Contract terminated with China Swimming Association

Australian swimmer Dennis meets with Sun Yang

Australian media Sunday Telegraph reported on March 8 that Dennis Cottrell, 68, an Australian swimming coach who has coached Sun Yang for many years, has terminated the contract with the Chinese Swimming Association, which means that Dennis will not only not Coaching Sun Yang also ended the cooperation with the Chinese Swimming Association.

Dennis has a long history of cooperation with the Chinese Swimming Association and the Swimming Management Center of the General Administration of Sport. In 2007 and even earlier, the Chinese Swimming Association began adhering to the strategic principle of "inviting to go out." China's first men's world swimming champion Zhang Lin was sent to Australia that year to begin to strengthen middle and long distance freestyle learning. And received the careful guidance of Dennis, who is the coach of the former international superstar and Olympic champion Hackett, is quite famous.

Under the joint coaching of the Chinese coach and Dennis, Zhang Lin made great progress and won the men's 400m freestyle runner-up at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This is the first Olympic medal for a Chinese male swimmer. In 2009, Zhang Lin won the men's 800-meter freestyle final gold medal at the World Championships in Rome, breaking the history of Chinese male swimmers without a world championship, and maintaining the world record for the project to this day.

Two years later, the leader of the Chinese men's middle and long distance freestyle swimming has been replaced with a more potential and powerful Sun Yang. The main cooperation between Dennis and the Chinese Swimming Association has also become a new generation of middle and long players, mainly Sun Yang. Distance freestyle runner. In other words, the cooperation between Dennis and Sun Yang has been for nearly 10 years. Behind Sun Yang's two gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics, in addition to the old coach Zhu Zhigen, Dennis also made a huge contribution.

The process of "Old Dan" coaching Sun Yang was ups and downs due to changes in Australian policies. In 2013, the Australian Swimming Association introduced the "Podium Plan", which included 15 clubs, including Dennis's clubs, that were not allowed to receive training for foreign athletes with a history of positive drugs. Foreign athletes training in these 15 clubs must be registered with the Australian Anti-Doping Agency for out-of-race testing. There are also other harsh terms attached, the purpose is not to want the best swimming coaches in the country to coach other national players.

At this point, Dennis had to interrupt the cooperation with the Chinese Swimming Association. Even so, Dennis still provided indirect support to Sun Yang through other channels, and coached Yang Yang's training. Later, due to retirement and other reasons, Dennis was no longer restricted by the "Podium Plan". Sun Yang also rejoined the coach Zhu Zhigen on the choice of domestic coaches. Dennis once again joined hands with the Chinese Swimming Association to complete the "three strong" alliance. .

After the Gwangju World Championships, Dennis continued to guide Sun Yang with Chinese coach Zhu Zhigen in China and did not return to Australia until the beginning of this year. According to the original plan, Dennis will still instruct Sun Yang in person after the Spring Festival in China. However, due to the development of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Dennis has been unable to make a trip, so he agreed with Sun Yang to meet again in mid-March for overseas training. Sun Yang also arrived in Beijing on February 26 for training and set off after two weeks of isolation and isolation.

However, on February 28, the International Sports Arbitration Tribunal ruled that Sun Yang would be banned for 8 years, and overseas training would follow suit. On March 8, Dennis expressed to the Australian media that "the contract with the Chinese Swimming Association" was terminated. At this point, the master and disciple are all done, goodbye I do not know when it will be.

Text / Reporter Liu Ailin