Sun Yang verdict: Chinese superstar pays price for witness intimidation and media leaks detailed in damning CAS report
- Triple Olympic champion may be a highly decorated athlete but he is not above the law or legal process, Court of Arbitration for Sport says
- Witnesses were ‘fearful they would suffer significant retaliation in some form from the athlete and/or his entourage and supporters’
The court on Wednesday published its full report into the case brought by the World Anti-Doping Agency against Sun Yang and swimming governing body Fina, with the 78-page document making for damning reading, highlighting a number of attempts to intimidate witnesses and leaks to the media.
The report is highly critical of Sun and his team for their actions from the out-of-competition test at his home in Hangzhou in September 2018 that took “a severe turn” through to the end of the CAS hearing last November.
On the night in question, Sun gave a blood sample before taking issue with the credentials of the testing team and refused to provide a urine sample. Sun, with the backing of his entourage, then ripped up his signed consent form and assisted a security guard in smashing a blood vial with a hammer.
The panel said that Sun “being a person experienced with anti-doping controls as he has participated in literally hundreds of them, must have realised that he was taking a huge risk by withdrawing a consent he had already given to cooperate in the blood sample collection session”.