China’s Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang served a three-month ban earlier this year after failing a doping test in May, the General Administration of Sport’s anti-doping agency revealed today.
Sun was said to have tested positive for the stimulant trimetazidine, which was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances this year.
In addition to the ban, which was in force from May 17 to August 16, he was also fined RMB5,000 and stripped of his champion title in the national swimming championship.
While Sun’s three-month ban was seen as too lenient compared to previous doping cases involving other athletes, deputy director of the Anti-Doping Agency Zhao Jian explained that Sun provided convincing evidence that he used the drug trimetazidine to treat heart palpitations, and had no intention of enhancing his performance in the sport.
“Sun Yang in this matter was not completely responsible. The positive test is his mistake; but the mistake is not very serious," Zhao added, “and because of this the three-month ban is reasonable”
According to the latest report, Sun completely disappeared from the public view and spent the three-month ban in Australia before making a comeback just before the Inchon Asian Games, where he won three gold metals.
Sun burst into the international spotlight when he won the 400m and freestyle events at the London Games in 2012, becoming the first Chinese man to win Olympic swimming gold.
The popular sports star has also been in the news for his exploits out of the pool.
In early 2013, he was suspended from engaging in commercial activities after missing training and breaching team rules.
Later that year, he was ordered to spend a week in a detention center after crashing a car that he had driven without a license.
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