Chinese swimmer Sun Yang used hammer to destroy vial of blood
The Sunday Telegraph today publishes the explosive 59-page report which reveals how disgraced Chinese Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang used a hammer to smash a vial of his own blood to prevent it from being tested for drugs. READ THE REPORT
Egged on by his mother, an enraged Chinese Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang and a security guard used a hammer to smash vials of blood collected from him for drug testing, according to findings in an explosive report obtained by The Sunday Telegraph.
The confidential 59-page report for the first time reveals full details of findings made by international governing body FINA about the extraordinary actions of the triple Olympic gold medallist and his entourage’s in China and raises serious questions as to why Sun was let off on a minor technicality.
The FINA Doping Report, dated January 3, 2019 was anonymously sent to The Sunday Telegraph after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) challenged the FINA Doping Panel’s ruling that cleared Sun of any drug testing violations.
More than four months after WADA’s appeal was lodged, the Court of Arbitration For Sport (CAS) has still not released a date for the hearing.
That means the controversial 27-year-old, the first Chinese man to win an Olympic swimming Gold medal and a former convicted doper, is clear to race at next week’s FINA world titles in Gwangju, South Korea, and pocket $28,500 in prizemoney for any race he wins.
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Sun had agreed to a window of between 10pm and 11pm on September 4 last year at his athlete’s villa in Zhejiang Province for independent drug testers from International Doping Tests and Management, contracted by FINA, to collect out-of-competition blood and urine samples to test for performance enhancing substances.
But was he not there when the female Doping Control Officer (DCO), who asked for her identity to remain anonymous in the report, and the male Doping Control Assistant (DCA) arrived at the agreed time.
Sun eventually arrived by car with several family members, including his mother Ming Yang, with all parties moving to a nearby clubhouse where Sun was to give the samples.
But once there the report stated he started disputing the assistant’s accreditation claiming they were not authorised to conduct the testing and insisted he leave the doping control station.
“The Athlete (sic) took pictures of the DCA’s identification card and send the pictures to unknown persons,” the report states.
“The athlete’s mother threatened the DCO, claiming she had police contacts and could determine if the DCA was, in fact, properly authorised to test her son.”
Sun finally provided a blood sample at 11.35pm but refused to provide a urine sample, again insisting the DCA was not authorised.
“The DCO proposed that the Athlete’s mother watch/witness the DCA witnessing the Athlete passing urine. This was refused,” the report states.
Sun was then warned that urinating without being chaperoned may be a “refusal violation’.
While both parties were in dispute over providing a urine sample, Sun’s personal doctor Ba Zhen arrived at the clubhouse at 1am.
According to the report, tensions quickly escalated when he insisted both the Doping Control Officer and her assistant were not properly accredited and refused them permission to take any of Sun’s blood samples away for testing.
“The DCO consistently warned the Athlete and Dr Ba that if she did not leave the doping control station with the collected blood containers intact and suitable for analysis, this could constitute an anti-doping rule violation …
“The Athlete insisted that he was co-operating and would continue to do so and that he would wait at the doping control station until a properly authorised DCA arrived. The DCO refused to countenance this idea.”
“Sun’s mother asked a guard to bring a hammer into the doping control room.”
The report states Sun and Dr Ba then “proposed that the secure blood container be broken with a hammer to access the blood vial and thus destroy the integrity of the blood samples that had been taken.
“The DCO was horrified”.
But while on the phone to testing co-ordinator Tudor Popa, the report states the DCO “heard the sound of glass breaking”, going outside to find Sun and a guard using a hammer to break the vials — “the athlete was beside the guard using his phone as a flashlight”.
She was asked by Sun and his team to destroy the second blood container “which she adamantly refused to do”.
At 3.15am, the report states Sun’s mother collected all the “used and unused materials from the testing session, including damaged and used blood tubes, needles and the shredded doping control form and left the clubhouse”.
In giving his version of events, Sun claimed he became suspicious of the DCA and feared they had been “surreptitiously taking pictures and videos of him”.
“This caused the athlete significant concern and sparked his belief that the DCA was not well-trained and could not possibly be appropriately certified …”
During the night, Sun’s doctor consulted with Dr Han Zhaoqi, the deputy director of the Zheijang Anti-Doping Centre, and Cheng Hao, the team leader for the Chinese National Swimming team.
All three men concluded the assistant was not qualified to draw blood, and while Sun had on several occasions urinated without supervision, he did so with the DCO’s knowledge.
Despite the extraordinary events of the night, and it’s own Doping Report, the FINA Doping Panel only issued Sun with a warning, letting him off over a technicality with the testing paperwork involving a legal interpretation over the definition of “official documentation”.
But in cautioning Sun, the Doping Panel warned him he was lucky to get away with it because they had “significant concerns regarding the conduct of the Athlete and his entourage” and the decision to clear him “was a close-run thing.”
Sun’s lawyers maintain he didn’t break any rules.
What the documents do not explain — and this is the burning question that the global swimming is demanding an answer to — is why Sun, the already convicted doper is being allowed to compete at next week’s FINA world championships in South Korea while the case is still under appeal.
In 2014, Sun was secretly banned for three months after testing positive to a banned stimulant which he said he was taking for a heart condition.
CAS, WADA and FINA, all bound by strict confidentiality rules, have not provided any explanation into the cause of the delay.
The global swimming community has long been critical of FINA’s approach to tackling doping, accusing the governing body of being too lenient on competitors caught breaking the rules.
FINA has refused to comment on Sun’s actions, instead releasing a statement saying they are aware of reports on the matter but added that they are “not authorised to comment” on the decision of their Doping Panel.
The report also corroborates The Daily Telegraph’s exclusive revelations from earlier this year that Sun had previously encountered the DCO “as he had interacted (unhappily) with her a year previously”.
Sun, a megastar in his home country and the only man to win Olympic gold over 200m, 400m and 1500m, served a doping ban for testing positive to a banned substance in 2014 in virtual secrecy before returning to competition.
Sun’s presence at the 2016 Rio Olympics after serving the three-month suspension unsettled many swimmers, including Australian 400m swimmer Mack Horton.
The bad blood brewing between Horton and Sun in the build-up to the final erupted after the Chinese swimmer splashed water in the face of the Victorian during a training session.
At the time Horton said Sun “splashed me to say hello, and I didn’t respond because I don’t have time for drug cheats”.
After Horton beat Sun by a touch to claim Australia’s first Gold he said he “didn’t have a choice” but to beat Sun.
“The last 50 metres I was thinking about what I said and what would happen if he gets me here,” he said.
“I used the words drug cheat because he tested positive … I just have a problem with athletes who have tested positive and are still competing.”
Australia’s head coach Jacco Verhaeren quit FINA’s coaching committee in 2017 in disgust at the decision to allow Russian swimmers to compete at the Rio Olympics following the release of the McLaren Report, which found that Russia had engaged in state-sponsored doping.
The swimming events in Rio were dogged by finger-pointing and name calling with crowds booing some competitors on the blocks.
Verhaeren fears Sun’s presence in Gwangju will disrupt the championships with past and present swimmers already venting their frustrations on social media.
“A case like this surely doesn’t help the reliability and trust in this system,” Verhaeren told The Sunday Telegraph.
“I think WADA, FINA, IOC, all these parties really need to work hard together to provide more clarity, more transparency.
“But there’s no mistake that when a drug tester shows up, you make yourself available, there’s no question.
“There’s also no doubt about what kind of rules there are for things like that, you can’t bend those rules.”
After WADA announced they were be appealing the FINA ruling over the smashed blood vials and refusal to give a urine sample, British world swimming champion Adam Peaty in March tweeted “Pretty sure if any athlete did this they wouldn’t be given just a ‘stern warning’”
“I don’t want to see this guy competing at World Championships or Olympics against my teammates who work extremely hard you get there. Pretty sure neither does anybody else.”
After news first broke of Sun’s bizarre and brazen act, Australian Olympic champion Cate Campbell echoed the concerns of many of the world’s elite swimmers.
“I think that there are some very, very strong questions that need to be asked about the doping situation especially where it pertains to Sun Yang,’’ Campbell told Channel 7 earlier this year.
“It makes me angry. It makes me disappointed. I had the drug testers turn up at 5.30am on a Sunday morning to come test me at my house.
“I got out of bed and provided a sample of urine and blood.
“I do that because I believe in clean sport.
“The thought of smashing a vial with a hammer didn’t even enter my mind.
“To have someone flaunt the system so brazenly so openly it makes me wonder why I bother and it raises some really serious questions that demand answers if WADA and FINA want to remain credible in the world of clean sport.”
Originally published as Chinese swimmer Sun Yang used hammer to destroy vial of blood