Sun Yang Retrial Concludes After Two Days; Verdict Expected Before Olympics
The doping retrial of Chinese superstar Sun Yang in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport came to a conclusion on Thursday, following two days of closed-door testimony. A spokesperson for the CAS indicated that a date for a verdict has not been determined, but it will be made before the end of June. That timeframe guarantees that Sun’s eligibility will be known prior to the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Sun was originally found guilty of violating anti-doping rules and given an eight-year ban, but the Olympic-champion freestyler appealed the verdict to the Swiss Federal Tribunal. The Swiss court ruled that a member of the three-person CAS panel, Franco Frattini, made biased comments on social media and sent the case back to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for retrial.
The case stems from an out-of-competition test in September 2018 in which Sun got into arguments with testers and accused them of not having the proper credentials to conduct testing. During the late-night dispute, a vial of Sun’s blood was smashed with a hammer by a member of Sun’s team.
Sun’s initial trial was a one-day affair that was open to the public. His latest trial was held in a private setting through video conference and took place over two days.
Sun is the reigning Olympic champion in the 200 freestyle and was the 400 freestyle and 1500 freestyle champion at the 2012 Games in London. If the CAS finds Sun not guilty of doping violations, the Chinese Swimming Federation will almost surely nominate the distance star for the Tokyo Games.
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