Sun Yang, China’s first Olympic gold medalist in men’s swimming, returns to the pool at the National Summer Swimming Championships following the end of his four-year doping ban.
Bollywood Fever: Chinese swimmer Sun Yang is set to make his return to competitive swimming at a major domestic meet next week, following the completion of his four-year ban for doping, as reported by state media.
Sun, who became China’s first Olympic gold medalist in men’s swimming, will represent his home province of Zhejiang at the National Summer Swimming Championships, beginning this Sunday in Hefei.
According to Xinhua news agency, Wang Wei, director of the Zhejiang Provincial Swimming Sports Management Center, confirmed that the 32-year-old will compete in the 400 meters freestyle event, the same event in which he claimed victory at the 2012 London Olympics.
The triple Olympic champion was handed a four-year and three-month ban after a doping test violation in 2018, during which he and his entourage destroyed blood sample vials. The original ban, which was set at eight years, was reduced on appeal and officially expired on May 28.
During his suspension, Sun missed the national trials for the Paris Olympics, a period during which China’s swim team was under intense scrutiny due to the country’s doping record.
In April, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirmed that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned heart medication, ahead of the Tokyo Games. WADA accepted that the positive tests were due to contamination from a hotel kitchen where the team had been staying.
Sun himself had previously served a three-month suspension in 2014 for taking trimetazidine, which he claimed was prescribed for a heart condition.
The Hefei meet, regarded as the second most prestigious swimming event in China after the National Swimming Championships, marks Sun’s return to the pool.
However, despite being cleared for competition, his chances of representing China again appear slim.
According to China’s anti-doping rules, athletes who receive doping suspensions longer than a year are banned from national teams.
At the recent Paris Olympics, China’s swim team secured 12 medals, including two golds.
Notably, Pan Zhanle won the men’s 100 meters freestyle title in a world record time, and China claimed the men’s 4×100 medley relay gold, ending the United States’ undefeated streak in the event.
Xinhua reported that Pan and his provincial teammate Wang Shun, a former Olympic champion who won bronze in the men’s 200 individual medley in Paris, were not included in Zhejiang’s team for the Hefei meet.
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