CAS cuts Sun's ban to 4 years, to miss Tokyo

Chinese swimmer Sun Yang has had his eight-year ban for doping violations reduced to four years, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said in a statement on Tuesday.

The decision means Sun will miss the Tokyo Olympics next month, but will be eligible for the Paris Games in 2024.

Sun was banned for eight years by CAS in February 2020 after it accepted an appeal from the World Anti-Doping Agency against a decision by swimming governing body FINA to clear him of wrongdoing for his conduct during a 2018 test.

Sun appealed that decision and the judges ruled the first guilty verdict unsafe because the chairman of the three-judge panel at CAS showed anti-Chinese bias in social media comments.

WADA had said it would "present its case robustly again when the matter returns to the CAS Panel, which will be chaired by a different president."

The retrial was heard by three new judges by video over three days last month and fast-tracked ahead of the Tokyo Olympics opening on July 23.

A change this year to FINA's rules in anti-doping cases meant the eight-year ban for a second offense could be reduced. This amendment "represents a newly flexible approach," the court said.

"Consequently, the panel concluded that a period of ineligibility of four years and three months commencing on February 28, 2020 is to be imposed on Sun Yang."

Sun, the reigning world and Olympic champion in 200 meters freestyle, was banned after he and members of his entourage were found to have smashed vials containing blood samples taken at an out-of-competition test in September 2018.

The judges found Sun "to have acted recklessly" when he refused to let anti-doping officials leave his home with a sample of his blood, the court said. Sun had questioned the credentials and identity of the testers.

The 29-year-old won two gold medals at the 2012 London Games and another at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. He also won a total of 11 golds in five straight world championships from 2011 to 2019, at each freestyle distance from 200 to 1,500.