After four-year suspension Chinese swimmer Sun Yang is back to competing

Chinese swimmer Sun Yang competed at China's national championship after returning from a doping ban.
Picture of Yi Shen

Yi Shen

Work Link

After four-year suspension Chinese swimmer Sun Yang is back to competing

Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang returns to competing after long suspension

China’s three-time Olympic gold medalist Sun Yang won the men’s 400-meter freestyle title on Aug 25, at the 2024 National Summer Swimming Championships in Hefei, east China’s Anhui Province.

Sun, representing Zhejiang Province, topped the podium in three minutes and 49.58 seconds. After returning from a 51-month suspension, the 32-year-old showed that he remains close to his past form.  He led the race from the first 200 meters.

Fans were happy at Sun’s return. The topic “Sun Yang wins 400m free”, quickly dominated Chinese social media.

“I could have done better,” Sun said after the final. “It’s been four years away from competition. I have missed intensive training. I do feel rusty in controlling the tempo and I need more competitions. But it’s a good start for my comeback and I’m happy with this result.”

Sun added that he plans to compete in more events and hopes to have a better performance next year. He also expressed gratitude for his family’s support.

Sun was born in December 1991 in Zhejiang’s capital, Hangzhou. He became China’s first-ever Olympic champion in men’s swimming at London 2012. At that time, he claimed top honors in both the 400m and 1,500m freestyles.

At Rio 2016, he won the men’s 200m freestyle.  He became the first-ever male swimmer to collect Olympic golds in the 200m, 400m and 1,500m freestyles.

In June 2021, a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) panel announced that Sun committed anti-doping rule violations. “When an unsuccessful attempt was made to collect blood and urine samples from him at his residence on September 4-5, 2018.” The judgment added: “The panel concluded that a period of ineligibility of four years and three months (i.e. 51 months) commencing on February 28, 2020, is to be imposed on Sun Yang.”

Sun’s return to competing after his doping ban comes after Chinese swimmers have been in the spotlight following a slew of doping allegations at the Paris Olympics. The US contentiously claimed that the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) was covering up doping on behalf of China.

Chinese swimmers had tested positive before the Tokyo Olympics for banned substances. However, an investigation by the Chinese anti-doping organisation Chinada found it was due to contaminated meat so they faced no ban. A follow-up investigation by Wada agreed with this decision. Later on, an independent investigation of Wada’s handling of the case found that Wada did not mishandle the case or show bias towards the Chinese swimmers. Several of those athletes went on to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

It is standard practice for a country’s own anti-doping agency to investigate doping.

Chinese swimmers faced drug-tested significantly more than those from other nations at the Paris Olympics. China’s 31 team members were tested an average of 21 times since January according to data from World Aquatics. Meanwhile, Australia’s 41 swimmers have undergone testing an average of four times. The U.S.’s 46swimmers have faced testing an average of six times.

This, in turn, has fuelled accusations from China that it was a conspiracy to disrupt their performance.

In a statment to the BBC, Wada head of media relations James Fitzgerald said “Certain individuals [in the US] are attempting to score political points purely on the basis that the athletes in question are Chinese.”

Written by Yi Shen, additional reporting by Xinhua, CGTN and Global Times.

If you liked this article, why not read: “You swan, he frog”: Heartbroken foreign blogger finds comfort in Chinglish goodwill messages

Related Posts

yuanshen
Why "Goods Economy" Becomes A Cosumer Phenomenon This Year?
Guests pose at Bosideng Extreme Collection Launch.
Bosideng Extreme Collection Launched in London with Chinese Polar Expedition Team
Hainan Yangpu Ancient Salt Field
Hainan Yangpu Ancient Salt Field: Reviewing the Past of Salt Production for Thousands of Years
Inside No 9
BBC's 'Inside No. 9' Stage Adaption Performed in Beijing
A kid was having fun.
The Christmas Party at British Embassy Beijing Was More Than Just a Celebration
ice collecting festival
Harbin Ice-cutting Festival Ignites Northeast China Winter Tourism
Light decorations of the Spring Festival were in south China's Macao, Jan. 29, 2024.
Spring Festival Inscribed by UNESCO on Intangible Cultural Heritage List
Buzzwords
Discover the Top 10 Chinese Buzzwords of 2024
This photo taken on Nov. 21, 2024 shows some hard copies of online Chinese novels during their inclusion event at the British Library in London, Britain. The British Library expanded its Chinese collection on Thursday by adding ten online novels by Chinese authors, including Lord of the Mysteries, Soul Land, and The Joy of Life. This follows the library's 2022 inclusion of its first batch of Chinese online literature. These novels, originally published on platforms operated by Yuewen, a Chinese online literature company, were donated to document the cultural significance and rapid development of internet literature in China. (Xinhua/Li Ying)
Chinese Online Literature: Ten Web Novels Are Added to British Library
China Travel
A “To Do List” to Make Your #ChinaTravel More Interesting and Unique
Scroll to Top