The rise and fall of star swimmer Sun Yang
>> Chinese Olympic champion Sun Yang was banned for eight years on Friday for refusing to cooperate with drug-testers.
AFP Sport picks out the key dates in the 28-year-old Chinese swimming star’s turbulent career:
2009: BREAKTHROUGH
Sun wins his first major medal at the age of 17, taking 1,500m freestyle bronze at the world championships in Rome.
2010: ASIAN CROWNS
The rising star wins gold in the 1,500m and 4x200m freestyle relay at the Asian Games in Guangzhou.
2011: STUNNING RECORD
Sun shatters Grant Hackett’s 10-year-old 1,500m world record and also wins the 800m in front of his home crowd at the world championships in Shanghai.
2012: DOUBLE GOLD
Sun is edged into silver in the 200m freestyle at the London Games, but strikes gold in the 400m and 1,500m.
2014: SECRET DRUGS BAN
Sun wins triple gold at the Asian Games in Incheon, but it later emerges that he served a three-month suspension for taking the banned stimulant trimetazidine.
2016: OLYMPIC RANCOUR
Australian rival Mack Horton brands Sun “a drug cheat” at the Rio Olympics and pips the Chinese to gold in the 400m freestyle, leaving him in tears. Sun recovers to win the 200m title.
2019: SMASHED VIAL
Sun’s career is thrown into doubt after The Sunday Times in Britain alleges that a vial of his blood was smashed with a hammer during a dispute with anti-doping testers who visited his home.
2019: PODIUM PROTESTS
Horton refuses to pose for pictures with Sun on the medal podium, a protest repeated by Britain’s bronze medallist Duncan Scott. Sun tells Scott: “I win, you loser.”
2020: EIGHT-YEAR BAN
Sun is banned for eight years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for refusing to give blood and urine samples to testers.