Montreux (Switzerland) (AFP)
A career at stake: the Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, accused of destroying a blood sample with a hammer and who faces up to 8 years of suspension, challenged the validity of the control suffered in September 2018, Friday before the Arbitral Tribunal Sport (TAS).
The pickers "were not able to show me the documents proving their identity, so how could I allow them to take my sample?", Said Sun, interviewed by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) lawyers. ).
Three-time Olympic champion in London-2012 and Rio-2016 and eleven world titles between 2011 and 2019, Sun also believes that the documents presented to him by the controllers "were not valid".
The swimmer, who did not admit to destroying the blood sample, spoke in Chinese and his words were translated into English.
An explosive report from Fina's anti-doping committee, written in January, confirmed that Sun had destroyed his own blood sample with a hammer in an unannounced inspection in September 2018.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed to the CAS after the International Swimming Federation (Fina) cleared Sun Yang of a formal defect, allowing the 27-year-old swimmer to compete in the World Championships. Gwangju, South Korea, at the end of July, where several swimmers expressed dissatisfaction with his presence.
At the end of a public hearing that will last all day, Sun will not know the decision that will be reserved and will be made on a date that the CAS could not specify.
WADA, which believes that the swimmer has "voluntarily refused to submit to a levy," claims a suspension that can range from two to eight years.
"You said in your testimony that the person in charge of the control did not warn you of the consequences of refusing to donate your blood, do you confirm?" Asked Brent Rychener, a lawyer for WADA.
- questioned for an hour -
"They never told me that, it's absolutely not professional, they never mentioned that during the two hours of control," replied Sun, black suit, white shirt and blue tie, questioned for more than 'one o'clock.
The hearing was marked by serious translation problems between Chinese and English, forcing lawyers or three Umpires to rest or clarify their questions and leading the president of the court to publicly apologize.
"The interpreters are appointed by the parties and not by the CAS so we have no control over the quality of interpretation services", explained in the margins of the hearing Matthieu Reeb, Secretary General of the CAS.
"For example, the Chinese interpreters were chosen by the Sun team. Translation problems slow down the process (...) The witnesses have to repeat their answers or the questions. interests of the parties and not in the interest of justice, "Reeb said.
- Public audience -
The hearing, which opened at 09:00 local time (08:00 GMT) and will be concluded around 20:30, is exceptional for more than one reason.
For the second time only in the history of the CAS, and "at the request of Sun Yang", the hearing is indeed public and therefore open to the media, while in general the business is closed.
Finally, to cope with the influx of media, the CAS had to leave its headquarters in Lausanne to settle temporarily in a large hotel in Montreux.
The one and only public hearing of the CAS to date has involved Irish swimmer Michelle Smith de Bruin, in 1999, already on a doping case.
If he is suspended, Sun will have a final appeal before the Swiss Federal Tribunal, which sits in Lausanne.
© 2019 AFP