Sun Yang, a three-time Olympic champion and one of China’s most celebrated athletes, had his eight-year ban from swimming suddenly overturned Wednesday by Switzerland’s federal court, which upheld a challenge questioning the neutrality of one of the panelists who had issued the penalty.

The Swiss federal court’s decision came after lawyers for Sun presented evidence that the chairman of the three-member panel that issued Sun’s ban in February had made racist comments about China on social media.

The ruling was a rare encroachment on the body that issued the suspension — the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is based in Lausanne, Switzerland — and it means that Sun, whose competitive career was effectively ended by the doping ban, is free to resume swimming at least until his case is heard by a different panel at the sports court.

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