01x04 - Episode 4

[bunniefuu]

The decision to go to Rio

was my decision.

I thought of the whole journey I went on
to get back to racewalking.

And even if something this serious
happens to you,

it's not serious enough

to make you forget everything you've done

in the last four years.

I can't let it go.

I thought all doors were closed.
Almost like a film you've already seen.

The journey to Rio was a nightmare.

Alex was in despair.

He was saying, "I did everything right.
Why have I been hit?"

I remember the humanity
of some Italian athletes,

and the lack of humanity in others.

"When I was wrong,
it was right for me to pay."

"But when I behaved correctly, why this?"

I thought, "I've got nothing to lose."

"I'm an athlete.
Everyone's expects you to show up."

"And to win."

ALEX SCHWAZER: RUNNING FOR MY TRUTH

RIO DE JANEIRO
AUGUST 4, 2016

The whole time, it didn't seem
like I was traveling to the Olympics.

Nobody was waiting for us at the airport.

We were there almost like
totally marginalized people, you know?

-Rua Bulhões de Carvalho.
-Bulhões de Carvalho.

We were far away from the Olympic Village
in this hotel on the outskirts.

We tried to be strong,

always holding onto the fact

that we were innocent.

That's important.

-Hello.
-Hello.

We tried to stick to our routine

with daily training sessions.

-Keep going back and forth.
-Okay.

I was struggling to plan this training.

Because I was thinking,
"What can I make him do?"

"The decision's been made. It's over."

But he was creating
this shield of protection for himself.

Doing his training in a professional,
attentive, scrupulous way

was his way of saying,

"I am doing my part until the very end."

So I tried to do my best too,

so he would feel motivated.

This is a good size for you. A small bike.

No. Yes, but I need not only a bike,

but I need also to measure kilometers.

We do not have a measure for this.

You don't have? This is important for me.

But we need
because it's a very important athlete.

-And I need to measure exactly his speed.
-You can use your cell phone.

When there are two of you
in a situation like that,

if one doesn't collapse,

the other won't either.

If he follows me on the bike,

and he doesn't get to the point
where he says, "Know what? f*ck 'em all."

"Let them do what they want.
Let's go home."

If he doesn't do that, I'll go on.

And we went on,
being there, training there,

eating near the hotel
in an open-air snack bar.

Rice and chicken. Always. Every day.

During our stay in Copacabana,

the vice president of CONI,
Carlo Mornati, showed up.

He came by one morning
during Alex's training.

He encouraged us.

It was the only human gesture
I remember from the sports organization.

Because other than that,
they all vanished.

Alex Schwazer's hearing

before the Sport's Tribunal
in Rio de Janeiro is in full swing.

It has heard from Professor Donati

and Capdevielle from the IAAF.

If the head of the IAAF's
anti-doping team was attending in person,

it's obvious that the credibility
of the International Federation

is at stake.

Thomas Capdevielle was present.

Capdevielle doesn't do anything randomly.

Just like he waited over a month

before announcing my positive result.

Generally, the head of anti-doping
isn't present for a hearing.

But he obviously wanted
to send a strong signal.

"We consider this important.
This is important to us."

I thought, "If I were the judge,

and I had the factual evidence before me,
there's only one conclusion I would make."

"Something isn't right here."

"We can't say no to this athlete."

It came out
that the judges themselves said,

"There are gray areas,
facts that aren't very clear."

ALEX'S LAWYER

At the end of the hearing,

I was expecting them to realize
how contradictory the accusation was

and that would be Alex exonerated.

AUGUST 11, 2016

The morning before the race,
Alex asked me if he could train.

Probably to release some tension.

We did a monster training session.

I was amazed that he managed
to find the energy.

I did 36 kilometers at race rhythm.

And I only stopped at the 36th kilometer

because Sandro told me, "That's enough."

And so we waited
for the verdict after that.

In the late afternoon,
I hear a knock on my hotel room door.

And Sandro is there.

"Alex?" He opened the door.

He didn't hear me at first,
then he opened the door.

And I had to say, "Look, Alex…"

"They found you guilty. Eight years."

And he…

he didn't even answer me.

He went, "Sorry, Prof.
Let me have some time alone."

And I waited outside the door
because I was terrified.

I was afraid he'd commit suicide.

It was incredibly painful.

To think that

they'd hold those two races,
and I wouldn't be there.

And I sweated blood to do those two races.

For all those years.

He called me.

He didn't say much.

ALEX'S WIFE

But he said that he had to come home.

Without any medals.

With an eight-year

disqualification.

Another shock.

There was a sense of anger and frustration

but also of being pissed off
about it all.

PRESIDENT OF CONI

Because the timing

of the sentence was so unbelievable.

It was honestly

comical, not to mention tragic.

Do you really have to do this
with an athlete who is

already accredited
with his competition number ready?

I mean, really!

It was obviously very painful for me,

but that came second
to the destruction of this young man.

They had k*lled him.
Athletically, they had k*lled him.

I went out and headed towards Copacabana,
and just stayed there for a while,

just watching the sea.

On the television,
I saw these sad, empty eyes.

And I felt so sorry for him.

And he was so far away,

and I couldn't be there.

It was awful for me too.

Then I was recognized

by a couple of Italian journalists.

Do you have anything to say?

You should have some respect
for people, shouldn't you?

You can't even begin to understand
what it means to not be able to compete.

It's pointless, anyway.

What we have endured
is excruciatingly painful.

There's no point hiding it from you.
Excruciating. For me, the worst ever.

It feels like a joke,
designed to humiliate.

On December 3,
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 next day, when we were in the taxi
going from the hotel to the airport,

we went past the racecourse.

The path of the 20 and 50-kilometer races.

You really want to be there.

You wanna get out of the taxi
and stay there.

But no. Instead, you go on.
You head in another direction.

As you go,
you get further and 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 was indicted, basically.

Just like in 2012.

Italy is one of the few countries
where doping is a criminal offense.

JOURNALIST

So as soon as a positive result
was announced, an investigation began.

JUDGE

At the beginning of this process,
I was certainly struggling

to believe the manipulation hypothesis,
the plot hypothesis.

It's such a rare hypothesis,

so I proceeded with caution.

The stakes were really high
in that trial, really high.

JOURNALIST

Because it wasn't just
a matter of freedom.

Alex was fighting for his name,

for his reputation.

And to rid himself of the huge stain
they had put on him.

He had to prove
that his urine had been manipulated,

that the offended parties
were his executioners.

The International Federations,

WADA and IAAF,

brought a civil case

as victims of the crime,

largely to help the court.

DIRECTOR GENERAL OF WADA

The key to the trial
was in those two vials,

sample A and sample B.

They were stored
in the Cologne laboratory.

Only a DNA test could solve
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 delivering

the Italian racewalker
Alex Schwazer's urine samples.

The tests will be overseen
by the commander of the RIS in Parma,

Colonel Giampietro Lago.

The court of Bolzano contacted me
to establish with substantial certainty…

COMMANDER OF R.I.S. PARMA

…that the urine actually belonged
to Alex Schwazer.

Since the urine was
in another country, in Germany,

the prosecutor and the judge
needed the cooperation

of magistrates from the area,
magistrates in Cologne, in this case.

But there was strong opposition,
bordering on obstructionism,

from WADA and IAAF over the retesting.

The request for a DNA test
clearly panicked them.

They started saying
there was no precedent,

that the urine was their property,
and couldn't be handed over.

In fact, the test samples didn't arrive.

And obviously, you don't need
to be a technician to realize

that without the samples,
the tests can't be done.

The weeks went by.

I thought,

"Will these test samples
ever make it to Italy?"

While in Italy, the legal battle…

ROME
JULY 7, 2017

…to bring Schwazer's test samples
played out.

A strange email then reaches the newsrooms

from a group of Russian hackers.

Fancy Bear is a group of hackers
who took it upon themselves

to ransack
the Athletics Federation's archives

to seek out the rot inside,
if there was any.

There was plenty,
particularly in the sport's ruling bodies.

Attached to the message, there was
a series of emails and conversations

stolen off the server
of the International Athletics Federation.

They all had the same subject,

"Alex Schwazer."

Sandro called me

to tell me that there were hacked emails
that related to my case.

In this email,
there was a frantic exchange of messages

between Thomas Capdevielle
and the IAAF's lawyer

of the International Athletics Federation,
Ross Wenzel.

They were trying to figure out how
not to give the urine to the magistrate,

but there was the objective problem
of convincing the lab.

The emails argued against sending
the two samples from that day,

and they also wanted
the Cologne laboratory

to fight alongside them.

And they wrote,

"How do we do it?
The lab wants to remain neutral."

Thomas Capdevielle replies
to Ross Wenzel, saying,

"It can't remain neutral."

"Do they realize

that they are part

of the plot against A.S.,

and the potential consequences for them?"

"A.S." is Alex Schwazer.

I mean, this is a confession,
an act of confession.

It's absolute proof.

Capdevielle's role,

in my eyes, had changed radically.

"Plot against A.S."

That means he knew, black and white,
what had happened with those samples.

If I was also in favor of the idea

that they were elaborating a strategy
around a false accusation,

I'd say that the emails they exchanged

contribute to reinforcing the idea
that something shady was going on.

The laboratory had demonstrably
been subjected to pressure,

and as a result of this pressure,

they eventually sided
with the WADA and the IAAF,

supporting their thesis.

The animosity 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 plenty of suspicion.

And then another name emerges
from the web of this story.

When everyone agrees to a version
to give to the German judges

to refuse to give the urine
to the Italian judges,

the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency,
Capdevielle,

suggests sharing
their defense strategy with a man.

The same man involved
in Evangelisti's rigged jump.

The man who had begged
the Italian Federation

not to send Schwazer to the race
for qualifying for the Olympics.

Luciano Barra.

Now this is really incredible.

Barra was not an executive
of the International Athletics Federation.

Barra isn't a chemist.

He isn't a lawyer.

How was Barra caught up in this movement

to try to prevent
giving the urine to Parma?

What common interest
does Barra share 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 sending vial B,

they had advised the German judge
that there was very little urine in it.

Just six milliliters.

Thus, they would not send sample B,
the only one, clearly guaranteed by a seal

and never tampered with.

The truth about this urine
is unlikely to be revealed.

It took over a year of litigation

in order to be able
to carry out a DNA test

of Schwazer's urine.

The German judge is convinced,

and doesn't order them
to hand over vials A and B,

but a little urine from vial A
and a little urine from vial B.

No technical evaluation was permitted

to check if the containers
had been forced or tampered with.

So those samples remained the hostages

of the International Athletics Federation
and the Cologne laboratory.

Both of us,

we have always thought about the future.

And Alex is someone
who is always thinking ahead.

He's really good at things like that.

There's nobody else like him.

I go home, and Kathy immediately shows me

the pregnancy test.

And she says,
"Two lines means I'm pregnant."

He was really

happy.

He kissed me.

Yes, it was great news,

after some awful news, let's say.

And this was maybe

the only brief moment

in which I felt

normal.

Except then, you go back
to thinking about this positive result.

COLOGNE
FEBRUARY 7, 2018

I go to Cologne, and finally

I have a way of physically seeing

these vials that we had been talking
and writing about for a year,

that nobody had a way of seeing
up until that point.

There were two vials

and a test tube with a screw cap
that obviously had no kind of seal.

Vial A was thawed. Vial B was frozen.

You could breathe in the tension
of these men

who had tried to oppose our request
to hand over the samples.

It was only at that point that I learned

that the intention was
to give me the unsealed sample,

which is presented to me as if to say,
"We aren't even defrosting vial B."

"This is part of vial B,
and that is what you will be given."

So the director of the laboratory says,
"Here's vial B."

And the consultant told him,

"What is this? This isn't vial B."

"Yeah, it's not vial B,
but it is urine B."

"Urine B?"

"Sorry, this urine isn't sealed
and therefore isn't guaranteed."

"I want vial B."

I had no idea
where that object had come from.

It had thawed. It was unsealed.

That could've been tap water.

So, I said

that we would not be leaving
without the samples,

which obviously elicited
a strong reaction.

And the public official said,

"Instead of being handed the samples,
you will end up crucified above the door."

Literally said.

At that point, I said
with a certain firmness,

"What you are offering me
is not what I came for,

so thank you,
but I'm going back to Italy empty-handed."

I had to personally speak
to the director of the laboratory

who, fearing the legal consequences,

decided to thaw the infamous sample B.

So this sealed vial is opened,

six milliliters are taken out, as planned,

and then something surprising
about the quantity crops up.

Colonel Lago notices

that, unlike the amount
that had been declared,

that sample B

only contained six milliliters of urine,

there was three times that.

We are talking about one of
the best laboratories in the world

in terms of anti-doping

being mistaken by 30, 40%.

This, in my opinion,
is entirely implausible.

Alex Schwazer had been claiming
his innocence all along

and the defense's hypothesis
was that of manipulation.

So how else could this be determined

if not with genetic testing
of the samples?

The DNA test had allowed us to confirm

that the DNA contained in the sample
was that of the athlete Alex Schwazer.

Then they tried to find out
if there was anything else,

any other DNA.

They even check
if there is any foreign DNA

inside the sample.

Or if anyone could have mixed Alex's
clean urine with that of a dirty athlete.

Not only was there no sensational evidence
of a third person,

there wasn't even
the slightest hint or trace.

It was him, period.

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.

Certainly, if I could go back,

I would reconfirm the necessity
to confess to all doping,

so turning himself in.

But I would reconsider the other aspect
to protect him.

On a personal level,

with a fair amount of struggling,
I have taken my life back in hand

and, along with Kathy, our life.

And on a professional level,
I had to make choices.

"What do I do now?"

He had to be even stronger.

He would often say, "You and the family
have to be even stronger."

And our Ida came
at the right time for that.

Thank God he had Kathy,

that she was always with him,
that she cheered him up.

If not, I don't know how it would've gone.

Kathy saved him.

Thanks to the fact that

I created a family with Kathy,

I realized that I would have
a future this time too.

BOLZANO
SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

The time for hypotheses
and 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.

The samples have been analyzed
by the RIS Carabinieri of Parma.

Today they will present their conclusions.

There was no foreign DNA
in Schwazer's urine.

So it seemed
that was the end of the story.

In this urine,
we find solely and exclusively

the profile of Alex Schwazer.

But there was an element

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 there wasn't any foreign DNA,
DNA of someone else,

but there was a high quantity
of Schwazer's DNA.

Colonel Lago,

having carried out experiments
on over 200 samples,

realized that the more time that passed,

the more this DNA reduced rapidly,
degraded.

Schwazer's urine was over two years old,

there shouldn't have been more
than a few units of DNA by now.

But his, however,
contained an extraordinary amount,

that is, 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 other samples taken from Schwazer

had revealed above-average concentrations,

or been in any way anomalous.

Only the sample we had been given
by Cologne laboratory

demonstrated this anomaly.

So the concentration of DNA
does not correspond to human physiology.

If I have understood correctly,
either he's an alien…

The quantity of DNA
in Alex Schwazer's sample

from January 1, 2016
proved to be excessive

compared to the norm.

So an explanation needs to be found
for this anomaly.

That elevated DNA
could have but one explanation.

And it is this,

someone added it.

And why would someone
have needed to add DNA?

Maybe because they had to adjust
Schwazer's urine,

left unattended for 15 hours
in a completely deserted office.

Sure, someone could have mixed
Schwazer's urine

with the urine of someone else,
maybe doped urine.

And to find out if it was really possible
to manipulate the DNA

to make it look like
it was actually Schwazer's urine,

I went to a genetic laboratory.

If someone had mixed the urine
of an athlete with another urine,

a mixed profile would soon have emerged
during the DNA test.

There would be two sets
of different DNA in the same urine.

But it's not like they could hand over
a sample of urine

with two different DNA profiles
to the Italian authorities.

So the only solution would have been
to destroy it and remove any trace.

Destroying DNA is quite a simple process.

You can do it using the UV ray equipment
found in any laboratory

by exposing the sample
to thermal radiation.

Once that's done,
it's as if the urine belong to no one.

Obviously, everyone would have realized

that they couldn't hand over
a sample devoid of any DNA.

It's like handing over,
I don't know, holy water.

At that point, the only possibility
would've been to add Schwazer's DNA.

His urine, however, contained
a quantity of DNA outside the norm.

So if they added it,
it couldn't have been taken from urine,

but from something
that contains far more DNA,

like, for example, blood.

The evidence is clear.

That urine, which probably wasn't Alex's,

was manipulated to become Alex's urine.

The issue is
that nobody could have imagined

that the Italian legal authorities
would have managed

to get hold of those samples.

And when they realized
the judges in Bolzano actually would,

someone probably had to run for cover.

And they made all this mess.

Clearly, the urine
had been manipulated incorrectly,

because it resulted in
inexplicable DNA values.

This story,
full of mystery, of strange things,

at some point I discovered
something even stranger.

When the Bolzano judge, Pelino,
demonstrated

that he wasn't going to give in
on the DNA test,

a certain Mr. Holz
ordered the WADA laboratory in Rome

to send Alex Schwazer's blood
and urine to Lausanne.

This was all done in secrecy.

And so, other samples
of Alex Schwazer's blood and urine

travel from one part of Europe to another,

without anyone knowing anything at all.

Schwazer's blood, his urine
ended up in a genetic laboratory

where DNA is manipulated.

And if the urine taken from Alex
on January 1, 2016

that was stored in Cologne

had secretly ended up
in the same laboratory?

Nobody can ever know.

THE LAW IS FOR EVERYONE

Attorney for WADA.

-May I have the floor?
-Of course.

WADA would like to produce a document.

At some point,

the WADA lawyer,
in the style of American TV movies,

gets up,

"Your Honor, here we may have
the answer to 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.

That analysis is disturbing.

It looks very much like the analysis
of Schwazer's urine from January 1.

Since it was done retrospectively,
it appears to be an imitation.

In this process,
there are no good or evil entities.

WADA and IAAF also 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 an additional plot twist

in the convoluted chain
of events in 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
for 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 Tyrol native's tendency
for 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 k*ller cannot come here

and decide if he is guilty or not.

Understand?

GENERAL DIRECTOR OF WADA

The hearing ends with a deferment,
while awaiting the decision.

BOLZANO
FEBRUARY 18, 2021

In that period, despite everything,

I continued with my training sessions

even if nobody knew
if the day of justice would truly come.

The verdict should have been filed,

so we'll soon see the conclusions,

then we'll let Donati and Alex know.

I remember waiting,
waiting for the judgment.

Hello? Sandro?

We've just received the verdict.

Don't worry. Stay calm.

We'll send it to you. Read it.
Perhaps we'll talk this evening. Bye.

I got back to the car,

and I realized from the missed calls
that it had come.

Alex, do you want to know?

I won't pretend I'm not emotional for you
because it's been years of suffering.

I told him, "I can't look."

"Do me a favor. You read it first."

"Then you can call back
and ask me to read it."

I saw the email,
but I didn't have the courage to read it.

No, I'll tell you.
Don't worry. Read it. It's expl*sive.

I had this fear inside,

that there would once again
be something that said, "But…"

But it wasn't like that this time.

"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 had witnessed an impressive series

of trickery and false declarations.

It wipes you out.

The 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 take a look?

-He destroyed them.
-He destroyed them, yes.

And so, the accusers
have now become the accused.

It's brutal.

It's a frontal attack
on the IAAF and WADA.

It's a victory on all fronts.

That day, in black and white,

I got what I had been waiting for
for four years.

You have always been by my side.

I came into this with precedence,

so it took courage
to believe in me immediately.

Many would've turned their backs,

and left me to my fate, and that's it.

I hope I can repay you.

We'll settle for two medals,
one for 20 kilometers and one for 50.

I felt this inner peace the next day.

I felt like I was meditating all the time.

I was so…

happy and relaxed.

Honey!

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's rejecting all accusations
and threatening legal action.

Judge Pelino's thesis is weakened

by the extreme complication
of the mechanism.

A huge plot

involving two worldwide laboratories,

the International Athletics Federation,

and, in some way,
the World Anti-Doping Agency.

For someone to hatch such a complex plot
to set up Donati is hard to believe.

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 revoked.

Alex's potential at the time

certainly wasn't at the level of 2016
before the Rio Olympics,

because he was younger
and more efficient then.

Nevertheless, it was at a very high level.

I felt the desire to get back to training.

All the steps I took after
have always been, in my eyes,

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 my very best.

I did it, but it wasn't easy
since I'm not young anymore.

So I followed him on the bike
for tens of kilometers every day.

Like any self-respecting crime novel,

there needs to be a motive and a culprit.

After resuming his training,

Alex had managed to reach
an extremely competitive level.

I really don't see
who could've beaten him in Tokyo.

There was hope once again.

Because there was also another Olympics.

There was also a big media reaction.

Alex Schwazer.

There were many demonstrations
of sympathy and satisfaction

that this injustice had been redressed.

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, and I am a sportsman.

I win on the racetrack.

And I will be back.

Alex Schwazer cleared his name.

The Italian legal system
restored his reputation.

But not even when faced with all this,

did the sports institutions
take even a tiny step backwards.

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 man in World Athletics,
Sebastian Coe.

Sebastian Coe, in actual fact,
threatened Italy.

It's a real kick in the teeth,

at least in the human story
of Alex Schwazer.

They attacked the judge.

They sent messages,
to Italy and to Italians,

to say, "Be on the right side."

But what is the right side for
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 sports system.

Therefore, his dream
of the five rings is over for good.

Alex?

Hi, Prof.

How are you?

A bit disappointed.

Because at one point, I believed it.

I did everything I could
to get back into it.

It's not fair that your career is ended
not by your own choice,

but other people's.

I know you're feeling great pain inside,

but there's space for other things, so…

I am now sure that you will be able
to tackle the rest of your life.

I hope,

after a lifetime spent
not fighting one battle,

but 100 battles,

that you will now take
some time for yourself.

At that time, I had made the choice.

I decided to train you.

My job is done.
It's time to make way for others.

This story exposes
the world of international athletics,

full of rules, yet without rules.

A world that doesn't want
to be judged by anyone,

unbreakable and untouchable.

If I had to toss a coin,

I'd honestly say he's innocent,

but sadly, there's no longer a chance
to prove it to the sports justice system.

There's one thing
these men should remember.

That a dead lion

is still a lion.

Jackals remain jackals.

What has always struck me about Alex

is the lack of acrimony he has
towards his persecutors,

towards the people who set up this scam.

In my opinion, Sandro didn't just help me
to grow as an athlete,

but I also learned a lot
from him as a person.

He doesn't make compromises,
and he didn't give in.

If he makes a few enemies along the way,
then so be it. He has his own path.

He taught me that.

I have doubts on my conscious.

Because without my involvement,

this whole vendetta against him
probably wouldn't have begun.

I exposed him to people I call
"the masters of doping,"

people who wield doping as a weapon.

If Sandro Donati had not trained me,

I would've been spared
the positive result,

but I also would've been spared
my return to competition,

and of being an athlete,
of the joy of being an athlete.

These are the things
I am 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.

Dr. 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
focused on scientific research.

Ferrari has a lifetime ban
from sports competitions.

He rejected all accusations, and was
definitely never convicted in Italy.

Conconi, Ferrari, and Moser have 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 legal authority
has ever ruled on the issue.

In April 2022, WADA announced
the results of a study

to confute the evaluation made by Lago.

It was conducted
on 100 endurance athletes.

Twenty percent 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 appealsa
gainst the sporting ban were rejected,

even those lodged
after the Bolzano court's ruling.

On May 9, 2022, Schwazer appealed
to the European Court of Human Rights.

The court will assess if he had
a fair trial in the sports court.

Schwazer's ban expires on July 7, 2024.

The Paris Olympics will begin
on July 26, 2024.

Schwazer won't make it in time

to take part in
the Olympic Qualification Trials.