MONTREUX, Switzerland, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Olympic champion swimmer Sun Yang said that he had nothing to hide after a marathon public hearing over his alleged anti-doping rule violation in Montreux, Switzerland, on Friday.
"The reason why I have requested that this hearing be public is that I want the whole world to know what really happened that night," said Sun.
The hearing was held by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed against Sun Yang and the International Swimming Federation (FINA), over a previous decision by the FINA Doping Panel dated January 3, 2019, when FINA ruled that the swimmer was not guilty of an anti-doping rule violation.
The whole hearing was marred by poor courtroom interpretation, which resulted in Sun Yang's lawyer, Ian Meakin, complaining at one point that "the translation was so bad."
Sun Yang said he had been keeping piles of photos and even video recordings detailing what really happened in his room that night between him and the three anti-doping officers, but this evidence was not admitted into the hearing.
"But even if I do play those video recordings in court today, would you have the guts to watch them?" Sun Yang said to the three anti-doping officers and WADA in his final remarks at the hearing.
WADA clearly disagreed with Sun Yang on the validity issue of the anti-doping test, holding that the two anti-doping officers in question lacking authority and credential letters to perform the test did not tamper with the authenticity of the test, according to WADA guidelines.
Stuart Kemp, deputy director of Standards and Harmonization at WADA and also one of the three WADA appellants in court, said that these guidelines have "no legal status" and are not mandatory for WADA-delegated anti-doping test companies to abide by, potentially suggesting that the two officers in question could have been anybody as long as their chief, in this case the Doping Control Officer (DCO), had the authority and accreditation.
"But try to be in my shoes for a second," Sun Yang contested, saying he was only presented with a Chinese ID card from the officer taking urine samples, while the other officer taking blood samples, though alleging to hold a nurse certificate, happened to forget bringing it with her that night.
WADA's "International Standard for Testing And Investigations" clearly stipulates the following:
"Sample Collection Personnel shall have official documentation, provided by the Sample Collection Authority, evidencing their authority to collect a Sample from the Athlete, such as an authorization letter from the Testing Authority. DCOs and BCOs (Blood Collection Officer) shall also carry complementary identification which includes their name and photograph (i.e., identification card from the Sample Collection Authority, driver's license, health card, passport or similar valid identification) and the expiry date of the identification."
"I have nothing to hide!" Sun Yang declared at the end. "Fighting doping is important. However, it is also important that the doping regulations are complied with by everyone, including doping organizations."
"I just asked the doping officers to comply with these rules -- which are meant to protect athletes," he added.
Sun Yang also urged sports organizations to guarantee athletes' basic rights including privacy. "Less than one month after FINA made the decision, the confidential decision was leaked out and published in the press ... This decision was only disclosed to doping organizations," he said.
"However, there was a complete disregard of the confidentiality of the FINA decision. During the Gwangju (in South Korea) FINA world championships this July, the Decision was specifically published by Australian press. The facts were distorted, and the public opinion was misled. This was just a smear campaign."
"I've been working so hard to win over honors in the past 20 years as a professional athlete. I've been tested hundreds of times, and I comply with the regulations and cooperate actively every single time. However, I believe that every athlete has right to ask that the doping rules are complied with also by doping officers and doping organizations," he concluded.
The hearing ended without an immediate decision from the panel of arbitrators, and CAS says it's also impossible to give a precise date of notification of the decision at this time.
