CAS bans Italian race walker despite claims of a set-up

Italian 50 km race walker Alex Schwazer will not be able to compete at this year’s Olympics in Rio. This was final when CAS on Thursday released their verdict on his appeal sanctioning him with an eight-year ban. The CAS statement further said that “All competitive results obtained by Alex Schwazer from and including 1 January 2016 are disqualified with all resulting consequences, including forfeiture of medals, points and prizes.”

The detailed grounds for the decision have not yet been released.

Schwazer, his coach and long-time anti-doping fighter Sandro Donati as well as the athlete’s lawyer have been fighting hard for the past months trying to convince the public and CAS that the positive B-test that caused Schwazer’s provisional ban was in fact constructed and that the handling of the test tube for the re-testing had been reckless and perhaps even tampered with.

Schwazer denies to have knowingly taken any type of performance enhancing drug.

In a documentary by Italian Le Republicca on the Schwazer-case, the positive B-test is alleged to be sabotaged with the implication of officials from within the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Allegedly, forces inside athletics would like to keep Schwazer from competing at the Rio Games as a response to him and Donati having disclosed doping practices.

Schwazer served a three and a half-year suspension after admitting to having used EPO in 2012 and returned to competition in May this year.

In two lengthy articles on the website sportsintegrityinitiative.com, journalist Andy Brown gives a thorough description of the case. Here, it is also possible to watch the Italian documentary with English subtitles.