Controversial Chinese swimmer Sun Yang to face music with doping appeal hearing date set
Sun Yang could be banned from the Tokyo Olympics, after confirmation the controversial Chinese swimmer would finally have to face up to accusations of doping next month.
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There will be nowhere for China’s short tempered swimming champion Sun Yang to hide now that he will finally have to explain for himself why he flew into a rage and smashed his own doping samples with a hammer before they could be tested for drugs.
More than a year after he went on the rampage after an out-of-competition test at his home in China, the drawn-out appeal against Sun’s unfathomable let-off has finally been set, with the case to be heard in Switzerland on November 15.
That’s way too late for Mack Horton and all the other clean swimmers who protested against the decision to let Sun compete at the world championships in South Korea in July but is enough time for the sport’s most divisive competitor to be booted out of next year’s Tokyo Olympics if he’s found guilty of an anti-doping breach.
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Through statements issued by his lawyers, Sun has maintained he did nothing wrong but the normally secretive freestyler could finally give his own version of events after the Court of Arbitration for Sport agreed to hold the hearing in public and live stream proceedings.
It’s only the second time that a CAS appeal has been held in public — the last was 20 years ago involving the Irish swimmer Michelle Smith — and was only granted after Sun’s lawyers made the request after The Daily Telegraph exclusively published the full 59-page report that cleared him of two anti-doping charges.
At his initial hearing in January, Sun admitted destroying the samples but was let off with a severe warning after the panel agreed with his argument that the testers did not have the right credentials — a ruling the World Anti-Doping Agency refutes, prompting their appeal.
Published a week before the start of the world swimming championships, the explosive revelations from the report became the catalyst for Horton and British freestyler Duncan Scott to take matters into their own hands by staging their stunning protests.
A furious Sun exploded when his fellow competitors refused to join him on the medal ceremony, directly confronting Scott and calling him a ‘loser’ and accusing Horton of insulting the whole of China, but he has received little support from the rest of the international swimming community.
Millions of Chinese have also accused Australia of double standards after the cover up over Shayna Jack’s positive test and Sun didn’t hold back this week when it was revealed American freestyle Conor Dwyer had failed a doping test and been banned.
Rival swimmers have long believed that Sun doesn’t abide by the same rules as everyone else because he’s the biggest sports star in the most populated country in the world so that makes him box office gold for the sport’s world governing body.
FINA have made no secret of their affection for Sun, with officials hugging him on the pool deck at the Rio Olympics, and they showed their colours again last week by announcing that next year’s Champions Series will be held exclusively in China.
Created as a counter to the rebel International Swimming League that Sun was banned from because of his previous doping conviction, FINA are throwing millions of dollars in trying to win back the support of disgruntled competitors but after splitting this year’s inaugural series between Asia, North America and Europe, they have awarded the whole lot to China.