the Italian authorities a urine sample
with two different DNAs.
So, the only solution would have been
to destroy it and cover up the tracks.
Destroying DNA is fairly easy.
You just need UV ray equipment
found in every lab,
then expose the sample
to thermal radiation.
Then it's like the urine
didn't belong to anyone.
They all knew
they couldn't deliver urine devoid of DNA.
It would have been like delivering,
I don't know, holy water.
The only possibility, then,
was to add Schwazer's DNA.
But his urine contained
an abnormal quantity of DNA.
So, if they added it,
it could not have been from urine,
but from something
that contains much more DNA,
like blood, for instance.
The evidence is clear.
That urine, which probably was not Alex's,
had been manipulated to look like his.
The scenario is so convoluted,
that it's not credible.
I mean, you have created a scenario
where a black hand, we don't know who,
took the sample,
put the sample of another athlete,
do some UV light
to kill the DNA of the other one.
It's so crazy
that, you know, you would not even think
of a scenario like that.
The thing is, no one
assumed that the Italian authorities
would eventually
get hold of those samples.
And when they understood
that the Bolzano judges meant business,
someone had to run for cover.
And they messed up.
Evidently, the urine had been
manipulated incorrectly,
because the DNA values
turned out to be unexplainable.
In this case
full of mysteries and questions,
I suddenly uncovered
an even stranger fact.
When the Bolzano judge,
Pelino, made it clear
he wasn't letting go of the DNA evidence,
a certain Mr. Holz
ordered the WADA laboratory in Rome
to transfer Schwazer's
blood and urine to Lausanne.
Secretly.
Mathieu Holz works for us.
He's a former policeman.
He used to work at Interpol.
And he's in charge
of a number of investigations
within our organization.
So, other samples
of Alex Schwazer's urine and blood
travel back and forth around Europe,
without anyone having any knowledge of it.
We have an investigation department,
and many of the things they do
is based on, uh, intelligence.
They were looking, maybe,
for something else.
But they were also
doing DNA tests in this case.
I cannot say more than that,
but they had information
which triggered this particular analysis.
Alex's blood and urine
ended up precisely in a genetics lab
where DNA is manipulated.
What if the urine taken from Alex
on January 1st, 2016 and stored in Cologne
was secretly taken to the same lab?
We'll never know.
EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW
Attorney for WADA.
- May I have the floor?
- Of course.
WADA would like
to produce a document.
Suddenly,
WADA's lawyer, as if in a legal drama,
got up from his seat.
"Your Honor, this may answer everything!"
It is related to a test
carried out on a urine sample
taken from Mr. Schwazer in 2016.
A sample on which several tests
have been conducted
by a laboratory in Lausanne,
which analyzed the concentration of DNA.
Yes, if you would perhaps tell us
what the result is, since you're
Yes. The result is
that the concentration is 14,000.
- Can you show me? Thank you.
- Yes.
It was creepy.
It looked like a copy of Schwazer's
urine test from January 1st.
And since it was done retrospectively,
it looked like an imitation.
There are no good guys here.
WADA and IAAF play dirty.
So, this was an
initiative of yours, that was taken when?
The test was conducted in 2017.
It was sent to us yesterday.
Why are we only getting it today?
Your Honor?
This seems like the umpteenth plot twist
in a very obscure chain of this story.
And honestly, this analysis
is not worth the paper it is written on,
because if, in 2017,
they initiated this analysis,
they should've flagged it
to the judge and prosecutor.
I find this behavior
once again very opaque
and offensive to those
who are working in this courtroom.
Attorney, I will take note
of your outburst and continue.
Your Honor, is it possible
to remind the defense
that we are not yet in the debate stage?
- You will not remind me of anything!
- I am talking to the judge.
- I asked the judge for the floor.
- So did I. Exactly.
You have filed a document today
in the incorrect manner!
You don't get to
tell me what to do.
All right, let's put an end
to this diplomatic incident,
and let me immediately take the stand
in regard to this new document
unexpectedly produced by WADA today.
I shall ask you this,
given this value,
analyzed a year later, in 2017,
if I have understood correctly,
at the date of sampling, I would expect
an absolutely enormous
concentration of DNA.
If this data is correct,
at time zero, the quantity of DNA
would be over 100,000.
Let's say 120,000, 125,000,
which, frankly,
is absolutely off the scale.
Tense moments
during the key hearing
in Alex Schwazer's criminal trial,
when the lawyer
for the World Anti-Doping Agency
presented a medical report
that apparently demonstrates
the Alto Adige native's tendency
to high DNA levels.
I would've made it even higher
if I had been them, even more inflated.
Maybe it would've reached a few million.
The killer cannot come here
and decide if he is guilty or not.
Understand?
We're not trying
to find someone guilty or not.
We're trying to find the truth.
And we're trying to make sure
that we have this based on evidence,
not on fancy theory or speculation.
Based on evidence.
The hearing ends with a deferment,
while awaiting the decision.
BOLZANO
18 FEBRUARY 2021
During that time,
I continued training,
even if no one knew whether or not
the day of justice would come.
The verdict
should have been filed.
Let's have a look at the conclusions,
and then we'll inform Donati and Alex.
I remember waiting
for the verdict.
Hello? Sandro?
We just received the verdict.
Don't worry. Relax. We'll send it to you.
Read it. We'll talk tonight.
I went to the car.
I knew from the missed calls it had come.
Do you want to know?
I won't hide my excitement.
It's been years of agony.
I said, "I can't look.
Please read it first."
"Then you can have me read it."
I saw your email,
but I still couldn't read it.
Look, don't worry.
Just read it. It's a bombshell.
I was so scared
it contained something like,
"Yes, but"
But it didn't.
"Alex Schwazer
did not use doping," writes the judge.
"The urine samples were altered
in order to obtain the disqualification
of Alex Schwazer
and his trainer Sandro Donati."
We witnessed an impressive
series of false declarations.
It clears you.
Judge Walter Pelino
takes aim at the athletics federations
that tried to hinder
the ascertainment of crimes,
committing offenses such as forgery
and misrepresentation of the facts.
Did you look?
- He crushed them.
- He crushed them. He really did.
The accusers
have now become the accused.
It's brutal.
An attack to the IAAF and WADA.
A victory on all fronts.
On that day,
I received what
I had been waiting for four years.
You've always stuck by me.
I was a prior offender,
so it took courage
to believe in me like you did.
Most people would've turned away,
and I would've been left alone, you know?
I hope I can pay you back.
We'll settle for two medals,
one for the 20K and one for the 50.
I was so at peace inside.
It was like meditating all the time.
I was so
happy.
Yeah!
The World
Anti-Doping Agency, the WADA, is horrified
by the verdict of the court of Bolzano
in the case of racewalker Alex Schwazer.
It is rejecting all accusations
and threatening legal action.
Judge Pelino in his decision
has very harsh words against WADA,
and, uh, to us, it was a real surprise
because we came to this case
to help the court.
Nobody can appeal his written,
and we consider
that it is completely wrong.
Judge Pelino's thesis is weakened
by how complicated the theory is.
An enormous plot involving
two world laboratories,
the International Athletics Federation,
and somehow the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Such a complex scheme,
just to hit Sandro Donati,
is hard to believe.
Judge Pelino ended up writing
his own fiction novel.
There is no evidence
to support what he wrote, as his own view,
as if, you know,
he knew better than the scientific.
At the moment,
the acquittal will not allow Schwazer
to participate in the Tokyo Olympic Games,
but in light of the decision
of the court of Bolzano,
the Olympic champion could ask
for his disqualification be quashed.
Alex's potential at that point
wasn't at the level of 2016,
before the Rio Olympics,
because he was younger
and more efficient then.
But it was still very high.
I felt the desire
to resume training.
All the steps I took afterwards
have always been, in my mind,
a way to find this pleasure again.
Today, Alex takes
back every centimeter of his honor
and dreams of taking part
in the Tokyo Olympics.
I wanted to follow him
closely to give him the best training,
but that was hard,
because I wasn't so young anymore.
On my bike, I followed him
for dozens of kilometers a day.
Mr. Donati, I think,
is a victim of Schwazer.
He had invested all his reputation
into an athlete
who took synthetic testosterone
behind his back.
Every murder mystery needs a motive
and a perpetrator.
After resuming his training,
Alex still managed to reach
an extremely competitive level.
I can't imagine who in Tokyo
could have beaten him.
There was hope again,
because there was another
Olympiad.
There was also a big media reaction.
Alex Schwazer.
We saw a lot of support,
satisfaction for an injustice
that had been punished.
Who will give you back
the life they stole from you?
Nobody, I think.
Nobody because there is no going back.
What you can do is put it right.
Will your baby see you
at the next Olympics?
Yes, my baby will see me compete.
I won in court, but I am a sportsman.
I win on the racetrack.
And I will return there.
Alex Schwazer
redeemed his name.
The Italian justice system
had restored his reputation.
But even after all this,
the sport institutions
have not budged.
A very strong statement in the chamber.
The international
sports organizations are asked
to consider the decision
of the court of Bolzano
to allow Schwazer to compete
in the Olympics.
This has resulted
in the indignant reaction
of the top men in World Athletics,
Sebastian Coe.
I don't want Italy to be
on the wrong side of history here.
Sebastian Coe has threatened Italy
by taking a stab
to the human story of Alex Schwazer.
They went after the judge
and sent a message
to the Italian people, saying,
"Be on the right side."
But what is the right side
according to
the International Athletics Federation?
Another no in Alex Schwazer's
pursuit of the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Both the World Anti-Doping Agency
and the International Federation
have spoken out
against revoking the eight-year ban
imposed on the Italian racewalker.
Alex Schwazer says goodbye
to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Rehabilitated
by the Italian justice system,
but not by the sport system.
His dream of the five rings,
therefore, is over for good.
Alex.
Hi, Prof.
How are you?
Disappointed.
Because I believed in it.
I gave it my all just to come back.
It's not fair to end your career
because someone else wanted you to.
I know you have a lot of pain inside.
But you have other things too.
So,
I'm certain you can make
a good and happy life for yourself.
I hope
after a lifetime of fighting
not one battle, but
a hundred battles,
you'll finally take time to yourself.
I had already made this choice
the moment I decided to train you.
My role is finished.
It's time for others to take over.
This story exposes
the world of international athletics,
full of rules, yet lawless.
A world that doesn't want
to be judged by anyone.
Inviolable, untouchable.
If I were to toss a coin,
I honestly think he's innocent.
But I no longer have the chance
to prove it to the sports system.
These gentlemen
should keep this in mind.
A dead lion
is still a lion.
A jackal will always be a jackal.
The thing that impressed me
about Alex is his lack of bitterness
towards his tormentors,
towards the people who staged this.
This scam.
Sandro didn't just
help me grow as an athlete,
but I learned
many things from him as a person.
He never compromises,
he can't be swayed,
and if that means to make a few enemies,
so be it,
but at least he will go his own way.
That's what he taught me.
I felt bad, because maybe,
were it not for my role,
these vendettas against him
wouldn't have been triggered.
I sort of plunged him towards these people
I call "the masters of doping,"
who use it as a weapon.
If Sandro Donati hadn't trained me,
I would have avoided that positive test,
but I would have also avoided
the opportunity to return to racing,
to be an athlete again and take joy in it.
Things I'm very grateful
to talk about now.
Sebastian Coe, Thomas Capdevielle,
Ross Wenzel, the GQS of Stuttgart,
the Cologne laboratory, and Luciano Barra
did not reply to our interview request
or preferred not to give any statements.
The proceeding for the criminal
association charge of Conconi,
the Biomedical Center of Ferrara
and CONI was dismissed in 2000.
According to the prosecutor,
the criminal association only existed
in the '80s, but is now statute-barred.
Professor Conconi
and several team members were charged
with facilitating doping.
In 2004, at the outcome of the proceeding,
the charges against all of them
were dismissed for facts up to 1995
as they were statute-barred,
the later actions for being non-criminal.
Conconi has always rejected
all accusations
claiming that his activities were always
aimed at producing scientific research.
Dr. Ferrari was banned
from sports competitions for life,
he rejected all accusations, and was
definitely never convicted in Italy.
Conconi, Ferrari, and Moser
have always denied
that the Hour record in Mexico in '84
was the result
of an auto blood transfusion.
Regarding the aiding
and abetting of Schwazer's doping,
Fischetto and Fiorella have been acquitted
by both the legal
and sports justice systems.
The IAAF and WADA denied that the database
contained sufficient data
to reveal doping cases.
The Australian scientists
interviewed by the Sunday Times disagree.
No judicial authority
has ever ruled on the issue.
In April 2022, WADA announced
the results of a study
aimed at confuting
the evaluation made by Col. Lago.
It was conducted
on 100 endurance athletes.
20% of them had higher quantities
of DNA than Schwazer's sample.
The study was conducted by a member
of WADA's team of experts.
All of Schwazer's appeals
against the sporting ban were rejected,
even those lodged
after the Bolzano court's ruling.
On 9 May 2022, Schwazer appealed
to the European Court of Human Rights.
The court will establish
if he had a fair trial in sports court.
Schwazer's ban expires on 7 July 2024.
The Paris Olympics will begin
on 26 July 2024.
Schwazer won't make it in time
to take part in
the Olympic Qualification Trials.