22 July 2020

FIDAL doctors & official acquitted of responsibility in Schwazer case

The Bolzano Court of Appeal has acquitted two doctors who worked for the Italian athletics federation (FIDAL) and its former Technical Director of assisting race walker Alex Schwazer, who was sanctioned with an eight year ban for a second anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) in August 2016. The Court overturned a January 2018 verdict which sentenced Dr. Giuseppe Fischetto and Dr. Pierluigi Fiorella, both of whom worked for FIDAL, to two years in prison, announced FIDAL. Rita Bottiglieri, a former FIDAL Technical Director who works in sports medicine at the Italian Olympic committee (CONI), was also acquitted after initially being sentenced to nine months imprisonment.

The Italian anti-doping organisation (NADO Italia) announced that it has notified the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) about the decisions regarding Dr. Fischetto and Dr. Fiorella. It also announced that it has notified WADA, World Athletics and FIDAL about the decision concerning Bottiglieri.

In November last year, FIDAL supplied a list of 56 athletes who have agreed for their urine samples to be analysed by Bolzano prosecutors in order to ascertain if Alex Schwazer’s sample was manipulated, as the race walker alleges. The case has been delayed due to the onset of Covid-19, but Schwazer is understood to be hopeful that it will be resolved before the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

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