Former Olympic walking champion Alex Schwazer faces third doping ban

BOLZANO, Italy (AP) — Former Olympic race walking champion Alex Schwazer is being investigated a third time for doping.

The 41-year-old won the German road race walking championships on April 26 in an Italian record time of just over three hours.

But the National Anti Doping Agency of Germany announced on Monday that it temporarily suspended Schwazer and “initiated a results management proceeding” after the blood-boosting drug EPO “was detected in both the athlete’s urine and blood samples.”

“I am innocent but I am not going to defend myself again, I don’t have the energy anymore,” Schwazer said at a press conference in Bolzano, Italy.

“I didn’t take anything but I don’t have faith in the system anymore.”

EPO was the same substance for which Schwazer tested positive before the 2012 London Olympics. He admitted to doping and was banned for 45 months.

Schwazer, who won the 50-kilometer event at the 2008 Beijing Games, returned and qualified for the 2016 Olympics but missed out after a retest of a doping sample showed positive traces of steroids, leading to an eight-year ban as it was his second offense.

Schwazer has always professed his innocence and an Italian court acquitted him in 2021, citing strong evidence that his urine samples were altered, but his appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss federal court were rejected and the Italian was forced to see out his ban.

The case was even made the subject of a Netflix docuseries.

In the latest investigation, the backup B sample will be tested as well as a third sample of urine that Schwazer’s former coach Sandro Donati was allowed to keep.

A third test does not normally exist but Schwazer’s lawyer, Gerhard Brandstätter, explained that they were granted the permission to keep one.

“The fact that we asked for a third urine sample shows that we don’t have faith in the system, his innocence is in that sample,” Brandstätter added.

If Schwazer is found guilty again he will be banned for life.

“I don’t know why they have it in for me and I’m no longer interested in finding out,” Schwazer said. “If I were to investigate, I would end up destroying myself.

“I’m innocent and I no longer want to waste energy on battles that can wear me out psychologically. They can do what they want, I don’t care anymore.”

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