Italian race walker Alex Schwazer has been handed an eight-year ban on Wednesday by the IAAF for testing positive for steroids.

Former Olympic race walking champion Alex Schwazer has been given an eight year ban by the International Association of Athletics Federation after his appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sports was turned down.

It is the second doping case faced by Schwazer, despite his claims of innocence

Schwazer attended the CAS hearing in Rio de Janeiro on Monday along with his lawyer Gerhard Brandstaetter and his coach Sandro Donati.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) Sandro Donati, coach of Alex Schwazer:

"It feels like a sick joke, planned to humiliate Alex Schwazer and those of us who stood by him. This extremely talented athlete would have come here to get results, and instead got guillotined."

Four years after testing positive for EPO before the 2012 London Games and a 45-month ban, Schwazer was informed last June that a 12 May retest of a January doping control sample showed positive traces of steroids.

The Italian, who won the 50km event at the 2008 Beijing Games, returned to competition and won the 50km at the world championships in Rome in May.

The retest was conducted after Schwazer qualified for the Rio Games by winning the race in Rome.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) Sandro Donati, coach of Alex Schwazer:

"Not having concrete evidence of who actually tampered with the results, we could just highlight how the alleged traces of metabolites are in stark contrast with all the several other tests conducted on him."

SOUNDBITE (Italian) Sandro Donati, coach of Alex Schwazer:

"Even this morning along Copacabana beach, Alex marched by himself for around 40km, with a pace that only one or two other athletes are able to create during a race walk."
31-year-old Schwazer, was also handed an eight-month suspended prison sentence by a court in Bolzano in December 2014.

His return was controversial, with some Italian athletes saying he should not have been given a chance to qualify for Rio.