Alex Schwazer
Alex Schwaz ( born December 26, 1984 in Sterzing ) is an Italian former athlete. He was 2008 Olympic champion in the 50 - km walk. In 2012 he was banned for doping.
Life
Schwaz won at the World Championships in 2005 and 2007, bronze medal, also was in Osake ninth in the 20 - km walk. At the 23rd World Cup race walking in the Russian Tscheboksari Schwaz be secured again in 2008 the bronze medal with a time of 3:37:04 hours and had so significant share of the second place of the Italians in the team standings. At the Olympic Games in Beijing, he was ahead of Australian Jared Tallent and the Russian Denis Nischegorodow Olympic champion.
At the 2009 World Championships in Schwaz had to retire. The following year he won the silver medal over 20 km at the European Championships 2010. At the World Athletics Championships in 2011, he was the same distance ninth. Shortly before the Summer Olympics 2012, he was tested positive for erythropoietin on the illegal taking of the doping agent and disqualified even before the arrival. He then declared his career over. The International Olympic Committee (IOC ) closed Schwaz one days locked before the 50 - km -Go- competition at the Games in London, he was until January 2016.
Alex Schwaz holds the record for Italy 20 - km walk and 50 - km walk. He is 1.85 m tall and weighed 73 kg times to the competition site. He started for the SV Sterzing (1997-1999), the SC Meran (2000-2004) and for a sports promotion group of Carabinieri in Bologna ( 2005-2012). Schwaz lives in the hamlet Kalch at the Jaufenpassstraße in South Tyrol and trained (2011/2012) in Settimo Milanese and in Oberstdorf, as his new coach Michele Didoni lived there. After his Olympic victory was announced that he is romantically involved with figure skater Carolina Kostner Gardena.