Sun Yang (Chinese: 孙杨; Mandarin pronunciation: [swə́n.jǎŋ]; born 1 December 1991) is a Chinese Olympic and former world-record-holding competitive swimmer. A three-time Olympic gold medalist and eleven-time world champion, he is the most decorated Chinese swimmer in history. In 2012, Sun became the first Chinese athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in men's swimming. Sun is the first male swimmer in history to earn Olympic and World Championship gold medals at every freestyle distance from 200 to 1500 metres.
Early Life and Career
Sun was born on 1 December 1991 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. He was named after his parents' surnames. Sun is an only child, and his family is athletic. His father, Sun Quanhong (孙全洪), was a basketball player for Anhui Tigong.
Sun achieved further success during the 2010 Asian Games. He won the race with a time of 14:34.14, ten seconds ahead of the rest of the competition.
2012 Summer Olympics
For the 2012 Summer Olympics, Sun was considered a favourite in the 400 metre and 1500 metre freestyle, as well as a contender in the 200 metre freestyle. In his first event, the 400 metre freestyle, he won the gold medal with a time of 3:40.14, breaking the Olympic record previously held by Ian Thorpe and becoming the first Chinese male swimmer to win a gold medal at the Olympics. His time was also the third fastest in history, 0.07 seconds away from the world record, and setting a new Asian record.
After a day of recuperating, Sun competed in the 200 metre freestyle. He won a silver medal in the final, tying with Park Tae-hwan with a time of 1:44.93, a new national record. After the relay, Sun did not return to the pool until the last day of competition to compete in his strongest event, the 1500 metre freestyle. He had qualified for the final with the fastest time.
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At the initial line-up on the starting blocks, a step-down command was issued because of noise from the crowd, but instead of stepping back, Sun reacted by diving in. The officials ruled the early dive was the result of noise from the crowd and did not constitute a false start, and Sun was allowed to continue in the competition. He went on to win the race with a time of 14:31.02, breaking his own world record by over three seconds. He finished over eight seconds ahead of second-place finisher, Canadian Ryan Cochrane.
2013 World Championships and National Games
From 28 July to 4 August 2013, Sun competed at the World Championships. On the first day of competition, he won gold in the 400 metre freestyle with a time of 3:41.59. On the sixth day of competition, Sun was tasked with swimming the anchor leg for the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay. China barely qualified for the final in eighth place. Going into the last leg of the race, China was in fifth place, over two seconds behind France and Japan, but Sun was able to overtake both teams in the end for a final time of 1:43.16.
On the final day of the competition, Sun successfully defended his title in the 1500 metre freestyle. One month later, Sun competed in the 2013 National Games of China. Aiming to become the first man to win seven gold medals at a single championship, he added to his range the 100 metre freestyle, an event typically reserved for sprinters. With the games holding the same schedule as the Olympics, he competed first in the 400 metre freestyle, winning in 3:43.68-over a second ahead of Hao Yun. The following day, Sun won the 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay, swimming the anchor leg in 48.14 seconds. He followed these performances the next day by setting a new Asian record in the 200 metre freestyle with a time of 1:44.47, about half a second faster than his time in London.
2014 Doping Controversy and Asian Games
In May 2014, the Chinese Swimming Association handed Sun a warning but let him off without suspension after he tested positive for trimetazidine, a drug that was banned four months earlier and classified as a stimulant at the time by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). It was December 2014 at the insistence of FINA, the global regulator, that Chinada confirmed it had handed Sun a retrospective suspension of three months.
The lenient penalty was based on this: Sun said that Dr. Ba Zhen, an Olympic team doctor for Chinese swimming, prescribed the drug to treat heart palpitations, a condition he has suffered since 2008, and was unaware that it had been newly added to the banned substances list. After reviewing the full case file, WADA chose not to pursue the case after an investigation. They also announced that they would not challenge the CSA's decision to impose a retrospective three-month sanction.
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Since Sun's ban, WADA has reclassified trimetazidine from an S6 stimulant (prohibited in competition) to an S4 hormone and metabolic modulator (prohibited in and out of competition). Dr Ba Zhen was handed two suspensions by WADA, the first for supplying a banned substance to Sun, the second, to run concurrently, because journalist Craig Lord alerted WADA to a photograph confirming that the doctor had worked with Sun at the Asian Games in August 2014 at a time when he ought to have been serving a suspension. Asked by FINA to explain, the CSA said that Ba Zhen had not been accredited for the Games through them.
Sun claimed gold medal in the 200 metre freestyle at Chinese Spring Nationals in May 2014. At the 2014 Asian Games, Sun participated in the 200, 400, and 1500 metre freestyle events. He won silver in the 200 metre freestyle, finishing behind Kosuke Hagino. In the 400 metre freestyle, he came 1st with a time of 3:43.23, which was 1.25 seconds ahead of runner-up Hagino. Leading from start to finish, Sun won gold in the 1500 metre freestyle.
In the 1500 metre freestyle, where he was the two-time defending champion, Sun withdrew from the competition, later citing heart problems during a warm-up. "I feel very sorry that I couldn't be present for the 1500m", Sun told reporters. "I didn't feel good in my heart. Today I felt really uncomfortable at the pool during my warm-up and I had to give up the idea of competing.
2016 Summer Olympics
In June 2016, Sun competed at the Arena Pro Swim Series finale in Santa Clara, California. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Sun won the 200 metre freestyle with a time of 1:44.65, finishing 0.55 seconds ahead of runner-up Chad le Clos. The lead-up to the 400 metre freestyle was marred by controversy. Sun was accused of splashing water into rival Horton's face during practice. Horton accused Sun of attempting to distract him. Sun and Xu Qi, the Chinese swim team manager, denied the allegations and said it must have been a misunderstanding.
Horton responded by accusing Sun of being a "drug cheat", in reference to his 2014 suspension.
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2018 Asian Games and the Controversial Doping Test
In August 2018, Sun competed in every freestyle event from the 200 to the 1500 metre freestyle at the Asian Games. He also competed in the 4 × 100 and 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay events. In the 200 metre freestyle, Sun won gold with a time of 1:45.43. He finished 1st in the 400 metre freestyle with a time of 3:42.92, over four seconds ahead of runner-up Naito Ehara.
In September 2018, Sun experienced an out-of-competition test at his home. On the night of 4 September 2018, three anti-doping testers from IDTM, the organisation responsible for conducting out-of-competition dope tests around the world, had arrived at Sun’s home in Zhejiang province and were asked to wait outside for almost an hour because the swimmer was not home. The testers had taken photographs to prove they had been there as the swimmer’s chosen one-hour window of availability between 10 and 11 pm was about to close. Sun had almost missed this deadline for testing but managed to arrive within the window.
After giving blood, he was escorted to the bathroom by a doping control assistant (DCA) to be observed passing urine. Around 3:00 am, Sun's camp and the anti-doping testers were at a standoff. Sun's entourage including his doctor Ba Zhen, had refused to let the testers take his blood vials. The testers refused to leave without their casing and had refused Sun's offer to wait for an accredited team to replace them.
The blood that was initially collected (and subsequently destroyed) was not collected with proper authorisation and thus was not properly a "sample" ... as a result, the sample collection session initiated by IDTM on September 4, 2018, is invalid and void. No FINA DC rule violations can result therefrom. ... The conduct on the part of the DCA (doping control assistant) is highly improper and extremely unprofessional. This should never happen ... proof of this conduct by a DCA prior to the athlete providing a chaperoned urine sample is unquestionably reason to immediately suspend the DCA's involvement in the testing mission.
Ultimately, the BCA (blood collection assistant) did not testify at the hearing or answer any questions from the athlete.
The inquiry panel concluded that "Mr. Sun Yang has not committed an anti-doping rule violation", which FINA accepted. Their official inquiry report concluded that the testing officer indeed did not abide to the proper testing protocol.
In January 2019, The Sunday Times published an exclusive article reporting that Sun and his entourage had presided over the smashing of a vial of the swimmer's blood sample with a hammer in front of anti-doping testers and that he may face a lifetime ban. CAS issued a report on 20 August 2019, stating the appeal hearing brought by WADA against Sun and FINA in September had been postponed due to a party's unexpected personal circumstances.
According to Sun's coach Dennis Cotterell, the drug test conducted on the 4 September 2018, was the swimmer's ninth drug test in two weeks. Sun had just finished competing in the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia two days earlier.
A year before the 2018 testing incident, Sun had heated tensions with the same unnamed female doping control officer who presided over his sample collection in the 2018 incident. In 2017, the officer was a doping control assistant in training to become an officer. Sun wrote that the DCA "lacked proper accreditation and also lacked authorization to perform her assigned role". On 18 November, the DCA, who remained anonymous and did not appear at the hearing, said that he was a construction worker rather than a trained doping tester. According to Xinhua News Agency, he had submitted his written testimony in Chinese to CAS and WADA several days before the hearing.
WADA's lead counsel Richard Young referred to "concerns over intimidation and protection issues", while during cross-examination of witnesses WADA co-counsel Brent Rychener highlighted the threats and warnings made by members of Sun's entourage to the testing officers, including exchanges involving the swimmer's mother, Dr. Ba Zhen (the head of the Chinese Swimming Association), and Dr. Han Zhaoqi (the head of the Zheijang Anti-Doping Center).
The WADA provided witness statements from the DCO and the BCA, indicating that they had been contacted by Sun's entourage and were "concerned for their physical and economic well-being, and for the well-being of their family members". They indicated they were "fearful that, if they would agree to testify in this proceeding, they would suffer significant retaliation in some form from [Sun Yang] and/or his entourage and supporters".
The panel said: "it is one thing, having provided a blood sample, to question the accreditation of the testing personnel while keeping the intact samples in the possession of the testing authorities; it is quite another thing, after lengthy exchanges and warnings as to the consequences, to act in such a way that results in destroying the sample containers, thereby eliminating any chance of testing the sample at a later stage.
2019 World Championships
At the 2019 World Championships, Sun finished 2nd behind Danas Rapšys in the 200 metre freestyle. Sun clashed with Duncan Scott during the 200 metre freestyle presentation. Both the British and Australian camps had been critical about Sun's actions the year prior. Scott refused to share the podium with Sun, and neither competitor shook hands, after which Sun could be seen gesturing and shouting at Scott.
In a similar incident a few days earlier, Australian swimmer Mack Horton had also refused to share the podium with Sun. Horton was given an official warning by the sport's organising body, FINA. Following the medal ceremonies, Horton, Scott, and Sun were served letters by FINA, warning them about their behaviour. In a statement, FINA said: "While FINA respects the principle of freedom of speech, it has to be conducted in the right context ...
FINA's and WADA's Response
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) admonished the Chinese Swimming Association for tardiness in reporting the failed test and the subsequent ban until after it had been served, meaning that Sun never missed a major event. FINA's handling of the case was criticized for allegedly "protect[ing] one of the sport's biggest stars in a key market".
In January 2015, WADA reclassified and downgraded trimetazidine from "stimulant" to "modulator of cardiac metabolism", prohibiting its use out of competition in addition to the previous prohibition of use in competition. Ben Nichols, a WADA representative, explained that drugs like trimetazidine are reclassified and downgraded when they are recognised as being less likely to be used as doping agents and trimetazidine will be moved off the prohibited stimulant list as of January 1, 2015. It remains a banned substance as of 2020. WADA criticised the CSA for its lateness in reporting the failed test result and subsequent ban until after it had been served.
The Hammer Incident and CAS Ruling
It was striking that, in the course of his testimony, at no point did the athlete express any regret as to his actions, or indicate that, with the benefit of hindsight, it might have been preferable for him to have acted differently. Rather, as the proceedings unfolded, he dug his heels in and, eventually, sought to blame others for the manifest failing...
Current travel restrictions, as a result of rising Covid-19, have meant that the group never returned in the new year to their base in the Gloria Sports Arena. South African Chad le Clos will have his sights firmly set on this summer’s Games after what he declared to be a disappointing run in Rio. From recent social posts, coaches and athletes within the team are staying put in their respective home nations. “Now we are sending out programs and supporting athletes from afar for the swimmers that require it. At present, there are conflicting opinions surrounding the fate of the Games and whether it will be able to continue as planned or not. Earlier this week, an organiser of the London 2012 Games said that he personally felt this year’s event was “unlikely” to take place - although, he has no direct involvement with Tokyo.
| Year | Event | Medal |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Summer Olympics (400m Freestyle) | Gold |
| 2012 | Summer Olympics (200m Freestyle) | Silver |
| 2012 | Summer Olympics (1500m Freestyle) | Gold |
| 2013 | World Championships (400m Freestyle) | Gold |
| 2013 | World Championships (4x200m Freestyle Relay) | Gold |
| 2013 | World Championships (1500m Freestyle) | Gold |
| 2014 | Asian Games (400m Freestyle) | Gold |
| 2016 | Summer Olympics (200m Freestyle) | Gold |
Sun Yang guilty: Swimmer banned for eight years after doping offence
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