I completely agree with you.
Ban on Carolina Kostner Over
- Thread starter cruzceleste
- Start date
I completely agree with you.
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2014
Sorry, can be completely sure. I tryed to read WADA guidelines yesterday, but they are very confussing (maybe is because english is not my first language). But here you can read them
https://www.wada-ama.org/en/resources/search?f[0]=field_resource_collections%3A190
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2014
Funny bit, Jacqui White (Charlie White´s mom) posted in her facebook the petition not to banned Carolina. Saying that she signed, but now she deleted the post.
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
That makes sense. Mrs. White probably knows Carolina and wants to show her support. But then, on reflection, decided it was probably better not to get into it publicly.
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2014
here's the translation i made of the interview that Carolina did with the newspaper "il fatto quotidiano" if anybody wants to read it 
Carolina Kostner: “ I loved Schwazer, but not until doping. I didn’t know.”
The champion (who CONI [Italian Olympic committee] wants to ban from competitions for 51 months accusing her to cover for her ex boyfriend) tells her version of the facts: I lied to the inspector, but I had a few seconds to decide. If I had known that he was doped , I would have convinced him to confess. Being accused of covering him is unbearable for me.
Carolina Kostner is strict: “I would never cover for somebody who dopes himself and i don’t deserve a ban for more than four years. I could decide myself to stop competing”. Kostner thinks that being accused of being a “partner in crime” of her ex boyfriend, the marathon runner Alex Schwazer who was found positive to doping, is simply unbearable: “ I have never doped myself, I’ve never helped Alex to do it , and I had never known about it until the test came back positive. How is it possible that they’d ask a harder punishment for me compared to a lot of other athletes that are banned because positive to drug tests?”
Carolina has waited a long time before telling her version of the facts, even though one thing she never denied: she lied to the anti-doping inspector that the morning of the 30th of July 2012 went to her house in Germany looking for Alex Schwazer. “It was a huge mistake, even though I did it with good intensions, Alex went to be tested that night and for me it was over then.”
Carolina didn’t want to talk. But now that CONI asked for her to be banned for 51 months because she didn’t turn in Schwazer, the time for telling her truth has come. She left the United States a week early, saying goodbye to the fans who went to Dallas to see her show on ice, first headed to New York and then to Milan. This exclusive she conceded to “Il fatto quotidiano” is the result of more meetings, in which the world champion wanted to face every single accusation that was made against her in the past few months and to answer all of our questions. Yesterday morning as soon as she arrived at the airport of Milan (Malpensa), that shy girl that just wanted to move on was gone. The time to suffer in silence it’s over: “the problem it’s not how far you are willing to go for love, because had I known that Alex was doping, for his welfare especially, I would have convinced him to confess. The accusation of covering for him it’s unbearable.”
Let’s sum up the facts: the morning of July 30th 2012, an inspector goes to Carolina Kostner house in Oberstdorf, in Germany. Alex Schwazer, who back then was her boyfriend, asked her to tell the inspector that he isn’t at home because he had given his availability in his apartment in Racines (Italy). Kostner does so and then asks her boyfriend to lave and to go and get tested that same day. When she went out, though, Carolina noticed that the inspector, who didn’t believe her, is still in front of her house. She gives him the phone so that he can clear things up with Schwazer himself, who that night will effectively be tested. If this is the central point of the accusation, there are at the same time a lot of differences between the versions of the two Olympic champions. It’s about details: he says he has her house keys, she denies it. She remembers that it all happened at 7 am, he at 9am. According to Kostner, from the balcony you couldn’t see the car of the inspector, according to him you could. And so on.
Q: Carolina Kostner, CONI asked a very harsh punishment after the last hearing with Alex Schwazer. They say there are a lot of differences between the versions the two of you gave, which seem to discredit its reliability and show your “complicity”.
A: our statements can be different only on small details, which is due to the fact that it has been a long time. Because the truth is that everything he has done, he has done it hiding it. He knows it and I know it. But I’m happy to be specific.
Q: your versions would be contrasting on a few secondary elements. For example, Schwazer has stated that he had the keys to your house in Oberstdorf, while you denied it.
A: He had my keys only during the times he was staying at my house. But he never brought them with himself when he would leave. I had trainings every day so I would lend him a copy of my keys so that he could be independent. Our schedules didn’t correspond, and otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to go back home after his trainings if I wasn’t there.
Q: they, also, say that the inspector came at 7 am, you on the other hand declared it was 9 am.
A: honestly, the first time they asked me this question it was a year after it happened. It was early morning for sure. May I know what the time has to do with drugs?
Q: still: you, unlike your ex boyfriend, that from your balcony you couldn’t see the car of the inspector.
A: and I stick to it. Maybe Alex leaned out of the balcony to see better, it’s a question you have to ask him.
Q: these are all details that become important because of a sure fact: you, on the morning of July 30th 2012, said that Alex wasn’t at your house. Why did you lie?
A: Alex had given availability in Italy and when the door bell rang he told me: “if it is the inspector tell him I’m not here because I gave availability in Racines”. I was in the kitchen and in those 10 seconds, while I was walking toward the door, I couldn’t even think. I opened the door and did what he asked me. I didn’t understand why he asked me to lie, I went back to him and told him to leave and go to be tested immediately.
Q: did you lie to protect him?
A: I didn’t have anything to protect for what I knew back then. I did it on the spot. I know I made a mistake, but I had just a few seconds to think what to do. To me it was completely unthinkable that he could dope himself. Alex never gave me reason to think so.
Q: what did you think in that moment?
A: I thought anything but doping, because for me it was an idea out of the world and also because when I went back he told me he would go and be tested that same day, which he ended up doing. So the doubt, had I even had it, would have gone away immediately. Why be tested that night if you have something to hide? I told him: “I go out and when I come back you’d better have left, get your stuff and go to be tested”. He was ready to leave, but when I stepped out my house I saw that the inspector was still there.
Q: why do you think?
A: maybe because there were two cars parked in front of my house, or maybe because I’m a terrible liar.
Q: it was then that you realized how serious it was?
A: I didn’t know what to do. I went and ran my errands and when I came back I gave the phone to the inspector so that he could talk to Alex. I don’t know what they said to each other, but the inspector, once the call was over, left. That night Alex called me from his house in Racines telling me he got tested. I thought it was over.
Q: so when did you have the certainty that Alex was indeed doping?
A: I found out when he told me in person. Which is after the test results came back. When I found out he was positive, I thought it was impossible that it was because of doping. I left the house before he could give me an explanation, without saying anything. I didn’t even dare to ask. I was living in a state of panic I never felt before. When I got back I thought he wouldn’t be there anymore and I asked myself: what do I do now he he leaves me without any explanation, without telling me the truth? I thought about anything: maybe he used too much asthma spray (not sure that’s how you translate it), which can alter the results. Maybe the test was wrong. Maybe, maybe, maybe. I clung to any hope.
Q: they say to you that you couldn’t not know.
A: to me a relationship is based on trust, and Alex had never given me a reason to think he was doping. I didn’t feel the need to look for proofs, since I didn’t have any doubts. He says he never told me because he wanted to protect me. I think that it’s partially true, but there is another thing: any time a case of an athlete positive to doping came out, I was always very harsh. And the same goes for my family: it could happen at dinner, with Alex there, that my father would be very harsh toward those who doped themselves. I think he never said anything even because he was very ashamed of himself.
Q: aren’t you mad at Schwazer for putting you in this situation?
A: in that moment I was bothered because of the lie he made me say, but I couldn’t even imagine how much bigger and more serious this was. Alex was the man I loved, the person I thought I would share my life with. I thought he was going to be the father of my children. After five years of relationship, you trust a person you love this way.
Q: maybe you give even more: there aren’t a lot of people who would press charges against the man they love.
A: it’s true: I lied because he asked me to, but I have never ever covered for him, because I had no idea of what he was doing. Who accuses me of superficiality or of being naïve doesn’t know what kind of life has an athlete at this level. You go back home at night after a day of training and you are so tired that the only things that you think usually are: I‘ll eat and then I’ll go to bed. And furthermore I live and let live because of how I am. To me a love story is based on trust, and I’m not the kind of girl to ask what are you doing, where are you going, with whom, when and why. I could never do it even because if somebody would do that to me I would go crazy. And also, I used to be a person who would try to see the good in others.
Q:used to be?
A: what happened changed me deeply. I don’t know how long it will be before I can trust completely somebody else. With Alex it was love at first sight. Boom, hit, lost. But skating was my life, like marching was for him. My immediate goal wasn’t to have a family, but winning the Olympics. There was no room for jealousy or stalking wouldn’t have had the energy or time for it.
Q: it was 2012 the year you won the world championship.
A: I was in high season, the one where i accomplished the most. In my head there was only a question: how can I skate better tomorrow and the day after, and the day after that? I won both world and European championship. Had I known , or even suspected that my boyfriend was doping , I couldn’t have had the tranquility to skate that good, to win. I don’t handle pressure well: the falls of Turin and Vancouver are a proof of it. Being psychologically stable and calm is for me fundamental to bring home a medal: I could have never done it had I had such a horrible doubt in my head.
Q: maybe the signals were there, but you didn’t catch them because of self defense?
A: signals are enough to create a doubt, and I really didn’t have any. My mind was free at that time.
Q: but Schwazer used to leave the Epo (I don’t know if it has the same name in English it’s a drug, anyway) in your fridge. Is it possible that you didn’t notice it?
A: this thing drives me crazy: if I were a man would they ask me to know what I have in the fridge?
Q: do you remember is the Epo was hidden in a box of vitamins B-12 like Schwazer said?
A: the thing is that seeing a box of vitamins didn’t mean anything to me, I had my lactobacillus in the fridge as well. I opened it to get something to eat, automatically, not to check it, even because I had no reason to. I repeat it: I would get home exhausted and I just wanted to rest. In retrospect it’s easy to over think. Every day I would like to go back, open that fridge and check what was in that darn box. But had I done it what would have changed? I would have had to have the product analyzed to understand what was in there, and I would have never thought of it. It is different if you live in an apartment every day or if you travel all the time. If I think back, I feel awful: I was made a fool and even now, talking about it it’s really hard. It’s a open deep wound.
Q: when Schwazer won the Olympics in Beijing the newspapers would say:”gold to Kostner’s boyfriend” may it be that he put you in this position even because of that?
A: I don’t feel like speculating because that’s not my place. But I can’t believe that he would put me in his position willingly. Of course those headlines mustn’t have been easy for him. I realize that. We even talked about it openly, but I always tried to not weight on him my successes, even if I wanted to share my happiness for my victories. I knew he understood the sacrifices I made.
Q:where do you think Alex’s demons come from?
A: I don’t know. I was talented even when I was young, but I never won easily. At my first Olympic I fell on my butt in front of the whole nation, while Alex went in and brought home the OGM. Maybe people’s expectations crushed him.
Q: did you ever talked about doping?
A: more than once Alex whined because, according to him, a lot of marathon runners athletes were doping. He felt frustrate because of it, even because after Beijing’s gold the results weren’t coming anymore. I was trying to make him realize that that Olympic medal was an extraordinary achievement. It was also my dream, but I, unlike him, hadn’t reached it. I would say to him: “do you realize what privilege you have? Only one in a thousand makes it.” But I couldn’t make him feel better. I had to learn to accept that I didn’t win. And when I finally accepted it and I relaxed, the bronze in Sochi came. He didn’t walk down the same path. But it is really easy to talk, o judge. Only somebody who hurts as deeply as him does something like this.
Q: what did you think when Schwazer brought to your house in Germany that loud hypobaric machine that wouldn’t let you sleep?
A: he told me it was to breathe better. It looked like a giant nebulizer. Maybe it helps, but if it doesn’t let you rest well what is the advantage? It was a tragicomic situation, I would use plugs, but since in Germany that machine is legal I didn’t feel like telling him what to do: I always thought that anybody is responsible for himself. And we had a rule: we wouldn’t interfere in the other professional’s choices. Furthermore I was his girlfriend.
Q: what does that mean?
A: it means that I am not his mother and I’m not a police officer. I loved him and I thought he was a person able to defend himself from himself, to make the right choices. I was so happy that he would finally come and visit me for a couple of days that I wouldn’t waste time arguing. Looking back I shouldn’t have trusted him, but if you see a machine you don’t associate it with doping because doping – I used to think – had nothing to do with us. Of course, now when a person takes an aspirin I get worried.
Q: they also accuse you of having met the trainer Michele Ferrari together with Schwazer.
We were coming back from one of his competitions in Sesto San Giovanni (Italy) and we stopped, I think, at the exit of north Verona. Alex had to meet his trainer. We went in the camping van and Ferrari shook my hand. At the time that name didn’t mean anything to me.
Q; but he was already banned because of things related to doping.
A: my problem today is to understand what I knew then and what I learned later on. Memories are confused with information with the time passing. But I can say that back then I didn’t have any alarm bell, nor did I feel like the meeting was weird.
Q: even if the meeting happened in a parking lot?
A:as athletes we live in a stark world, I saw it as a time saver. I thought Ferrari was going somewhere and that for Alex, coming back from a competition, was easier meeting him on the road rather than meeting him later somewhere else.
Q: no tension with her ex after the meeting?
A: no at all, there was no reason. It had been a friendly thing. I read later articles about him, I don’t remember when, but at the time I was always abroad and I didn’t read Italian newspapers. I used to see very little of Alex as well: a week end sometimes, a day here and here, maybe he would come with me to one of my competitions. That relationship for me was perfect. I couldn’t have dated a guy who would be attaché to my hip. we used to meet a crossroads and we wouldn’t talk about work in that time.
Q: what did you say to Alex when he confessed to be using Epo?
A: I had nothing inside me, not even rage. Just desperation. I know that I should have protected myself, but I didn’t feel like doing like everybody else and leave him now that e was in misery. I felt sorry for him because he was going toward a huge public humiliation. I kept repeating: why, why, why. He was distraught. I think in the end he went to be tested because he couldn’t do it anymore.
Q: Did you fear he could do something stupid?
A:when he went in the car to go from my house to the press conference where he confessed everything I had a huge doubt. I was scared. When I heard he had arrived I was so relieved.
Q: in January the sentence will come. What is going to be of your future?
A: the medals for which I sacrificed so much, I got them even for Italy. Until today I represented my country. From tomorrow I may skate only for myself, bringing ice shows all over the world, like I’ve been doing in these past months. I would be sorry, though, to stay away from all those people who have unbelievably supported me in this time. I used to marvel at people’s affection, now that love gives me the strength to react: I feel like I have an arena cheering for me. What is for sure is that nobody can take away my life on the ice. My future is in my skates, because that is my world, and there I am at home.
Carolina Kostner: “ I loved Schwazer, but not until doping. I didn’t know.”
The champion (who CONI [Italian Olympic committee] wants to ban from competitions for 51 months accusing her to cover for her ex boyfriend) tells her version of the facts: I lied to the inspector, but I had a few seconds to decide. If I had known that he was doped , I would have convinced him to confess. Being accused of covering him is unbearable for me.
Carolina Kostner is strict: “I would never cover for somebody who dopes himself and i don’t deserve a ban for more than four years. I could decide myself to stop competing”. Kostner thinks that being accused of being a “partner in crime” of her ex boyfriend, the marathon runner Alex Schwazer who was found positive to doping, is simply unbearable: “ I have never doped myself, I’ve never helped Alex to do it , and I had never known about it until the test came back positive. How is it possible that they’d ask a harder punishment for me compared to a lot of other athletes that are banned because positive to drug tests?”
Carolina has waited a long time before telling her version of the facts, even though one thing she never denied: she lied to the anti-doping inspector that the morning of the 30th of July 2012 went to her house in Germany looking for Alex Schwazer. “It was a huge mistake, even though I did it with good intensions, Alex went to be tested that night and for me it was over then.”
Carolina didn’t want to talk. But now that CONI asked for her to be banned for 51 months because she didn’t turn in Schwazer, the time for telling her truth has come. She left the United States a week early, saying goodbye to the fans who went to Dallas to see her show on ice, first headed to New York and then to Milan. This exclusive she conceded to “Il fatto quotidiano” is the result of more meetings, in which the world champion wanted to face every single accusation that was made against her in the past few months and to answer all of our questions. Yesterday morning as soon as she arrived at the airport of Milan (Malpensa), that shy girl that just wanted to move on was gone. The time to suffer in silence it’s over: “the problem it’s not how far you are willing to go for love, because had I known that Alex was doping, for his welfare especially, I would have convinced him to confess. The accusation of covering for him it’s unbearable.”
Let’s sum up the facts: the morning of July 30th 2012, an inspector goes to Carolina Kostner house in Oberstdorf, in Germany. Alex Schwazer, who back then was her boyfriend, asked her to tell the inspector that he isn’t at home because he had given his availability in his apartment in Racines (Italy). Kostner does so and then asks her boyfriend to lave and to go and get tested that same day. When she went out, though, Carolina noticed that the inspector, who didn’t believe her, is still in front of her house. She gives him the phone so that he can clear things up with Schwazer himself, who that night will effectively be tested. If this is the central point of the accusation, there are at the same time a lot of differences between the versions of the two Olympic champions. It’s about details: he says he has her house keys, she denies it. She remembers that it all happened at 7 am, he at 9am. According to Kostner, from the balcony you couldn’t see the car of the inspector, according to him you could. And so on.
Q: Carolina Kostner, CONI asked a very harsh punishment after the last hearing with Alex Schwazer. They say there are a lot of differences between the versions the two of you gave, which seem to discredit its reliability and show your “complicity”.
A: our statements can be different only on small details, which is due to the fact that it has been a long time. Because the truth is that everything he has done, he has done it hiding it. He knows it and I know it. But I’m happy to be specific.
Q: your versions would be contrasting on a few secondary elements. For example, Schwazer has stated that he had the keys to your house in Oberstdorf, while you denied it.
A: He had my keys only during the times he was staying at my house. But he never brought them with himself when he would leave. I had trainings every day so I would lend him a copy of my keys so that he could be independent. Our schedules didn’t correspond, and otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to go back home after his trainings if I wasn’t there.
Q: they, also, say that the inspector came at 7 am, you on the other hand declared it was 9 am.
A: honestly, the first time they asked me this question it was a year after it happened. It was early morning for sure. May I know what the time has to do with drugs?
Q: still: you, unlike your ex boyfriend, that from your balcony you couldn’t see the car of the inspector.
A: and I stick to it. Maybe Alex leaned out of the balcony to see better, it’s a question you have to ask him.
Q: these are all details that become important because of a sure fact: you, on the morning of July 30th 2012, said that Alex wasn’t at your house. Why did you lie?
A: Alex had given availability in Italy and when the door bell rang he told me: “if it is the inspector tell him I’m not here because I gave availability in Racines”. I was in the kitchen and in those 10 seconds, while I was walking toward the door, I couldn’t even think. I opened the door and did what he asked me. I didn’t understand why he asked me to lie, I went back to him and told him to leave and go to be tested immediately.
Q: did you lie to protect him?
A: I didn’t have anything to protect for what I knew back then. I did it on the spot. I know I made a mistake, but I had just a few seconds to think what to do. To me it was completely unthinkable that he could dope himself. Alex never gave me reason to think so.
Q: what did you think in that moment?
A: I thought anything but doping, because for me it was an idea out of the world and also because when I went back he told me he would go and be tested that same day, which he ended up doing. So the doubt, had I even had it, would have gone away immediately. Why be tested that night if you have something to hide? I told him: “I go out and when I come back you’d better have left, get your stuff and go to be tested”. He was ready to leave, but when I stepped out my house I saw that the inspector was still there.
Q: why do you think?
A: maybe because there were two cars parked in front of my house, or maybe because I’m a terrible liar.
Q: it was then that you realized how serious it was?
A: I didn’t know what to do. I went and ran my errands and when I came back I gave the phone to the inspector so that he could talk to Alex. I don’t know what they said to each other, but the inspector, once the call was over, left. That night Alex called me from his house in Racines telling me he got tested. I thought it was over.
Q: so when did you have the certainty that Alex was indeed doping?
A: I found out when he told me in person. Which is after the test results came back. When I found out he was positive, I thought it was impossible that it was because of doping. I left the house before he could give me an explanation, without saying anything. I didn’t even dare to ask. I was living in a state of panic I never felt before. When I got back I thought he wouldn’t be there anymore and I asked myself: what do I do now he he leaves me without any explanation, without telling me the truth? I thought about anything: maybe he used too much asthma spray (not sure that’s how you translate it), which can alter the results. Maybe the test was wrong. Maybe, maybe, maybe. I clung to any hope.
Q: they say to you that you couldn’t not know.
A: to me a relationship is based on trust, and Alex had never given me a reason to think he was doping. I didn’t feel the need to look for proofs, since I didn’t have any doubts. He says he never told me because he wanted to protect me. I think that it’s partially true, but there is another thing: any time a case of an athlete positive to doping came out, I was always very harsh. And the same goes for my family: it could happen at dinner, with Alex there, that my father would be very harsh toward those who doped themselves. I think he never said anything even because he was very ashamed of himself.
Q: aren’t you mad at Schwazer for putting you in this situation?
A: in that moment I was bothered because of the lie he made me say, but I couldn’t even imagine how much bigger and more serious this was. Alex was the man I loved, the person I thought I would share my life with. I thought he was going to be the father of my children. After five years of relationship, you trust a person you love this way.
Q: maybe you give even more: there aren’t a lot of people who would press charges against the man they love.
A: it’s true: I lied because he asked me to, but I have never ever covered for him, because I had no idea of what he was doing. Who accuses me of superficiality or of being naïve doesn’t know what kind of life has an athlete at this level. You go back home at night after a day of training and you are so tired that the only things that you think usually are: I‘ll eat and then I’ll go to bed. And furthermore I live and let live because of how I am. To me a love story is based on trust, and I’m not the kind of girl to ask what are you doing, where are you going, with whom, when and why. I could never do it even because if somebody would do that to me I would go crazy. And also, I used to be a person who would try to see the good in others.
Q:used to be?
A: what happened changed me deeply. I don’t know how long it will be before I can trust completely somebody else. With Alex it was love at first sight. Boom, hit, lost. But skating was my life, like marching was for him. My immediate goal wasn’t to have a family, but winning the Olympics. There was no room for jealousy or stalking wouldn’t have had the energy or time for it.
Q: it was 2012 the year you won the world championship.
A: I was in high season, the one where i accomplished the most. In my head there was only a question: how can I skate better tomorrow and the day after, and the day after that? I won both world and European championship. Had I known , or even suspected that my boyfriend was doping , I couldn’t have had the tranquility to skate that good, to win. I don’t handle pressure well: the falls of Turin and Vancouver are a proof of it. Being psychologically stable and calm is for me fundamental to bring home a medal: I could have never done it had I had such a horrible doubt in my head.
Q: maybe the signals were there, but you didn’t catch them because of self defense?
A: signals are enough to create a doubt, and I really didn’t have any. My mind was free at that time.
Q: but Schwazer used to leave the Epo (I don’t know if it has the same name in English it’s a drug, anyway) in your fridge. Is it possible that you didn’t notice it?
A: this thing drives me crazy: if I were a man would they ask me to know what I have in the fridge?
Q: do you remember is the Epo was hidden in a box of vitamins B-12 like Schwazer said?
A: the thing is that seeing a box of vitamins didn’t mean anything to me, I had my lactobacillus in the fridge as well. I opened it to get something to eat, automatically, not to check it, even because I had no reason to. I repeat it: I would get home exhausted and I just wanted to rest. In retrospect it’s easy to over think. Every day I would like to go back, open that fridge and check what was in that darn box. But had I done it what would have changed? I would have had to have the product analyzed to understand what was in there, and I would have never thought of it. It is different if you live in an apartment every day or if you travel all the time. If I think back, I feel awful: I was made a fool and even now, talking about it it’s really hard. It’s a open deep wound.
Q: when Schwazer won the Olympics in Beijing the newspapers would say:”gold to Kostner’s boyfriend” may it be that he put you in this position even because of that?
A: I don’t feel like speculating because that’s not my place. But I can’t believe that he would put me in his position willingly. Of course those headlines mustn’t have been easy for him. I realize that. We even talked about it openly, but I always tried to not weight on him my successes, even if I wanted to share my happiness for my victories. I knew he understood the sacrifices I made.
Q:where do you think Alex’s demons come from?
A: I don’t know. I was talented even when I was young, but I never won easily. At my first Olympic I fell on my butt in front of the whole nation, while Alex went in and brought home the OGM. Maybe people’s expectations crushed him.
Q: did you ever talked about doping?
A: more than once Alex whined because, according to him, a lot of marathon runners athletes were doping. He felt frustrate because of it, even because after Beijing’s gold the results weren’t coming anymore. I was trying to make him realize that that Olympic medal was an extraordinary achievement. It was also my dream, but I, unlike him, hadn’t reached it. I would say to him: “do you realize what privilege you have? Only one in a thousand makes it.” But I couldn’t make him feel better. I had to learn to accept that I didn’t win. And when I finally accepted it and I relaxed, the bronze in Sochi came. He didn’t walk down the same path. But it is really easy to talk, o judge. Only somebody who hurts as deeply as him does something like this.
Q: what did you think when Schwazer brought to your house in Germany that loud hypobaric machine that wouldn’t let you sleep?
A: he told me it was to breathe better. It looked like a giant nebulizer. Maybe it helps, but if it doesn’t let you rest well what is the advantage? It was a tragicomic situation, I would use plugs, but since in Germany that machine is legal I didn’t feel like telling him what to do: I always thought that anybody is responsible for himself. And we had a rule: we wouldn’t interfere in the other professional’s choices. Furthermore I was his girlfriend.
Q: what does that mean?
A: it means that I am not his mother and I’m not a police officer. I loved him and I thought he was a person able to defend himself from himself, to make the right choices. I was so happy that he would finally come and visit me for a couple of days that I wouldn’t waste time arguing. Looking back I shouldn’t have trusted him, but if you see a machine you don’t associate it with doping because doping – I used to think – had nothing to do with us. Of course, now when a person takes an aspirin I get worried.
Q: they also accuse you of having met the trainer Michele Ferrari together with Schwazer.
We were coming back from one of his competitions in Sesto San Giovanni (Italy) and we stopped, I think, at the exit of north Verona. Alex had to meet his trainer. We went in the camping van and Ferrari shook my hand. At the time that name didn’t mean anything to me.
Q; but he was already banned because of things related to doping.
A: my problem today is to understand what I knew then and what I learned later on. Memories are confused with information with the time passing. But I can say that back then I didn’t have any alarm bell, nor did I feel like the meeting was weird.
Q: even if the meeting happened in a parking lot?
A:as athletes we live in a stark world, I saw it as a time saver. I thought Ferrari was going somewhere and that for Alex, coming back from a competition, was easier meeting him on the road rather than meeting him later somewhere else.
Q: no tension with her ex after the meeting?
A: no at all, there was no reason. It had been a friendly thing. I read later articles about him, I don’t remember when, but at the time I was always abroad and I didn’t read Italian newspapers. I used to see very little of Alex as well: a week end sometimes, a day here and here, maybe he would come with me to one of my competitions. That relationship for me was perfect. I couldn’t have dated a guy who would be attaché to my hip. we used to meet a crossroads and we wouldn’t talk about work in that time.
Q: what did you say to Alex when he confessed to be using Epo?
A: I had nothing inside me, not even rage. Just desperation. I know that I should have protected myself, but I didn’t feel like doing like everybody else and leave him now that e was in misery. I felt sorry for him because he was going toward a huge public humiliation. I kept repeating: why, why, why. He was distraught. I think in the end he went to be tested because he couldn’t do it anymore.
Q: Did you fear he could do something stupid?
A:when he went in the car to go from my house to the press conference where he confessed everything I had a huge doubt. I was scared. When I heard he had arrived I was so relieved.
Q: in January the sentence will come. What is going to be of your future?
A: the medals for which I sacrificed so much, I got them even for Italy. Until today I represented my country. From tomorrow I may skate only for myself, bringing ice shows all over the world, like I’ve been doing in these past months. I would be sorry, though, to stay away from all those people who have unbelievably supported me in this time. I used to marvel at people’s affection, now that love gives me the strength to react: I feel like I have an arena cheering for me. What is for sure is that nobody can take away my life on the ice. My future is in my skates, because that is my world, and there I am at home.
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2010
Thank you very much, carolruwer, for an excellent translation. And welcome to the forum. Post long. Post often.
Carolina comes across as sincere to me. She does not attack or blame anybody but explains her states of mind during the whole ordeal. I believe in her integrity.
Carolina comes across as sincere to me. She does not attack or blame anybody but explains her states of mind during the whole ordeal. I believe in her integrity.
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2014
Thank you for the translation.
Actually is my understanding that the WADA agent is under isntruction to wait for the athlete in the locations for at least 60 minutes. They are also intructed to take notices of everything that is happening in location. Is there are cars parked in front of the house. There is noise in the house... etc...
So she received her blood test results in a parking lot... and the name of Ferrari didn´t ring a bell after his name was all over the news... ok dokey then...
mmmmmmmm... so she was so in automatic that she didn´t even thought lying to WADA was bad?
Actually is my understanding that the WADA agent is under isntruction to wait for the athlete in the locations for at least 60 minutes. They are also intructed to take notices of everything that is happening in location. Is there are cars parked in front of the house. There is noise in the house... etc...
So she received her blood test results in a parking lot... and the name of Ferrari didn´t ring a bell after his name was all over the news... ok dokey then...
What are you talking about? She never said that! Don't put words into her mouth.
Thank you very much for the translation. Must have been a lot of work and is greatly appreciated!
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- Feb 23, 2014
In the first thread, can ´t find it, it was said that Ferrari took and made a test of Carolina´s blood, it was on the report of the testimony Carolina made... don´t have time to look for the thread. It was in The Cafe area of the forum...
You are mixing things up. Schwazer sent Carolina's test results to Ferrari behind her back. She had no idea about it (which is proven and is not one of the points that the CONI holds against her now) and it had nothing to do with this particular meeting.
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- Joined
- Feb 23, 2014
Not, I have pretty good memory of what a I read, once I read a book, I can even remember the page I read from a frase.
The declaration said that Carolina went to see Ferrari with Schwazer, but that he only made a blood test for her, she diagnoser her with anemia. I will look for thread later, but I´m positive it was Carolina.
EDIT.
Found the post. I need to made a correction, it wasn´t Ferrari, was Cosini one of the doctors that helped her boyfriend with the doping.
http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/sh...friend-has-dragged-her-into-his-scandal/page2 scroll down
More information
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Nevermind as you corrected your last post but as you quoted she never went to see this doctor herself. Schwazer sent him the test result and asked for his opinion.
Believe me, if Carolina had seen them personally to do a blood test, she'd be in a hell of a lot more trouble now than she already is.
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- Feb 23, 2014
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Link to Corriere della Sera http://www.corriere.it/sport/14_set...pi-92beb20e-3c94-11e4-95e1-a222c06f54b6.shtml
Translation from here: http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/index.php?threads/italian-skating-skaters-news.79001/page-15
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Link to Corriere della Sera http://www.corriere.it/sport/14_set...pi-92beb20e-3c94-11e4-95e1-a222c06f54b6.shtml
Translation from here: http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/index.php?threads/italian-skating-skaters-news.79001/page-15
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It looks that Carolina blood test were both reviewed by both doctors Ferrari and Conconi, both are implicated in big scandals of doping in Italy
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I don't happen to believe everything newspapers are reporting. And since this particular fact has never come up in any of the investigation now done by the CONI I have reason to believe this is wrong until proved otherwise.
Back to the translation of the interview, I think Carolina comes across as sincere and down to earth. I like that she is simply stating her side of the story without blaming people or trashing anyone. She knows she made a mistake by telling that lie.
And in the end, I think people really need to take a step back and look at this case from the other side again, because in the big scheme of things, Carolina made a minor mistake. Yes, it was a mistake, but still a small one compared to a lot of people involved in this mess of a story. I think she deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt.
Back to the translation of the interview, I think Carolina comes across as sincere and down to earth. I like that she is simply stating her side of the story without blaming people or trashing anyone. She knows she made a mistake by telling that lie.
And in the end, I think people really need to take a step back and look at this case from the other side again, because in the big scheme of things, Carolina made a minor mistake. Yes, it was a mistake, but still a small one compared to a lot of people involved in this mess of a story. I think she deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt.
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Dunno if anyone posted this yet, but here's an English language article on her speaking out:
http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/a20875c70c4747b0a805d2b2fe31a4f3/FIG--Doping-Kostner
http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/a20875c70c4747b0a805d2b2fe31a4f3/FIG--Doping-Kostner
Whether she knew he was doping or not is not the problem, she told the authorities he was not home, when he was.
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2010
No, race-walking is not a lucrative sport per se. The only chance is to make it big and medal at World Championships or, even better, Olympics. CONI is quite generous with medalists: for his OGM in Beijing Schwazer was given a 140.000 € prize, plus an annual subvention on condition that he would have continued until 2012. Besides, top athletes are enrolled in military corps (Schwazer resigned after his scandal), thus being guaranteed a regular income. Endorsement contracts can come, usually after the athlete has made it on the big stage. Schwazer, in particular, was marketed a lot as “Kostner's boyfriend” and that led to some notoriety. All in all, not too shabby.
Furthermore, it's not only pros or semi-pros, many amateur competitors take drugs,too, only out of vanity (and stupidity).
In professional athletes' case, my opinion is that often they are pressured by doctors and coaches to take something “just as everybody else does”, “only to make things even”. It's not a good excuse for their behaviour, still I resent the fact that people who push them to do so are rarely held accountable for this.
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I wonder what the other infractions are. It seems somewhat incredulous that the circumstance of meeting with Ferrari in his motor home didn't cause her to question her boyfriend about what was going on.
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