ROME (ITALPRESS) – “I’ve had experiences, I’ve experienced everything a person can experience, from the most successful to the worst things that can happen in your field. And they are not necessarily always bad things. Obviously the suffering has been a lot, however, you have to be objective and say that now I have a wealth of experience at a young age that for my future is a great weapon.” From the Beijing gold medal to the eight years stopped for disqualification, from heaven to hell: 20 years of career “in which there is everything in it,” 20 years that Alex Schwazer, a few days before his 40th birthday (he was born on Dec. 26, 1984), retraces in an interview with Italpress. Starting from the beginnings: “That marching was my sport I realized it late, when I was 18/19 years old. As a boy I suffered many disqualifications for incorrect marching, so I got to the point where I wanted to quit. Then things went in the right direction: once I got unstuck then I was quick to win, in four years I went on to win the Olympics. “In between was also the bronze medal at the World Championships in Osaka, in 2007, a result that makes him angry to this day “not because of the placing, but because of having done a performance at the end of which, once I crossed the finish line, I said to myself ‘I’m a long way from what I could giveè. The weather was very heavy,” Alex recalls, “so from that point of view it was the toughest of my career. I had no experience in the hot and humid weather, and the technicians out of caution put a lot of brakes on me because they thought those in front were not coming. I got to the finish line very close to the first one, and after ten months of very hard preparation I was really very angry.” One year later, precisely, the triumph in Beijing in the 50 km with a lot of Olympic record: “From Osaka I brought this great lesson: I don’t want to listen to anybody in the race anymore, just my feelings, and my feelings have always been that if you want to win you have to be in front. And in Beijing I was in front right from the start,” explained the South Tyrolean, who also had to deal with “a tibial periostitis in that race that was hurting me a lot. “A career ended in July, with the last race that “on a symbolic level meant everything. I prepared for and hoped for three Olympics that I didn’t do, so I really wanted to at least put on my bib after all these years and to march again in front of the people who have always loved me and my family.” Over the years, Schwazer has talked in depth about his experience, through a docuseries, participation in two reality shows and numerous meetings. “My big advantage is that I have always been an open book, I have no problem talking even about bad things and my weaknesses,” he explains. “I am always happy if, through them, I can give an interesting perspective so that aspects that are improvable can be improved. What I have experienced I have experienced on my own skin, I don’t tell things read in a book. Telling you hoping to teach you something is nice and it repays you for everything you have experienced. “And then the future, with the goal of entering the world of soccer to work on the athletic condition of individuals: “This is one of the aspects of a sport that contains so many elements,” Schwazer tells Italpress, motivating his decision. “I am convinced that some things can be optimized. Some things I think as an athlete in a single discipline where if you are not 100 percent you don’t win, I can’t play badly and hope to win with a goal in 90′. Over the years you learn the things that work in training and the things that don’t work, so I’m sure I can be useful especially in helping the individual to be as high performing at the end of the game as at the beginning. I’m convinced that if a team and players are willing to struggle, that’s where you can intervene.”- photo Ipa Agency -(ITALPRESS).
