Schwazer sent home by the Italian team for doping

[Zemgirl]

Whether he's sorry for doping or for getting caught (or both), I'm sure Schwazer is kicking himself for being so stupid. But he has only himself to blame.

I feel very bad for Carolina, after such a great season she should have been enjoying herself, but now she will have to deal with this instead - she's already being mentioned as his girlfriend in the media coverage, and I'm guessing there will be speculation about what she knew and when. I'm going to assume she didn't do anything wrong, and I hope this will not have any adverse effect on her career.

[loulou]

Italian head of track and field federation was asked if that episode put some sort of dark shade on the italian delegation all, and on the track and field team specifically.

He answered: "No, not at all. Infact, we Italians hardly saw him. Had he been spending time with us more, things may have turned up differently".

I feel very bad for Carolina, after such a great season she should have been enjoying herself, but now she will have to deal with this instead - she's already being mentioned as his girlfriend in the media coverage, and I'm guessing there will be speculation about what she knew and when. I'm going to assume she didn't do anything wrong, and I hope this will not have any adverse effect on her career.

They both are public figures, they are a marketable couple, and from that status they both made a ton of money.

[Karina1974]

According to CTV's report on Primetime, it was the ever popular Pot Brownie.

Of all the idiotic things to do...

All the local media said was that the food was "baked" and I thought maybe it was a pot brownie, and my next thought was the same as yours - how stupid.

I wonder how true it is that he didn't know exactly what it was he was eating at the time he was eating it... kind of funny how he would know that it was from baked goods...

[mikeko]

As far as the Italian racewalker, as has been already said, his mistake was forgetting to take the masking agent. I feel for Carolina and his Family and Friends, but have no sympathy at all for him. He knew what he was doing.

He got positive for erythropoietin (EPO), a peptide hormone that our bodies also produce. There's no point to add a foreign chemical to mask it. (We need EPO to produce red blood cells.) It was very difficult to develop a good doping test for EPO because there is very small difference between genetically engineered EPO and natural EPO produced in human body, and it was very easy to get a false positive. But it looks like there's reliable method available, sensitive and specific enough.

I wonder how long he's been injecting EPO. There's a possibility that he's been using it for some time but never caught just because there was no reliable test available. There's no way to prove that, though.

[IceIceBaby]

I wonder how long he's been injecting EPO. There's a possibility that he's been using it for some time but never caught just because there was no reliable test available. There's no way to prove that, though.

I think they freeze the tests from previous competitions, so basically they could investigate Schwager's tests from years ago. For example Ivan Tihov recently got caught of doping he used in 2004 and 2005 when they re-analyzed his tests.

[mikeko]

I think they freeze the tests from previous competitions, so basically they could investigate Schwager's tests from years ago. For example Ivan Tihov recently got caught of doping he used in 2004 and 2005 when they re-analyzed his tests.

It depends on the target molecules. What substances did they re-analyaze Tihov's blood for?

EPO is peptide/protein and can degrade very easily. Urine samples would need to be added protease inhibitors and frozen at -80 degrees ASAP. I have no idea how samples are handled at competitions.

[IceIceBaby]

It depends on the target molecules. What substances did they re-analyaze Tihov's blood for?

It was probably some sort of steroids.

[Zemgirl]

They both are public figures, they are a marketable couple, and from that status they both made a ton of money.

I'm not sure what that has to do with what I wrote.

Carolina Kostner was a public figure, and a high profile one at that, well before she ever got together with Alex Schwazer - and I imagine most of her income and sponsorships do not derive from her status as his girlfriend.

[allezfred]

Heffernan happy to see the back of Schwazer

[overedge]

As far as the Italian racewalker, as has been already said, his mistake was forgetting to take the masking agent. I feel for Carolina and his Family and Friends

Why? The fact that he's a druggie cheater is no reflection on them. I'm sure at least some of them are not too happy with him either.

[allezfred]

Why? The fact that he's a druggie cheater is no reflection on them.

Unfortunately, a lot of people are not going to feel that way.

[Zemgirl]

Why? The fact that he's a druggie cheater is no reflection on them. I'm sure at least some of them are not too happy with him either.

It does reflect on others, and therein lies the problem. What does Kostner do? Does she ride this out with Schwazer? He'll be shredded for what he did and it's not going to be fun to be a part of it. Also, I can see some sponsors not wanting to deal with the famous girlfriend of a super high-profile doper; if that's the case, then he's put her career in danger in addition to wrecking his own. OTOH, theirs is a serious, long-term relationship, not a random hookup in the village - so I doubt she'll want to distance herself from him. No matter what happens next, it's not going to be easy for her.

This leaves aside the possibility that she knew what he was doing; I hope she didn't, because it'll look very bad if she did. And for anyone who is close to him and didn't know about it - which could be quite a few people, Carolina included - finding out must have been so sad and disillusioning.

[milanessa]

The fact that he's a druggie cheater is no reflection on them. I'm sure at least some of them are not too happy with him either.

I'm sure they're not happy with him but on the other hand they've probably gotten some bennies over the years due to their association with him. 6 of one and all that. It does seem that it's all on him, though.

[millyskate]

About 10-15 years ago, I read a couple of interviews with long-distance walking athletes (national B team standard), implying that EPO doping in the sport was at the time at least as common as in road cycling, and organised by coaching staff/teams. With that in mind, I've always been surprised there hasn't been a mass confession/discovery linked to the sport.

I wonder if there really was a time when a large proportion of competitors were on EPO, like in road cycling, or if it was just an isolated group of cases.

[overedge]

I'm having trouble seeing him as a high-profile athlete. Maybe he's more famous in Europe, but racewalking is not a major Olympic sport, so I would be surprised if he has big endorsement deals anyway. And he is not the only athlete who's failed drug tests at these Games, so as far as I can tell he's not being vilified as the drug cheat who singlehandly besmirched the reputation of the 2012 Olympics.

And as for Carolina, I, at least, didn't make the connection that this was her boyfriend until someone here pointed it out. So I am not sure how strong the connection is going to be elsewhere, or how much difference it would make to her sponsors.

[allezfred]

I'm having trouble seeing him as a high-profile athlete. Maybe he's more famous in Europe, but racewalking is not a major Olympic sport

Athletics is which race walking is a part of and he is an Olympic gold medallist. As for it not being an issue for Kostner, it's being talked about here. It's going to come up in press conferences.

Interestingly, any reference to Alex Schwazer has now disappeared from Kostner's ISU bio.

[millyskate]

I'm having trouble seeing him as a high-profile athlete. Maybe he's more famous in Europe, but racewalking is not a major Olympic sport, so I would be surprised if he has big endorsement deals anyway. And he is not the only athlete who's failed drug tests at these Games, so as far as I can tell he's not being vilified as the drug cheat who singlehandly besmirched the reputation of the 2012 Olympics.

And as for Carolina, I, at least, didn't make the connection that this was her boyfriend until someone here pointed it out. So I am not sure how strong the connection is going to be elsewhere, or how much difference it would make to her sponsors.

In Italy, they both are very famous, and known as a celebrity couple. Schwazer is only famous in his home-country, but a status as Olympic gold medalist would guarantee you some form of public recognition - especially when you're good looking and dating another celebrity.

[pingu]

I'm having trouble seeing him as a high-profile athlete. Maybe he's more famous in Europe, but racewalking is not a major Olympic sport, so I would be surprised if he has big endorsement deals anyway. And he is not the only athlete who's failed drug tests at these Games, so as far as I can tell he's not being vilified as the drug cheat who singlehandly besmirched the reputation of the 2012 Olympics.

And as for Carolina, I, at least, didn't make the connection that this was her boyfriend until someone here pointed it out. So I am not sure how strong the connection is going to be elsewhere, or how much difference it would make to her sponsors.

Well you don't even live in Europe/Italy, right? So you can't actually know how famous/popular he is. He's quite famous here, and Carolina is as well. They have done several advertisings on tv so everyone knows who they are. At least 10 minutes out of 30 have been dedicated to his doping in the tv news, in the past 24 hours. We don't have many high level athletes in athletics now, and he was one of our Olympic hopefuls, as he was the reining Olympic champion.

[overedge]

Athletics is which race walking is a part of

Come on, this is really splitting hairs. Racewalking is probably one of the least covered sports within athletics. We're talking about the sport itself, not about which grouping it falls under.

and he is an Olympic gold medallist. As for it not being an issue for Kostner, it's being talked about here. It's going to come up in press conferences.

If it's being "talked about", I get that, but none of us have any way of knowing what questions are going to be asked at press conferences a couple of months from now.

[overedge]

Well you don't even live in Europe/Italy, right? So you can't actually know how famous/popular he is. He's quite famous here, and Carolina is as well. They have done several advertisings on tv so everyone knows who they are. At least 10 minutes out of 30 have been dedicated to his doping in the tv news, in the past 24 hours. We don't have many high level athletes in athletics now, and he was one of our Olympic hopefuls, as he was the reining Olympic champion.

I did say that maybe he was more famous in Europe, so I'm not disputing that he's better known in some parts of the world than in others.