Alex Schwazer’s isn’t just a sports story: it’s a story of redemption, power and hope.
– Alex Schwazer is a character whose failures are much more known than successes, when athletics still had him as the only beacon. Starting from his victory in the 50 km walk at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a new life begins for the South Tyrolean athlete: the loneliness of the winner, the fear of not being able to repeat himself. And it is from here that the journey into the dark world of doping begins in the series: the systematic and national one concerning Russia, or the illicit practices of Conconi and Ferrari. A tunnel into which Schwazer consciously falls, with the impression of having no way out. The confession to the world shortly before London 2012 sounds like a liberation, at a time when he is also expressing suicidal thoughts to his mother. If there is a positive point to underline in the series, it is the wise use of family testimonies, who have been able to tell delicate and hitherto unpublished moments. Schwazer’s has also been a story of depression for a long time: a topic rarely treated with sufficient delicacy, but which now concerns more and more sportsmen;
– Decide later to be coached by Sandro Donatione of the greatest champions of anti-doping, it is both the right and the wrong choice at the same time that Schwazer could accomplish. The desire to continue his career with the search for redemption clashes with the inconvenience of the “Prof”, a character who has always been disliked by Coni for his numerous battles, primarily against Conconi’s blood transfusion practices, or even for cases of fraud like the half meter added in the long jump competition at Evangelisti in the 1987 Rome Athletics World Championships. The sensation of unity and humanity that shines through the Schwazer-Donati collaboration is evident and goes beyond sport: in addition to being his coach, he was a strong shoulder to lean on even in difficult moments, such as those concerning the second positive result in 2016 and the entire judicial process that follows. Attorney Brandstatter’s work also goes beyond the lawsuit to be pursued;
– When shortly before the Rio 2016 Olympics Schwazer is found positive again, the race for encirclement starts and there are those who cry out for definitive radiation. The athlete, together with his coach, immediately claims his innocence and hypothesizes tampering with the test tubes, both certain of the fraudulent intervention of the supervisory bodies. The management of Wada and Iaaf and the acrimony of Donati’s opponents look more like a mafia story than a sports story: the willingness of persecution of an athlete and the intention to cover up any proof of innocence make one shiver. We understand how the fate of sport is no longer in the hands of the federations, but in the men of power, who often corrupt or are corrupted;
– The claim to find a truth that rehabilitates Schwazer in the eyes of public opinion is clear, and it can be understood from the worldwide distribution of the series. Make the case known to more countries it frees us from a provincialism that has always characterized thinking about doping episodes in Italy and it can give space to a new line of revelations related to corruption in the world of sport. This docu-fiction also requires you to give an opinion on the events that occurred: for the writer, the desire to definitively eliminate Donati is evident – hitting Schwazer – from the world of athletics, given his problematic past with Wada, Iaaf and Coni. The marcher was the perfect target, given his background. The tampering of test tubes in the laboratory, with a complex mechanism (which could have been explained in more detail for laymen in science) now seems to be confirmed by several clues, as demonstrated by the Court of Bolzano. Serious as the highest international offices have not even tried to conceal a conspiracy against Schwazer, with concealments found in several episodes even in the courtrooms: the anti-doping control on New Year’s Day, the communication of a positive test a few months before the Olympics without the possibility of preparing a good defensive report, the decision moved to Rio de Janeiro a few days before the competition, the case of the conservation of the second urine sample in the various laboratories;
– Alex Schwazer’s story deserved to be told e let’s hope it reaches even the most ardent supporters of his betrayal, as well as to those who did not know its developments. The total four hours of footage allow us to reconstruct in detail all the matters concerning the walker, leaving room for all theses: both guilty ones and innocent ones. The archive images, as well as the testimonies, measure well the climate that is recorded around this overall controversial story, with sides still to be clarified. Without falling into rhetoric, Netflix tells an excellent sports story of descents and climbs, while aware that today the real battle will still have to be waged in the courts. This could have been one of Schwazer’s last chances to tell his life inside and outside the sporting discipline: he managed to organize a never superficial story, entertaining the viewer, placing him in empathy with the protagonist. The documentary is all to be seen, possibly in a single day if you have the time and desire. Impossible at this point not to hope for justice, which seems clear which side to be on, as well as in a more complicated return to competitions to demonstrate once again how desirable a sport detached from the logic of power is.