Triple Olympic champion makes golden return after four-year doping ban

(ECNS)-- China's triple Olympic champion Sun Yang, aged 32, won gold in the men's 400m freestyle with three minutes and 49.58 seconds at the 2024 National Summer Swimming Championships on Sunday in Hefei City, east China's Anhui Province.

This is his first competitive race since returning from a four-year doping ban.

"Regardless of winning or losing, I wanted to give it a try. Over the past four years, I’ve gone from the peak to the trough and then slowly climbed back up. Winning this gold is the best way to reflect that journey." After the competition, Sun said in an interview with China News Service, "This competition was not just for myself, but for all the people who have supported me along the way."

"Anhui is my ancestral hometown and my father’s birthplace. Competing in Hefei feels like a meaningful reunion.” Sun said on Weibo on the second day after the race, “With this deep connection in mind, I am committed to forging ahead, striving for greater achievements, and living up to the hopes and support of my hometown."

He also expressed the hope to "be a role model for the youth born in the 2000s and 2010s, contributing to the future of China's men's swimming."

Sun's results have become a sensation, with Chinese social media abuzz with positive comments.

“Many focus on his performance, age, and the details of the competition, but few recognize the trials he endured over the past four years. He resisted the lure of easy wealth through influencer marketing and the comfort of a relaxed life.” A netizen said on Weibo, “Even his equipment was makeshift. What truly supported him were the solitary hours in the swimming pool through the long and lonely nights, and his steadfast passion.”

Another comment said that Sun's tears after receiving the award displays “his simple yet passionate love for swimming”, and that he is “the Peter Pan” in swimming sports.

Sun is the first-ever male swimmer to collect Olympic golds in the 200m, 400m and 1,500m free events from London 2012 to Rio 2016, but has long been a controversial figure in the pool.

In September 2018, IDTM, a doping testing agency authorized by FINA, sent four testers to Sun's home in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province to conduct an out-of-competition drug test.

However, the doping control testers from IDTM were unable to provide Doping Control officer certification and a nursing Practice Certificate, which violated FINA anti-doping rules and relevant international standards, so Sun deemed the inspection illegal and invalid. As a result, the inspection was not completed.

One IDTM doping control tester in the Sun's case provided his testimony by a written letter, saying he was not a trained professional Doping Control Assistant, but a construction worker.

Sun has not committed an anti-doping rule violation under FINA DC 2.3 or FINA DC 2.5, FINA Doping Panel announced in January 2019.

Yet dissatisfied with the decision, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) filed a new appeal against Sun and FINA.

According to the final ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in June 2021, “Sun Yang committed ADRVs (an Anti-Doping Rule Violation) when an unsuccessful attempt was made to collect blood and urine samples from him at his residence” on Sep. 4 to 5, 2018, and correspondingly “a period of ineligibility of 4 years and 3 months” for competition was imposed on him, which ended on May 28.

The New York Times once said the CAS decision “most likely ends his career”.

A netizen noted on Weibo that Sun had climbed back up from the darkest possible experience, saying"If you can't stay at the top, then return to where you started".