Cate Campbell, Chad le Clos hit back at Sun Yang doping test claims
South African Olympic swimming champion said he’s had a 19-year-old student watch him pee at a drug test, refuting Sun Yang’s claims that swimmers expected chaperones to be highly trained.
Swimming
Don't miss out on the headlines from Swimming. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Australia’s Cate Campbell has questioned Sun Yang’s overreaction in destroying his doping samples while fellow international swimmer Chad le Clos said it was a “joke” the controversial Chinese star claimed he did it because the chaperone wasn’t a professional.
The dissatisfaction is growing among elite swimmers over Sun’s defence of two anti-doping charges.
With claims the official who was there to observe Sun on the day of his infamous run-in with doping testers was actually a builder, the controversial Chinese swimmer’s team have argued that chaperones needed proper training and credentials in order to observe athletes urinate.
Stream over 50 sports Live & On-Demand with KAYO SPORTS on your TV, computer, mobile or tablet. Just $25/month, no lock-in contract. Get your 14-day free trial and start streaming instantly >
But South African Olympic champion Chad le Clos said elite swimmers knew that wasn’t the case.
“I recently had a chaperone who was a 19-year-old student,” le Clos told The Daily Telegraph.
“Did I object? Of course not because all he had to do was match me provide a sample, that’s normal.
“For Sun Yang to come out say anything else is crazy. It’s just a joke that anyone would think you can smash your own blood samples.”
Australian freestyle sprint queen Cate Campbell told The Daily Telegraph that she would always make the point of treating chaperones with courtesy because of the simple but thankless role they had to perform.
“There is no perfect solution or perfect procedure or perfect system in place but this is the system that we have and everyone needs to work within it,” she said.
“If he feels the system wasn’t correct then he has every right to defend himself and we shouldn’t infringe on that, but I’ve never smashed a vial of my own blood with a hammer, I’ve never even come close to doing that.
“I’ve had drug testers turn up at my door at 5.30 in the morning and I’ve let them in it and I’ve produced the blood and produced the urine samples and I’ve said thank you very much for your time and left it at that.”
Their comments back up the same arguments presented by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which wants Sun banned for eight years if he is found guilty of tampering or destroying a sample.
At last week’s appeal to the Court of Arbitration in Switzerland, WADA said the same testing procedures have been used on over 64,000 other athletes from 30 different sports, and no-one else has ever raised an objection.
Sun’s claim that he’s actually the victim because he’s really standing up for the rights of other athlete, has already been rubbished by British Olympic champion Adam Peaty while
Le Clos — who famously beat Michael Phelps to win the 200m butterfly gold at the 2012 London Olympics but finished second to Sun in the 200m freestyle final at Rio in 2016 — said his Chinese rival should have been kicked out of the sport for good when he failed a doping test in 2014.
MORE NEWS
The Logue Down: Simmons’ Lemanis dig, Ball’s big dollars yet to flow and Bogut’s trade vision
Bill Waterhouse, legendary bookmaker, dead at 97
Davis Cup: Aussies lose quarter-final tie with Canada despite Alex de Minaur heroics
“He robbed me of my gold medal in Rio, he robbed (Britain’s) James Guy of the bronze medal, he robbed the guy who came ninth of eight place so it’s life-changing moments for a lot of people,” le Clos said.
“My life would be different today if I was a double Olympic champion but I’m not talking about the money.
“I’m talking about the memories and the legacy he took away from me so for him to come out and say these things is crazy.”
Originally published as Cate Campbell, Chad le Clos hit back at Sun Yang doping test claims