Lausanne (AFP)
The icon of the Chinese swimming Sun Yang was suspended eight years Friday by the Sports Arbitral Tribunal (CAS) for the hammer destruction of a sample during an unexpected doping control, in September 2018, announced the TAS in Lausanne Friday.
"Sun Yang is suspended eight years from the CAS decision," the court said in a statement.
Sun Yang, triple Olympic champion and eleven times world champion, is thus deprived at 28 years of the Olympic Games in Tokyo next summer.
On the other hand, its titles won after the incredible control, notably the gold medals of the 200 and 400 freestyle in Gwangju (South Korea) in July 2019, "are not withdrawn retroactively", specified the secretary general of the CAS Matthew Reeb.
Sun Yang can still appeal against its suspension before the Swiss federal court and ask that its suspension not be executed until a final decision is rendered, but it will be up to the federal court to decide.
First Chinese crowned Olympic swimming champion in men (London-2012, 400 and 1500 m), Sun Yang risked two to eight years of suspension. He had already been suspended for three months for a positive control of a stimulant (trimetazidine) in 2014.
The case of the destroyed sample landed before the Arbitral Tribunal for Sport (CAS) after an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against a previous controversial decision of the International Swimming Federation (Fina), which had cleared the swimmer on a defect of form and undergoes a severe snub with this decision of the CAS.
The release had allowed Sun Yang to participate in the Gwangju Worlds last summer, where several swimmers had expressed dissatisfaction with his presence.
© 2020 AFP