Pride of China' Sun Yang is 'victim' after doping ban, claims lawyer
By AFP
SHANGHAI: “Pride of China” Sun Yang is “a victim of political posturing” and did not break doping rules, his lawyer said, after a ban of more than four years put the swimming star out of the Tokyo Olympics.
The three-time Olympic champion’s career was in tatters on Tuesday after the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s suspension for refusing to give a sample to doping inspectors.
At the end of a long-running and controversial case, the Lausanne-based court reduced its original ban of eight years after Sun, 29, appealed to Switzerland’s federal supreme court over alleged bias.
The new ban of four years and three months, backdated to February 2020, rules the 1,500m freestyle world record-holder out of next month’s Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Asian Games in his home city of Hangzhou.
Sun, who was banned for three months in 2014 for a separate doping offence, will be eligible to return in time for the Paris 2024 Games, although he will be 32 by then.
