Olympics: Shameless Chinese officials bend rules to help Sun Yang compete in Tokyo

Chinese authorities have never even tried to hide the fact that Sun Yang doesn’t have to follow the same rules as everyone – now they’ve made it official .

China’s desperate efforts to try and ensure Sun Yang competes at this year’s rescheduled Tokyo Olympics are becoming increasingly shameless.

Grovelling swimming authorities have never even tried to hide the fact that their favourite child doesn’t have to follow the same rules as everyone else but now they’ve made it official.

They’ve just changed their regulations for picking the Chinese swimming team for Tokyo so that Sun can be automatically selected without having to compete at the national Olympic trials, taking place in Qingdao this week.

Kayo is your ticket to the best sport streaming Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >

Sun Yang is again the beneficiary of special treatment. Picture: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

Under the new proviso that’s just been hastily added, Sun will be gifted his spot in the team for Tokyo just because he won a gold medal at the 2019 championships – the same meet where Mack Horton peacefully protested against Sun’s participation while he had another yet another doping case hanging over him.

No-one in Australia or the United States swimming team has ever been given such a blatant preferential treatment but there’s a catch.

Sun still has to be cleared to compete by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after he was handed an eight-year ban for tampering with his samples before they could be tested for drugs.

His case is being re-heard later this month after his high-powered legal team won an appeal questioning the impartiality of one of the judges who posted comments on social media castigating the Chinese practice of slaughtering dogs for meat consumption.

Mack Horton refused to share the podium with Sun Yang at the Gwangju 2019 FINA World Championships. Picture: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

According to reports from China, Sun is now back in heavy training and won’t have to take a break from practice to try and qualify via the trials like everyone else after getting another free pass.

Sun has become accustomed to getting the red carpet treatment from swimming officials.

At the 2012 London Olympics, Sun fell in the water off the blocks before the final of the 1,500 metres freestyle, which normally results in automatic disqualification.

But officials ruled it was not a false start and allowed him to compete, and he duly won the gold.

In 2014, Sun secretly served a three-month ban after failing a doping test, and in 2019, when the rest of the Chinese swim team was sent to a military boot camp for underperforming at the world championships, Sun was told he was exempt.