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Vial of Sun Yang’s Blood Allegedly Smashed with Hammer in Drug Test Altercation

Chinese swimmer Sun Yang is under fire again after an altercation with drug testers allegedly resulted in him and a member of his security detail smashing a sealed vial containing Sun’s blood, The Sunday Times is reporting.

Sun, the World Record holder in the men’ 1500 free and 3-time Olympic gold medalist, nearly missed an out-of-competition doping test on September 4th last year. He made the testers wait outside of his home for almost an hour, and then challenged whether the officials were genuine testers from the IDTM.

After breaking a number of testing protocols, which included urinating unaccompanied, Sun’s mother ordered security guards to destroy a vial of Sun’s blood taken in a nearby clubhouse, according to witnesses. The incident didn’t conclude until 4AM. Dr. Ba Zhen, who supports Sun (and who like Sun has a history with doping), reportedly contacted Dr. Han Zhaoqi, the head of the Zhejiang Anti-Doping Center. Han is also the chief doctor (and Ba’s boss) at a hospital they both work at.

Han told FINA that the nurse didn’t have the necessary paperwork, and at a January 3rd hearing, the FINA panel ruled in Sun’s favor. The World Anti-Doping Association, however, has been claimed to be ‘furious’ over the ruling, and are mulling an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. According to WADA rules, WADA has 21 days following “the last day on which any other party in the case could have appealed” or 21 days “after WADA’s receipt of the complete file relating to the decision.” With athletes or national anti-doping organizations themselves having a 21-day appeal period, that would give WADA until February 14th to appeal the decision of the FINA panel.

Meanwhile, a statement from Sun’s lawyer Zhang Qihuai to the Globla Times post did not address the accusations in the Sunday Times report; rather, it simply threatened a lawsuit against the Sunday Times.

“We reserve the right to file a lawsuit against the relevant international media which reports the incident,” the statement said, according to the Times. The statement accused the Sunday Times of “dubious motives’ and of ‘infringing upon Sun’s privacy and reputation.’

The FINA report stated that they would “never know” what had happened, and so they ruled in favor of Sun.

Sun previously served a 3-month doping suspension for a positive test for the substance Trimetazidine in May of 2014. The suspension was only announced after the suspension was served. Sun has also been prone to previous emotional outbursts, including a physical altercation with a Brazilian female swimmer at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships, and the later smashing of a locker inside the locker room at the same meet.

Sun was named one of the 2018 China Top Ten Brands of the Year by the Chinese Brand Alliance.

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George
5 years ago

Doper

BillPark ChPC ASCA level-5 international senior an
5 years ago

If his mom thought she needed to destroy the blood sample we need to find out why!so getterdone
BillPark ChPC ASCA level-5 international senior and age group swim coach
I go on the premise that you are innocent until proven guilty. So honesty is the best policy.
We should never jump the gun because that really creates an injustice that hopefully is not necessary.
We have to remember that a ten year period was put in Place for a reason for all who think they can get away with non clean honest drug free sport!

John
5 years ago

The article says “Sun Yang faces a lifetime ban after an altercation with drug testers”, then says FINA “ruled in favor of Sun”. I can’t understand the logic. Does the article mean WADA will appeal and win?

andy majeske
5 years ago

Wasn’t’t that incident about him running into someone in the warm up pool from Rio?

wang
5 years ago

The time of appeal has passed on January 24th, why February 14th

Philip Johnson
5 years ago

Ok, I just looked up the wax figure of Sun Yang; this deserves its own article. I mean, I would buy it..

DLSwim
5 years ago

I’m here for the comments…

Luigi
5 years ago

Maybe he should send the wax self to do the drug tests.

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Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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