Doping: Chinese swimmer Sun's career at stake against TAS

Montreux (Switzerland) (AFP)

A career at stake: the Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, star in Asia, risk of 2 to 8 years of suspension Friday before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for an incredible doping control in which he had destroyed his sample with a hammer.

Three-time Olympic champion in London-2012 and Rio-2016 and eleven world titles between 2011 and 2019, Sun Yang "will be present" at the hearing in Montreux (Switzerland) and "he is expected to express himself", told AFP Matthieu Reeb, Secretary General of the CAS.

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.

An explosive report from Fina's anti-doping committee, written in January, confirmed that the swimmer had destroyed his own blood sample with a hammer during an unannounced check in September 2018.

The Australian Mack Horton had ostensibly shown his distrust of Sun, crowned 400m world champion for the fourth time in a row, by refusing to get on the podium to receive his silver medal and then standing aside on the souvenir photos.

WADA, which considers that the swimmer has "voluntarily refused to submit to a levy," is calling for a suspension of between two and eight years.

- Public audience -

The hearing will open at 09:00 local to conclude around 20:30, will be exceptional in more ways than one.

For the second time only in the history of the CAS, and "at the request of Sun Yang," said the CAS, the hearing will be public and therefore open to the media, while in general the cases are treated behind closed doors.

In addition, the debates between the three umpires and the lawyers of Sun, Fina and WADA will be streamed live on the CAS website, in whole or in part.

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