The legal team of Chinese swimmer Sun Yang has been notified by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court that the Court of International Arbitration for Sport has revoked his eight-year ban, meaning that he has a chance to participate in next year’s Tokyo Olympics.
WADA issued a statement in response, saying that the Swiss Supreme Court had ruled against the judges of the Court of Arbitration for Sport and would send the case back to the Court of Arbitration for a new hearing by another judge, but the statement did not comment on the case itself.
The New York Times reported that the Swiss Supreme Court’s decision was linked to “racist” comments made by Frattini, the former Italian judge of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Frattini was Italy’s foreign minister, and Sun Yang’s lawyers appealed to the Swiss Supreme Court, presenting evidence that Frattini had made racist comments against Chinese people on social media sites, questioning his neutrality.
The incident occurred in 2018 when Sun Yang was allegedly suspected of taking banned substances and was subjected to a drug test, but he refused and broke the already sealed sample. The International Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in February this year that Sun Yang had violated the World Anti-Doping Code and was banned for eight years. Sun Yang appealed to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.
It is noteworthy that the official media changed their tone several times before and after the ruling was issued. At the beginning of the ban, Sun Yang was still portrayed by the official media as the “proud son of heaven” and supported his appeal, but on March 4 this year, the Procuratorate Daily, which belongs to the Supreme Procuratorate, suddenly published a full-page article criticizing Sun Yang and his mother, saying that Sun Yang did not cooperate with the drug test, firstly, he was ignorant and secondly, he ignored the rules, and that “commercial competition cannot be tied to national honor”.
However, when the case of Sun Yang’s ban took a turn for the worse, the CDC posted an article on its website, questioning “who did not follow the rules”, saying that the international doping control management company, when conducting out-of-competition tests on Sun Yang that day, did not provide legal documents and did not have professional training, which violated FINA rules and international standards.
The CDC article criticized the company for abusing its power by using its own rules to conduct tests on athletes at will, and did not rule out the possibility of “extra care” with ulterior motives.
The incident has also led to heated discussions on the Chinese internet, with some netizens saying “See you on the field, keep fighting for your country!” Some netizens said, “No matter what the final decision is, it will not change my dislike for Sun Yang as a person.”
Recent Comments