Schwazer coach Donati takes a swing

“I Signori del Doping”, the Lords of Doping, is the title of the 420-page book that Sandro Donati published on Tuesday. In it, the 74-year-old Italian revisits the story of Alex Schwazer and his supposedly manipulated doping test by adding a personal touch. He says: “I wrote this book to unravel the chain of complicity that was built from the World Athletics Federation, the Anti-Doping Organization, the Cologne laboratory to Italian supporters to destroy Alex and me.” Who these are? “If you read the book, you will find out,” Donati is quoted as saying. In the book, the sports scientist explains why he decided to help the South Tyrolean after his positive doping test. “I did it after thinking about his story: an athlete, an Olympic champion, who goes alone to Turkey to get Epo from a pharmacy he found on the Internet. I didn’t believe it, but this really happened,” Donati writes. He was touched by the fact that he, of all people, asked him for help, as he was a stranger to the world of doping. Because Schwazer is “a man with a strong personality” and has always shown himself to be dignified and not vengeful, “I lost sleep to save Alex from a shameful ambush that arose for the personal reasons of a few and then turned into a huge business became." Corruption in the associations It is true that the institutions are used to covering each other, “but this time they have gone a step further,” says Donati. “Then I think back to the Paris trial in 2020 and everything becomes clear.” At that time, the former president of the International Athletics Federation, Lamine Diack, was sentenced to four years in prison for accepting money to cover up Russian state doping. It also emerged that the former anti-doping chief, Gabriel Dollé, had 50.000 euros hidden in his washing machine. “The elites of sport have sold themselves out, but they should actually be role models.” In order to understand the case and, above all, to check Schwazer's credibility, “I was very careful at the beginning,” emphasizes Donati: “I went through the documents from the Bolzano trial, asked Alex hundreds of questions and forced him to do surprise investigations. I took him to a physiology lab every 15 days. After about a month, I understood that it was an absurd story,” says Donati, adding that Schwazer would have won dozens of titles with coaches who “deserve the name.” “Instead he succumbed to doping because he was regularly beaten by dopers who would never have made it without doping. He got into trouble and they left him alone.” A warning Words that show how great Donati's contempt and anger is towards the alleged masterminds of this saga. “A sports crime was committed against Alex. I hope that this story will serve as a warning so that something like this never happens to anyone again,” are Donati’s unmistakable closing words.

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Schwazer coach Donati takes a swing

The Alex Schwazer saga is getting another chapter: In a newly published book, Kalcher's former coach, Sandro Donati, settles accounts with the masterminds of “this conspiracy”.

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