Doping or discrimination bad for swimming pools
By Zhang Zhouxiang | China Daily | Updated: 2019-11-18 07:49
The Court of Arbitration for Sports held a hearing for Sun Yang, a Chinese swimmer, who faces a doping charge on Saturday. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:
The whole incident dates back to September 2018, when three anti-doping agents from the IDTM agency in Sweden, hired by the International Swimming Federation (FINA), tried to conduct an out-of-competition check. Sun expressed doubts about their identities and job qualifications. According to reports, the nurse who tried to take samples from him did not show any acceptable authorization document, so he refused and they had a quarrel.
In January 2019, FINA ruled that Sun did not break any anti-doping rules; the World Anti-Doping Agency did not agree and appealed the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sports.
Saturday's hearing lasted 10 hours, during which both Sun and WADA gave testimonies along with those of witnesses. A ruling is expected to be reached soon.
Despite being cleared by FINA, Sun has suffered discrimination from many of his competitors, including Australian swimmer Mack Horton, who refused to have a photo taken with Sun at this year's world championship in Gwangju, the Republic of Korea. Later some other athletes followed Horton's example.
Yet the same athlete who is filled with a burning sense of justice against China is rather blind when it comes to others. When a female Australian swimmer tested positive in an anti-doping test, Horton did not take any "boycotting" action against her and just pretended not to hear anything when journalists asked him about it.
Even the Chinese swimming team has suffered from this bias and has been described by certain Western media as a team that dopes.
Behind this attitude is a deep hidden discrimination against China.
If the Court of Arbitration finds Sun guilty of doping then he will need to face the penalties he deserves and bear the loss himself.
But if it finds Sun innocent, the other athletes should change their attitude toward him and the Chinese swimming team. They should compete with the Chinese athletes fairly as they do with every other athlete.
