A collection of vehemently anti-Chinese tweets has made one of the most prolonged sagas in swimming even longer.
Sun Yang, the most decorated swimmer in Chinese history, had his eight-year ban on the Sports Arbitration Court lifted by a Swiss federal court on Wednesday, according to Tariq Panja of the New York Times. The ban was originally issued after the World Anti-Doping Agency filed a complaint against Sun for refusing to cooperate with three anti-doping officials who were trying to collect blood and urine samples at their home in China.
The reason behind the reversal was a successful challenge from Sun lawyers, who questioned the neutrality of Franco Frattini, the chairman of the three-person panel at CAS who issued the swimmer ban.
Specifically, Sun’s lawyers pointed to previous tweets by Frattini that carried a strong anti-Chinese sentiment.
The CAS president had dozens of anti-Chinese tweets
It is unclear which tweets by Frattini, who once served as Italy’s foreign minister, were tried by the Swiss court for showing anti-Chinese prejudice, but options are not lacking.
Frattini has frequently posted angry tweets directed at China in the past, mainly in response to cruelty to animals in the region.
Some examples:
Hell forever for those sadistic Chinese bastards who brutally killed cats and dogs in Yulin, with the complicity of the Chinese authorities !!!
Sadistic old man with yellow face trying to kill and torture a puppy: this is the photo from China !!! Westerners doing rich business with China, keep these atrocities in mind
Barbarians !! Torturing, killing and eating dogs is not history, it is sadism of horrible Chinese who deserve the worst of evil. Most Chinese don’t like this horror, but they have to intervene and ban Yulin torture
You can check out Frattini’s largest collection of tweets against China on here, but be warned that almost all tweets are a response to images of cruelty to animals.
Where do Sun Yang and CAS go from here?
Although Sun’s ban has been lifted, that does not mean he is out of danger.
According to the Times, Sun is now free to resume swimming, but only until his case is heard by a different CAS panel. WADA said it would try the case again, and that the ban was not lifted for lack of merit with the case.
It is unclear whether Sun’s next trial will be public again – its first trial was the first in years to be held in public and was marked by translation problems. It is also unclear when the new trial will take place, which is not insignificant considering that the summer Olympics are scheduled to take place in seven months.
As long as the trial is carried out, what remains certain is that the whole matter will remain controversial. What started with one of Sun’s security guards smashing his blood sample with a hammer became a confusing mess for WADA, which only filed its complaint after FINA gave Sun a mere warning for refusing to cooperate with testers, despite positive testing for a banned substance in the past.
Sun and his supporters remained adamant in their belief that the swimmer is merely the victim of anti-Chinese prejudices and attempts to harm the country, while many of Sun’s colleagues clearly see him as a doper.
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