“It is very clear that Sun Yang has concerns that he has been treated unfairly: in the doping control process in question, and through the hearings in CAS,” Ordway told the Post via email.

“In a rare display of transparency, the CAS agreed to his request that the hearing be made public and live-streamed. Anyone on that stream, or who has watched it later, cannot help but put themselves in the shoes of the athlete and feel that the process was against him.”

The CAS tribunal in Montreux, Switzerland, was made public at the request of Sun, who said he had nothing to hide and who wanted a transparent hearing. The proceedings, though, were blighted by translation problems, with the original interpreter – chosen by Sun’s legal team – replaced halfway through by a Wada official.

The case stems from an incident in September 2018 when three testers arrived at Sun’s house in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Sun, once called a “drug cheat” by his Australian rival Mack Horton, had agreed to the test and provided blood samples before one of the testers took a picture of the swimmer, who then became suspicious.

Sun Yang not at China Nationals but could still swim at Tokyo 2020

Sun again asked for identification and only the lead tester was able to provide the correct papers. After asking his doctor to come to his house and consulting Chinese swimming officials, Sun refused to complete the test. The testers declined to leave any equipment behind, prompting Sun’s security guard to smash the blood vial to allow the team to retrieve the shards of glass.

Swimming body Fina gave Sun a warning but Wada took the case to CAS, which found him guilty and handed him an eight-year ban in February 2020.

Switzerland’s Hans Nater will preside over Sun’s second hearing and will be joined by France’s Jan Paulsson and Belgian Bernard Hanotiau.

“Athletes not fluent in the official CAS languages of French or English are at a distinct disadvantage,” said Ordway. “Reliance on translators is challenging in the best of circumstances. Unfortunately in this case, the translators’ skills were inadequate for the requirements of a highly specialised and complex sport arbitration.

“The all-male arbitrators from European countries were not Mandarin speakers. As the Swiss Federal Tribunal established in December 2020, and as other commentators [investigative reporter Rick Sterling] have argued, the perception of a professional and/or personal bias against the Chinese athlete was palpable.

“Sun Yang has been given an another opportunity to argue against his eight-year ban this month. Whether he will receive a fair hearing before CAS this time remains to be seen.”

Although a new panel will hear Sun’s case, there are concerns that CAS had not assigned a Mandarin speaker despite having several registered arbitrators fluent in the language.

What does the latest ruling mean for Sun Yang’s Olympic hopes?

Sun won gold in the 400m and 1,500m freestyle events at the 2012 London Games, setting a 1,500m world record of 14:31.02. He claimed his third gold, in the 200m, in Rio 2016. He is also an 11-time world champion.

At the 2019 worlds in Gwangju, South Korea, British bronze medallist Duncan Scott refused to share the podium with Sun after the Chinese swimmer won the 200m freestyle. Two days earlier, Horton declined to mount the podium after finishing second to Sun in the 400m freestyle.