Drugs agency official explains delay of ‘bad news’
Print Edition
CHINESE swimming sensation Sun Yang served a three-month doping ban earlier this year before returning to competition, officials revealed yesterday.
The double Olympic champion and 1,500 meters world record-holder won three gold medals at the Asian Games after serving the previously unannounced ban.
Chinese officials denied a cover-up and said the suspension was unusually short because Sun, 22, had convinced them he did not mean to take the banned stimulant trimetazidine.
“I have taken many doping tests during years of training and competition and I had never failed one before,” Xinhua news agency quoted Sun as saying. “I was shocked and depressed at that time, but at the same time it made me cherish my sporting life even more. I will take it as a lesson and be more careful in the future.”
In a statement posted on his Weibo account yesterday, Sun said he accepted the anti-doping agency’s decision and pledged to engage in “deep reflection.”
“Whatever the cause, as an athlete, I must take responsibility for whatever enters my body,” he said.
“From now on, I will be even more strict in my demands on myself,” Sun said.
The swimmer tested positive for trimetazidine in a test conducted on May 17 during China’s national swimming championships in Hangzhou.
He was stripped of his 1,500m national title and fined 5,000 yuan (US$800).
The suspension ended on August 17, a month before the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, where he won three gold medals.
Xinhua said Sun’s suspension had been imposed in July but was backdated to May 17.
The China Anti-Doping Agency said Sun waived his right to have his B-sample tested after failing the initial test.
At a hearing Sun said the trimetazidine was in a prescription drug Vasorel he sometimes takes for heart palpitations, and that he did not know it had been added to the list of banned substances at the start of the year.
Sun “proved with sufficient evidence that he did not intend to cheat,” said Zhao Jia, deputy director of CHINADA, according to Xinhua.
Zhao said the ban was announced as part of a periodic release of testing results and disciplinary measures. He said Sun’s support team and team doctor were also given penalties, which he didn’t specify.
“We usually report the violations quarterly or bi-quarterly and we have to wait until the handling of a particular case has been finished,” Zhao said.
The need to handle almost 10,000 tests over a six-month period also slowed the process. “That’s why we did not release the reports for the second and third quarters until now,” Zhao said.
Six other positive cases were revealed in the agency’s second and third-quarter reports, both released yesterday.
“Sun is the most famous athlete in China and is known in the world, which means we need to handle his case very cautiously,” Zhao told Xinhua.
“This is huge bad news but we will not cover it up,” he said.
The swimmer became a star in China after winning two gold medals at the 2012 Olympics in London and setting the world record for the 1,500-meters.
The first Chinese man to win an individual Olympic swimming gold is a controversial figure.
In 2013, he was suspended from commercial activities and warned about his personal behavior after a battle with his coach over a relationship with an airline stewardess.
His notoriety grew in November last year when he was caught driving a relative’s Porsche without a license. He was detained for a week and suspended from swimming for six months.
At the Asian Games he courted controversy by calling the Japanese national anthem “ugly,” though he later apologized.
After news of the doping test broke, Chinese swimming fans chastised Sun for his behavior.
“He is a troublesome child who won’t grow up,” said one poster on Weibo.
Another asked: “Is this the price paid for shooting to fame while you are young?”
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