Schwazer won 50-kilometer Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008. He was suspended for three years and nine months in 2012 after admitting blood doping, where even his then-girlfriend, figure skater Carolina Kostner, was suspended for 16 months from January 2015 for helping to hide it.

In 2016, he was back and took World Cup gold, but was then suspended for eight years after leaving a doping test that contained traces of anabolic steroids.

It is the doping test that is now acquitting him in the Italian court.

According to the judge, the doping test was contaminated by someone outside to put Schwazer there.

The international anti-doping organization Wada, which assisted the Italian investigation with information and evidence, is furious after the acquittal.

"Wada is terrified"

"Wada is appalled by the many ruthless and unfounded accusations made by the judge against our organization and others.

"We have provided overwhelming evidence confirmed by independent experts, which the judge rejected in favor of unjustified theories," Wada wrote in a statement on Twitter.

Wada will now analyze the acquittal and may take legal action.

The 36-year-old Schwazer is of course happy with the verdict.

- I now feel lighter, in the end it is written in black and white that I am innocent, he says to the news agency AGI.

The Italian pedestrian has continued to train in the hope of competing in the Olympics in Tokyo this summer.

- I want to end my career whenever I want, he says.