Opinion | Sun Yang’s CAS doping hearing blighted by translation farce, and inflamed by ‘construction worker’ claims from Chinese state media

Anyone who thought that the biggest mystery in sport this year would be Colleen Rooney’s reveal that “it was … Rebekah Vardy” was sorely mistaken. Chinese state media agency Xinhua has blown that out water with its anonymous interview with the tester in Sun Yang’s controversial doping case. It was … a construction worker. That’s the big reveal and one that backs up everything Sun has claimed about an unqualified testing team and unprofessional behaviour from a fanboying doping team member at the test last September. “Sun is a big star in China and it was my first time being near him. I was excited,” he told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. “I took a couple of pictures outside the room with my cellphone. When I tried to take pictures of him again when we were sitting in the room, Sun told me not to do so. Who’s who in Sun Yang’s court of arbitration doping hearing? “Then he asked every one of us to identify ourselves. I showed my ID card. Sun pointed out that I was not an accredited tester and should not stay in the test room,” he said. The anonymous construction worker could blow down the case built against China’s star swimmer. How handy would that have been for Sun at his public hearing in Switzerland last week? The Xinhua report states that the builder sent his written testimony to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) ahead of the hearing but he never heard anything back. Presumably because it was written in Chinese and something was lost in translation. Not getting any better. 15 minutes in and Sun Yang's lawyer is struggling. “I’m sorry for leading but the translation was so bad,” says Ian Meakin QC. “Can you please translate.” https://t.co/FksnRtyzWq — tariq panja (@tariqpanja) November 15, 2019 That was certainly the issue in the hotel conference room that stood in for a courtroom last Friday in scenes so farcical it seemed almost deliberate. The hearing could not get started as the translator struggled in translating the English to Chinese for Sun. This was from the very first question. “The translator has not translated. He doesn’t understand,” Sun’s English lawyer, Ian Meakin, told the court. He complained again soon after, “I'm sorry … but the translation was so bad … If you want him to answer the question, the translation must be correct”. Meakin objected for a third time that a question to Sun from Wada’s counsel had been translated into Chinese as “200 millilitres of blood” instead of “200 times”. “If you want him to answer the question, the translation must be correct,” Meakin said. It was a fair point. Sun’s team had picked the translator and the shocking standard of the translation was the one thing that everyone in the room could agree on. It was ironic that a dispute in part over Sun’s refusal to give a urine sample to testers, that they could not tell if the errant translation was outright mischief. Dope cheat-finder general Richard Young, Wada’s legal counsel, said as much. The translation was so bad that “you couldn’t tell if he was monumentally evasive or couldn’t understand the questions”. When the hearing resumed after a break, judging panel president Franco Frattini also apologised “for the poor quality of the interpretation”. Everything you need to know as Sun Yang heads to CAS to clear his name By then, all sides had agreed to replace the original translator with Ying Cui, a Chinese Wada official who also speaks English. We were not done with the farcical scenes. Sun shocked everyone, including his legal counsel, when he tried to beckon another translator from the public seats to translate his final remarks, where he called out a media conspiracy against him. Judge Franco Frattini sat the substitute right back down. One thing we have learned is that CAS should appoint all translators from now on. Once Sun asked for a public hearing the already high stakes were even higher. The world was watching and what they saw reflected badly on everyone. The highest court of appeal in sport looked more like a hastily arranged bingo in a village hall, put on during an ill-fated exchange visit between twinned towns. The ill-advised joke about darts from one judge only added to that. ‘You loser’: Sun Yang rants at British swimmer after podium snub There is still the risk that CAS will be rendered a laughing stock when the verdict is given. Victory for Sun would damage Wada and open up 60,000 appeals across 30 sports. Victory for Wada would be the end of Sun’s career at 27 and would see him stripped of his most recent world championships medals. One of the great Olympians would have a permanent question mark over his achievements. There are a lot of questions around this case, such as why did we not see the video that Sun says corroborates his story? Sun called that out too in his closing statement. “But even if I do play those video recordings in court today, would you have the guts to watch them?” Sun Yang’s mother deals hammer blow for pushy parents The court said it would take the video into account when making its verdict and reassured both sides that an accurate transcript of the morning sessions would be provided to all parties. While that will keep all sides happy, what led to that measure being necessary will not. Whatever the decision, the losing side can feel rightly aggrieved that justice was not served. The ruling may be final but we won’t have heard the last of this.