The Court of Arbitration for Sport announced yesterday, 28 February 2020, that China’s first male olympic gold medallist in the pool, Sun Yang, had been made ineligible for competition for the next 8 years. The CAS hearing related to an incident that occurred at Yang’s home in September 2018, when testing officials arrived at his home to perform an out of competition test. Ultimately, a sample was not provided and the FINA Doping Panel subsequently investigated the incident, but no sanctions were applied to Yang. WADA appealed that decision to CAS, with the hearing heard in November 2019 and their decision being publicised on 28 February 2020, being that Yang is banned for 8 years. This sanction was the maximum available to CAS, with their reasoning being that there were no mitigating circumstances and that this is Yang’s second anti doping rule violation.
