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It took as long to digest that Sun Yang’s eight-year suspension was lifted as it did to digest the Christmas meal.
But even with some distance, there is no doubt that the news that a Swiss court is returning the case to Cas, which arrived the night before Christmas Eve, is further proof of how poorly this case has been handled.
It was in November of last year that Sun Yang’s case was raised in Cas.
Photo: Jean-Christophe Bott / AP
When the message It came in February that Sun Yang was closed for eight years, most people thought that the latest chapter in the tenacious story of the Chinese star who is so loved in his homeland as he is questioned among competitors was written.
Although the majority assumed that Sun Yang would appeal to a Swiss court, which was the only instance left to appeal, but since the court cannot review the verdict itself, but only if the case has been handled legally, the statistics suggested that Sun, 29, Yang’s swimming career was over. Since 1992, some 150 Cas cases have been tried in Swiss courts. Of those, less than 10 percent have failed, according to an article in The Sydney Morning Herald.
He stresses that Cas, who is based in Switzerland, is often extremely meticulous. That makes it even weirder that it went so wrong this time.
Still has It has not been confirmed by the court, but according to the New York Times, the reason for the reversal of the verdict is a dubious act by one of the panel members, the Italian Franco Frattin.
Yes, it is possible to agree with Åke Andrén-Sandberg, chairman of the Swedish Sports Confederation’s Doping Commission, that the aftermath of the verdict can be compared with the aftermath of the US elections.
The fact that Franco Frattini, the chairman of the Cas panel that convicted Sun Yang, has been accused of speaking out against the Chinese on animal rights issues, and on at least one purely racist occasion against the Chinese, has very little to do with his role in this. the case.
But the fact that Sun Yang and his advisers meticulously scrutinized everything in a conviction could hardly have come as a surprise to Cas. Therefore, they should have scrutinized the panel members and their activities so as not to risk such a situation.
As beloved as Sun Yang is at home in China, he is equally questioned by many of his competitors.
Photo: Tao Xiyi
As that the court only has to take a position on the rule of law, where there was already some cause for concern during the negotiations because the interpreter had major problems, the new message does not mean that Sun Yang is free. The only court ruling is that the case must be returned to Cas for a new trial.
But while he’s waiting for that, the Chinese superstar is free to compete again, and what’s worse is that it usually takes time before matters are addressed at Cas.
The shattered doping test on which this story revolves occurred as early as September 2018 when one of Sun Yang’s guards broke the test tube after the swimmer and his mother objected to the inspectors.
The case first ended with Fina, who chose to give Sun Yang a warning, who had previously been banned from doping for three months.
Wada, the international anti-doping organization, appealed to Cas, but it wasn’t until November 2019 that the matter was addressed and after that it was until February before a verdict came.
During this long time, Sun Yang was free to compete.
In seven months The postponed Olympics in Tokyo will be decided, unless the pandemic makes up for it once again.
For both Sun Yang and his critics, it is extremely important that the case is decided well in advance.
Nobody wants to relive the scenes from the South Korean World Cup where a prestigious swimming championship sometimes turned into a circus where protests took turns, and Fina who so many times ended up in the backwater and didn’t really understand what was going on. .
Therefore, Cas must speed up and quickly produce both a new panel and a new date for negotiations.
Because if Sun Yang is on the starting podium in Tokyo, it must not be because he is free to compete again pending a verdict.
Read more texts by Malin Fransson
