Chinese swimmer Sun Yang loses appeal at Swiss court

Three-time Olympic champion Sun Yang lost his final appeal against a ban for violating anti-doping rules, Switzerland’s highest court said on Friday.

FILE PHOTO: Sun Yang.

Three-time Olympic champion Sun Yang lost his final appeal against a ban for violating anti-doping rules, Switzerland’s highest court said on Friday.

The Swiss Federal Tribunal dismissed the Chinese swimmer’s appeal against last year's Court of Arbitration for Sport verdict on legal process grounds.

Sun had been banned — after a retrial at CAS — for more than four years following a confrontational incident with sample collection officers at his home in China. The ban, which forced him to miss the Tokyo Olympics, expires in May 2024, just before the Paris Games.

The CAS ruling “does not violate fundamental principles of public order, nor was Sun Yang’s right to be heard infringed,” the Swiss court said in a statement, adding it “did not enter into the merits of the athlete’s further objections.”

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Sun was ordered to pay legal costs of 15,000 Swiss francs ($16,300).

The latest ruling should end a legal case that lasted more than three years since Sun was merely warned by swimming governing body FINA about his conduct during an attempt to take blood and urine from him. A sample collection team had made an unannounced visit to his home in September 2018.

It turned confrontational after midnight when he questioned the officials’ credentials. It led to Sun’s entourage ordering a security guard to use a hammer to smash the casing of a blood vial so it would not be valid for testing.

The World Anti-Doping Agency appealed to CAS to overturn the FINA tribunal ruling.

Sun was first banned for eight years by CAS in 2020. That verdict was nullified by Swiss judges because the CAS panel chairman showed anti-China bias in social media comments.