Sun Yang will miss the Tokyo Olympics. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decided, Tuesday, June 22, to suspend the Chinese swimmer for a period of four years and three months, after the latter had destroyed with a hammer a vial of his blood during a control unexpected anti-doping. This suspension, which began on February 28, 2020, will therefore end in June 2024, a few weeks before the opening of the Paris Games. Sun Yang will then be 32 years old.
In February 2020, the CAS had already imposed an eight-year suspension – the maximum penalty – on the Chinese swimmer for this gesture. But, to the general amazement, the Swiss Federal Tribunal had, in December, annulled this decision, thereby sanctioning the “Bias” the president of the panel of arbitrators and also former head of Italian diplomacy, Franco Frattini. Denouncing the cruelty inflicted on animals in China, and while the Sun Yang case was under investigation, the magistrate had indeed engaged in a series of tweets “Extremely violent” and racist, revealed the Tribunal.
After a new hearing, which was held in May, the arbitration body on Tuesday confirmed the suspension, but reduced the duration: four years, to which must be added a sentence of three months for a previous violation. of the anti-doping regulations. A new appeal to Swiss justice cannot be suspended, the road to the Tokyo Games is therefore blocked for Sun Yang.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) immediately “Greeted” this decision. She recalls that the swimmer had already appealed against a previous decision of the International Swimming Federation (FINA) which had cleared the swimmer because of a technical defect, before being disowned by the CAS. This FINA decision “Raised a number of questions regarding code compliance” world anti-doping, recalled the Director General of the Agency, Olivier Niggli, in a press release. “Today’s CAS decision validates these concerns raised by WADA. “
FINA, for its part, “Noted” of this judgment, which it has undertaken to implement “In accordance with its obligations as a signatory of the code”.
Hostility of his rivals
Adored in his country, muse of several big brands, Sun Yang has three Olympic gold medals to his list, gleaned in London in 2012 (400 meters and 1,500 meters freestyle) and in Rio in 2016 (200 meters freestyle). He also won eleven world championship titles. The Chinese Swimming Federation explained that the Chinese swimmers titled at the Gwangju Worlds (in 2019) would be “Automatically qualified” for the Tokyo Games (July 23-August 8). Sun Yang, who had then won two planetary titles in the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle, met these criteria, even if, in China, nothing filtered concerning his physical level or the state of his preparation.
The only son of a family of athletes, the swimmer revealed himself to the general public during the Shanghai World Championships in 2011: at 19, he smashed the world record for the 1,500-meter freestyle (which he has, since, improved, and which he still holds) and had also won the 800 meters.
In 2014, in the greatest secrecy, Sun Yang had tested positive for a stimulant (trimetazidine). The results were made public long after the sanction had been served. Two years later, in 2016, the Chinese swimmer had encountered, during the Rio Olympics, the hostility of his rivals – which had been simmering for a long time. Australian Mack Horton had initially called him “Doped”, before stealing the gold in the 400-meter freestyle from him.
Usually unwavering, the Chinese swimmer had burst into tears and retaliated by winning the 200 meters. “Sun Yang, he’s purple pissing”, had in the meantime mocked the French back-designer Camille Lacourt, “Disgusted to see people who cheated on the catwalks”.
Controlled at his home in September 2018, Sun Yang had destroyed a blood sample with a hammer, arguing in his defense that the inspectors had not produced “Documents proving their identity”. By blanking Sun Yang due to a formal defect, FINA had allowed him to appear at the 2019 Worlds, to the dismay of some opponents.
Medalists alongside him, respectively over 400 meters and 200 meters, Australian Mack Horton refused to stand on the podium, while Briton Duncan Scott refused to shake his hand. “You are a loser, I am a winner! “ Sun had retaliated exasperatedly, clenching his fist in Scott’s direction.