Running for my Truth: Alex Schwazer is a docu-series that explores the story of Olympic athlete Alex Schwazer and his attempts to prove his innocence in the face of massive corruption. The series is streaming on Netflix.
Story
Alex Schwazer is an Italian racewalker who won the Olympic gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 at the age of 23 but there was no way he could predict what followed in his life.
The immediate aftermath of this win was burnout and suicidal thoughts. Following that, Schwazer began doping himself to maintain his consistency until he was found guilty in 2012. He accepted full responsibility and then began a slow journey of redemption.
Schwazer chose to train with one of his biggest critics, Sandro Donati, with the goal of qualifying for the Rio Olympics after serving out his initial ban. However, things got worse for Schwazer and his team when he found himself fighting against the IAAF and WADA after his second positive result for doping.
In his attempts to prove his innocence, the presence of a huge conspiracy was revealed about rampant corruption within the various governing bodies.
Positives
The series ensures extensive coverage of the entire scandal with no stone unturned. Given that it is such a compelling series of events, it would have been difficult to miss out on anything.
Negatives
There is an unstable approach to story progression as they occasionally switch to a different event providing context but do not execute the transition effectively.
Even the tone of the series is all over the place making the entire thing very unsettled. It relies on an over-the-top score to dramatize some of the more serious events, almost having a farcical effect.
Running for my Truth certainly exhibits a bias and while there is a huge amount of evidence pointing toward Schwazer’s innocence, it is the responsibility of the director to put that across in an objective manner.
Verdict
Running for my Truth: Alex Schwazer is an eye-opening docu-series that chronicles the difficult journey taken by Alex Schwazer and with such an engaging subject, the audience deserved something much better than what is produced here. It does however raise awareness of the athlete’s plight which can be considered a suitable outcome.
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