The return, the master records, the Italian dream and the new positivity: the diary of the last two years of the South Tyrolean race walker.
July 2024 – June 2026. Just under two years, that’s how long Alex Schwazer’s third return to the, for him, troubled world of race walking lasted. From his return to competition to his final exit. An intense two-year period in which the Beijing Olympian repeatedly said, did, and contradicted himself, searching for something reminiscent of nostalgia, revenge, dreams of glory, and the desire to amaze.
This is the road that led to the epilogue of his latest doping suspension. However you look at it, an unexpected outcome.
July 7, 2024
It’s the day his eight-year ban for testing positive in 2016 ends, after returning to competition and winning the 50 km at the World Team Championships in Rome. At nearly 40 (his birthday is December 26), Alex Schwazer announces his return and, at the same time, his farewell to racing.
July 18, 2024
It’s the day of his “farewell race” in Arco di Trento. A simple parade? No, 50 laps of the track, 20,000 meters on the track to close with a real race. At least on paper. On the track with him is an unknown masters and a third athlete added at the last minute, the Cyrenian called to give competitive validity (three participants are needed). It’s all in vain. Schwazer starts off very strong, but stops after 14 km, bent over by back pain. “No big deal,” the important thing was to show his children how he walk,” the South Tyrolean declares with a smile.
Photos with the judges present, smiles, and we hang up our walking shoes; a new life awaits.
Is it a happy ending? No. Schwazer still wants to walk, and not just in his spare time, like any masters. He trains and prepares thoroughly in his spare time, but with the goal of doing well, indeed very well.
May 10, 2025
Here he is on the track in Bolzano at the Club Championships, wearing the Atletica San Biagio jersey. It was in San Biagio di Callalta, in the province of Treviso, that he returned to the 10,000 meters. He won in 43:11.37, but after the race he was furious. He received three red cards for disqualification and is obliged to a 60-second penalty zone, so in protest he didn’t even show up for the awards ceremony.
May 17, 2025
But the anger quickly subsides, as a week later he’s back on the track competing in the 3,000m. He finishes second behind Aldo Andrei (an athlete of the national team) with a mark of 11:43.03. This is the new Italian Masters 40Men record, 15 seconds off the world record. He’s still going strong; he’d win everything in the Masters world, but he wants to impress.
September 6, 2025
He does so in Bolzano at the Regional Individual Championships in the 10,000m, on the track, which this time he wins with an incredible time of 38:24.07.
This is his new personal best, improving on his previous time of 38:58:28, achieved in Pergine Valsugana on July 23, 2011 (a full 14 years earlier at age 26) in one of the many preparatory races for the London 2012 Olympic Games season. It’s the fourth fastest time of all time at the national level, behind other legends like Massimo Stano (Olympic champion at Tokyo 2021), Francesco Fortunato (who has won every race he’s entered so far in 2026), and Ivano Brugnetti (Olympic champion at Athens 2004).
Some are starting to wonder if it’s possible to still be so strong after so many years, and especially after such a long period of forced inactivity. The key lies in changing his training methods, as he’s been supported in his training programs by Domenico Pozzovivo, a professional cyclist accustomed to training for long distances.
The fact remains that there is no trace of any races from July 7, 2024, through 2025, in the World Athletics data base of the Global calendar, with the exception of the race scheduled for May 10, 2025 the only one included by Fidal in the World Athletics Global Calendar which was created that very year to guarantee the results that are part of the World Ranking. Furthermore, to be validated in, the race walking events must be judged by a jury composed of at least three Gold, Silver, or Bronze level World Athletics judges.
March 8, 2026
After many small regional races, he finally starts a national championship. On Sunday, March 8, he’s in Alessandria, home of the Italian Half Marathon Walking Championships. It’s a real race, against the Italians Gianluca Picchiottino and Riccardo Orsoni, whom he battles from the first kilometers. The international jury includes two Gold judges, one of whom is foreign. He’s always among the leaders, but his race walking behavior lacks to respect the rules. He receives five red cards out of six judges judging that race. He’s stopped in the penalty zone after the third red card. He restarts, but two more arrive shortly after. He withdraws before the disqualification is notified, but it still stands.
April 26, 2026
Does it seem like it’s all over? No, because to everyone’s surprise, Schwazer returns to the race again on April 26. This time, he does so in Germany, in Kelsterbach, near Frankfurt. The occasion is the German Marathon Race Walking Championships, a race the athlete from Racines has never attempted before. The technical conditions are very poor, with six athletes at the start and only four at the finish. However, Alex Schwazer leads the way with an incredible time of 3:01:55; the second arrived more than 25 minutes behind.
It’s the fastest time ever run by an Italian in the brand-new distance, three minutes faster than the time run by Japan’s Hayato Katsuki at the World Team Championships in Brasilia, where it was much hotter, and the altitude of 1.172m above sea levet. But so be it.
And then the voices are raised: Schwazer at the European Championships! The web and press are calling for his return to the national team, but the calendar isn’t on his side.
The deadline had to be reached by April 12th, a fact known to all. Then there’s the code of ethics of the Athletics Federation, which excludes from the national team athletes who have been banned for doping for more than two years.
June 22, 2026
The rest is modern history. Any enthusiasm and controversy surrounding his call-up to the national team was dampened by the German agency’s suspension for doping. And so the Italian athletics world is once again divided between those who believe he’s innocent and those who believe he’s guilty. Barring any unpredictable surprises regarding the urine tests on Sample B (remember, Sample A has already tested positive, as has the blood test: EPO was present in both), this will truly be the last time. Here’s Alex Schwazer’s true “farewell race” two years late.
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