After being banned from the sport for four years, one of China’s most medal-winning swimmers is back in the pool.
Sun Yang has been followed by doping allegations for years. He was first suspended from the sport for three months in 2014 for allegedly using the drug trimetazidine, but then he was cleared. Another sporting body overturned the decision clearing him, and gave Yang an eight-year ban which was later reduced to four years.
Trimetazidine is a drug (not approved in the U.S.)used to treat heart conditions such as angina. It works by increasing blood flow to the heart and preventing sudden changes in blood pressure.
Then in 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended Yang again for refusing to give samples to testers who showed up at his home in 2018. At the time, Sun said the testers did not have the right credentials and he would not cooperate with them. But the testing team said otherwise, claiming that one of Yang’s associates actually smashed the vial of Yang’s blood to prevent the team from being able to test it.
But now he’s back, having won the gold medal in the men’s freestyle 400-meter at the Chinese National Summer Swimming Championships held in Heifie Sunday, August 25. He was moved to tears speaking to reporters afterward when reflecting on the doping allegations that prevented him from practicing the sport for so long.
He said the support from his family is what “kept me going until today.”
Drug use allegations have also been leveled at the Chinese Olympic team that competed at the summer games in Paris this year. China has said their team has been unfairly singled out. Chinese competitors were drug-tested twice as frequently as those from other nations, which China says indicates a conspiracy to disrupt the country’s chances of success.
Yang first became famous in the Summer, 2012 Olympics by becoming the first Chinese male swimmer to win a gold medal. He took first place in both the 400-meter and the 1,500-meter freestyle races in the London games that year. At the next Olympics in Brazil, Yang won the gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle race.
