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Swimmer Sun Yang’s three-day retrial at sports court to start next week
The retrial in three-time Olympic champion swimmer Sun Yang’s doping case will be held over three days next week, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has announced.
The court set May 25-27 for the hearing, to be held in private by video link. Sun’s first hearing in November 2019 took one day, was opened to the media and streamed live online at the request of his lawyers.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport will hear the case against Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, pictured, next week.Credit: AP
A new CAS verdict is expected before the Tokyo Olympics open on July 23.
The Chinese star’s eight-year ban for violating anti-doping rules was overturned on appeal to Switzerland’s Supreme Court last year.
Federal judges ruled the guilty verdict unsafe because the chairman of the CAS panel of three judges, Franco Frattini, showed anti-Chinese bias in social media comments. Frattini is a former foreign minister in Italy’s government.
The retrial will be judged by three different lawyers selected by the parties and the court.
The appeal case was brought by the World Anti-Doping Agency to challenge a tribunal ruling at swimming’s governing body FINA only to warn Sun for his conduct.
The case is about a failed attempt to take blood and urine from Sun when a sample collection team went to his home in China for an unannounced visit in September 2018.
Sun is the world champion in the 400-metre freestyle and Olympic heats in that event begin on July 24. He’s the defending Olympic champion in the 200 which starts the next day.
He also took gold in the 400 and 1500 at the 2012 London Olympics.
AP