Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Alex Schwazer: guilty, yet at least sincere


Italian walker Alex Schwazer failed a doping test, and he is out of the Olympics.
Italian media are going crazy about the topic. We have already seen hundreds of melodramatic reports going on and on about his fatal mistake, and they will probably never get tired of broadcasting the interview where Schwazer burst into tears admitting his faults.
Schwazer made a huge mistake, that’s sure, and a hateful one. Assuming drugs to perform better is definitely not sporting.
Anyway, now they are turning him into a scapegoat. He tried to cheat and they got him. Unfortunately, there are many more people who cheat and never get caught.
As wrong as he was, to me Schwazer looks like a good guy who, in the end, was too afraid not to satisfy other people’s expectations.  He really seems to regret what he has done, and I honestly think that what he needs the most now is psychological support.
I don’t mean to make him look less guilty, but at least we have to admire the way he took responsibility for assuming drugs. The minute he was caught he gave in. He apologized and said that he deserves to be disqualified for life.
If only in Italy we saw the same sense of responsibility in every other area besides sport, maybe we would be a better country. You will never see an Italian politician apologizing for their mistakes (which usually cause much more damage) the way Alex Schwazer did. 



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