TAS condemns Chinese swimmer Sun Yang eight years out of competition for destroying samples

Being his second case, he practically forces him to retreat, but he keeps him both golds of the World Cup last year

The swimmer Sun Yang, before the TAS.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT EFE

From this Friday, and forever, an episode define the poor commitment of swimming against doping.

It is as follows:

On September 4, 2018 between 10 pm and 11 pm, upon returning to his home in Hangzhou with some relatives, the Chinese Sun Yang, triple Olympic champion, met four agents hired by the International Swimming Federation (FINA ): It was control. According to the specialists, the swimmer refused to start the blood tests, but finally he accepted, at a minimum, an extraction and everything seemed incarcerated when a doctor of the Chinese team, Dr. Ba Zhen, appeared at about 1:00 a.m. twice suspended by FINA itself.

Zhen asked the analysts for their documentation, considered that one or more of them were not properly accredited, and caused the mess. Yang's mother asked the security guard of the house for a hammer, the swimmer broke with the blood sample that had been taken from him, there was a dispute over the control form that also ended up in pieces and in the end the agents left in horror , according to the subsequent report, and with empty hands.

However, Yang was able to go unpunished.

If it had been for the FINA, the Chinese, one of the greatest figures of his sport, would not have received any sanctions, although many adversaries demanded disciplinary measures against him, although in 2014 he was already given a disqualification of three months and 650 euros. 650 euros! – for consuming a stimulating cardiac.

The International Federation even let him compete in the Gwanju World Cup 2019, where he won the gold in the 200 and 400 meters free and raised to 12 the world titles won since the Shanghai World Cup 2011, the championship in which he amazed with his arms eternal.

It is fortunate that the World Anti-Doping Agency (AMA) did not allow it, appealed the FINA decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (TAS) and provoked the logic: yesterday, the TAS, complying with the international anti-doping regulation, condemns Yang to eight years of sanction Neither Yang's arguments, which he presented in an 11-hour public trial on November 15, nor the FINA's hesitations, changed the decision of the judges who, paying attention to what happened and the precedents, imposed the greatest penalty on the swimmer possible. The bureaucratic fluctuations, that is, prevented the punishment from having retroactive effects, that is, it started just yesterday: Yang could keep his Gwanju World medals, but at 28 he is practically forced to retire.

According to the Chinese agency Xinhua, Yang described yesterday as “unfair” the sanction and present an appeal in the Swiss ordinary Justice “so that everyone knows the truth”, although finally the most harmed by his case is not l.

From this Friday, and forever, an episode define the poor commitment of swimming against doping.