Schwazer, the great success of the TV series relaunches the case

A resounding success. Three months after its first broadcast, the docu-series The Alex Schwazer case can show off unexpected titles and numbers at least in this dimension. The four episodes entered Netflix’s top ten in the journalistic docu-series sector for a few weeks, even reaching fourth place for a moment. And the nomination for the 2023 Silver Ribbons in the top five of the best productions also came to validate these numbers. All this almost seven years after the hasty condemnation of Rio in the Olympic days. Now in less than 12 months, Schwazer will conclude his long purgatory and could return to being an athlete in all respects.

Far away

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Be careful, though. If it is true that Schwazer trains and is in good shape, the charge of the days preceding Rio or even Tokyo is inevitably far away (after the order of the Bolzano investigating judge had filed his position indicating manipulation as “probable”, reopening the hope of to race). Not to mention his almost 39 years. And then it’s one thing to go back, another, quite another thing to go to Paris. Also because yet another attempt hits the wall of the calendar. Schwazer’s disqualification will in fact end on July 7, a week after the deadline to achieve the minimum for the 20 kilometres, the distance in which Italy is the reigning champion with Massimo Stano, the only individual race in the men’s race walk program given that the 50 km race, the one in which Schwazer won the Olympic title in Beijing, was abolished from the third Parisian edition of the Games, replaced by the team relay (one man, one woman) over the marathon distance.

Slow motion

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July 7 is a date that prohibits any Olympic hypothesis. In fact, the moment of the counter-analysis was chosen as a starting point and not that of the positivity (May 13) or of communication to the athlete (June 21). As is well known, the long time elapsed between these two dates was the subject of the first controversies because this slowdown reduced the times of defense in view of Rio and is now transformed into another hoax. Moreover, the Sports Anti-Doping Rules inherited from the Wada Code specified in 2016 that “where there have been substantial delays in the hearing procedure or in other aspects of anti-doping control which are not attributable to the Athlete or to another Person, the competent Adjudicatory Body may the disqualification from the date of collection of the biological sample or from the date on which the last anti-doping rule violation occurred”. However, this is a theoretical disquisition. Schwazer is thinking of a return, even if only symbolic, and on the Olympics he has repeatedly declared that he “doesn’t want to delude myself any more”.

Opposition

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Naturally, the docu-series has once again unleashed the opposition between innocentists and guilty parties, of which, moreover, the same episodes by Massimo Cappello and Marzia Maniscalco are inevitably a bit of a mirror. Just before the presentation of the docu-series to the press, there had been another judicial novelty. In fact, the news of the archiving of the conspiracy thesis denounced by the investigating magistrate himself had emerged from the Bolzano prosecutor’s office. An unsurprising outcome given that every investigative act, five years after the alleged manipulation, is obviously very complicated, bordering on the impossible. However, formally the filing still does not exist because the lawyer Gerhard Brandstaetter has objected and the file is still open. Neutrality In short, many of the questions on the case, as emerges from the docu-series itself, remained on the table. In particular, those concerning the guarantees for the athlete found positive, a topic raised repeatedly by Sandro Donati, Schwazer’s coach. Even the same harmony, somehow agreed, between Wada and the IAAF (today World Athletics), clashes with the role of “neutrality” and distance from the system that the World Anti-Doping Agency should ensure, where it is no coincidence that coexist , in terms of resources and governance, both the world of sport and that of governments.

The motion

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Wada has spent herself in defending her reasons, in the various judicial and political forums. Constantly reiterating that “the evidence provided is scientifically proven beyond a reasonable doubt”. Words that came right after the unanimous pronouncement of the culture commission of the Chamber which had “committed the government to adopt initiatives, as far as it is responsible and in compliance with the autonomy of the sports system, so that suitable instruments are identified to allow Alex Schwazer to participate at the next Olympic Games in Tokyo”. The meeting After that parliamentary initiative, there was also a meeting on April 30, 2021 between the then undersecretary Valentina Vezzali, then holder of the delegation for sport in the Draghi government, and the director general of Wada, Olivier Niggli. At the end of the conversation, a press release “reaffirmed the mutual esteem and institutional respect that exists between the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Italian government”. It was never understood whether the Schwazer case was mentioned or how. However, at close range from the position taken by the Parliament. At this point there is also the hypothesis that Minister Andrea Abodi could reopen the file. Obviously the Tokyo Olympics are over and done with, but the thousand doubts that these years have not been able to erase remain. And if the Minister of Sport, always quite sensitive on the subject of the relationship between sporting and ordinary justice, resumed studying the case?