So many tweets on my timeline like, ‘this is either the continuation of a grand conspiracy against Alex Schwazer or he’s a psychopath’ as if that is irrefutable evidence that it’s all a conspiracy… The man is a narcissist that will do whatever it takes to win. In 2011, using the fake name Alfred Rainer, Alex starts working with doping Doctor Michele Ferrari. Shortly after he gets his World Champion figure skater girlfriend banned by having her lie about his whereabouts to evade being tested. But eventually he gets caught with EPO because he wasn’t good enough to win without it. He cries and talks about how he is done with sport. Then he comes back in 2016, stronger than ever, dominates the World Cup… but ultimately has that result taken away after a sample from January 1st was found to contain exogenous Testosterone. This time, no admittance of guilt. Instead he went on a defense rooted in sabotage and conspiracy. He made a fake Twitter account to defend himself and belittle his competitors. He claimed he would show up in Rio and race 50km at the same time as the Olympics to show how much better he was than everyone else (this never happened). During his ban he continued to break anti doping rules, unpunished, by offering coaching services, and attending club events (both against WADA rules). But Alex gained a cult following from this claim of conspiracy which led to increased fame, Big Brother, a Netflix documentary… which I’m sure all fed his narcissistic ego supremely well. In 2024, when he returned to competition following his 8 year ban, he was pretty slow and got disqualified in a number of races. His one official result in 2025 was a 43min 10km. Then, out of nowhere, earlier this year he walked a European record 3:01:55 marathon (the race where this positive test comes from). Whatever it takes to be the best. Once again Alex is laying the foundation of a conspiracy by claiming to have their own sealed sample of urine from the same test (completely inadmissible). Despite EPO being present in both his blood and urine samples he is claiming that unless they also perform a test on this mystery 3rd sample with no chain of custody or care then it’s proof of a conspiracy, but one that he is ‘too tired’ to fight. And his cult will eat that up. To them, Alex will always be a martyr and a champion. But to his fellow athletes, we know him for what he really is: a disgrace who would do anything to win. And as a result we are left wondering whether his Beijing Gold was achieved honestly or not.