Sun Yang missing from latest Olympic Team China swimming poster
- Sun faces a second trial on his doping case by CAS next week
- Xu Jiayu and Zhang Yufei now leading forces of Chinese swimming team
Is Sun Yang still part of the Chinese swimming team?
As sports apparel giant Anta became the strategic partner and exclusive sponsor of the Chinese swimming team this week, a new poster of the team was launched without its talisman Sun Yang.
The controversial Sun is facing a second hearing on his doping case by the Court of Arbitration for Sport next week – the result of which may impose a lengthy suspension on the 1,500-metre world record-holder, beyond even this summer’s Tokyo Olympic Games.
Tokyo 2020: Sun Yang CAS hearing to be held in private
Replacing Sun in the middle of the poster is Xu Jiayu, also from Zhejiang Province, and a two-time world champion (2017 and 2019) in the men’s 100m backstroke and one of China’s medal hopefuls in Tokyo after capturing a silver in the event at the Rio Olympics.
Either side of Xu are two women swimmers. Zhang Yufei now stands as China’s best gold medal hope at the Tokyo Games following her recent performance in the 100m and 200m butterfly. She won both events in Qingdao in the world’s fastest time this year.
On the other side of Xu is Ye Shiwen, who became the first Chinese swimmer to win two gold medals at an Olympic Games when she, at the age of 16, claimed both the 200m individual medley and the 400m individual medley at London 2012.
Sun Yang not at China Nationals but could still swim at Tokyo 2020
Ye endured a disappointing Rio Olympics when she was eliminated in the 400m individual medley after the heats but the 25-year-old vowed to make a comeback in Tokyo this summer. The two other swimmers in the poster are Yang Junxuan, one of Siobhan Haughey’s major rivals in the 200m freestyle in Tokyo and Yan Zibei, China’s top breaststroker.
