Swiss Tribunal gives Sun reprieve

WELLINGTON • Controversial Chinese swimming star Sun Yang has had his eight-year ban for doping violations suddenly overturned on Wednesday by Switzerland's federal court, the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) said in a statement late on Wednesday.

He was banned for eight years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in February, after it accepted an appeal from Wada against a decision by swimming body Fina to clear him of wrongdoing for his conduct during a 2018 test.

The 29-year-old appealed against that decision and Wada said in Wednesday's statement it had been informed the Swiss Federal Tribunal had upheld a challenge against the chair of the CAS panel but had not made any comment on the substance of the case.

"Wada will take steps to present its case robustly again when the matter returns to the CAS panel, which will be chaired by a different president," the statement said.

The New York Times reported Sun's lawyers had successfully argued to the tribunal that the head of the three-man CAS panel, former Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini, had made comments that expressed anti-Chinese sentiments on social media.

News reports earlier this year highlighted Twitter posts from the 63-year-old politician's account expressing disdain over examples of animal cruelty in China. At least one post included a term that is considered an anti-Chinese slur.

Both Frattini and the tribunal could not be reached on Wednesday for comment.

The ruling was a rare encroachment on the CAS and it means that Sun, whose competitive career was effectively ended by the doping ban, is free to resume swimming at least until his case is heard by a different panel at the sports court.

Sun, the reigning world and Olympic champion in 200m freestyle, was banned after he and members of his entourage were found to have smashed vials containing blood samples taken at an out-of-competition test in September 2018.

He has questioned the credentials and identity of the testers and has constantly proclaimed his innocence.

The Chinese, who won two gold medals at the 2012 London Games and another at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, is a controversial figure in the sport.

He served a three-month doping suspension in 2014 for taking the stimulant trimetazidine, which he said he took to treat a heart condition, while Australian swimmer Mack Horton openly called him a drug cheat at the Rio Games.

Horton refused to share the 400m freestyle podium after coming second to Sun at last year's world championships in South Korea, a move that was applauded by other swimmers but condemned by world governing body Fina.

Swimming Australia said it and Horton had no comment on the decision.

Official reaction in China was muted early yesterday, although the news managed to get into the top-20 trending topics on China's Weibo, a Twitter-like social media platform. Most users supported the Swiss court's decision to refer his case back to the CAS, although many held out little hope of a reversal of the original result.

"The overturn of the case is due to procedural violations, not because of factual flaws," one user wrote. "The case will be heard by the CAS once more, it is unlikely to reverse the result."

REUTERS, NYTIMES