'The Sunday Times' damaged client's reputation: Sun Yang's lawyer

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CGTN Sports Scene on Monday spoke with Chinese Olympic champion Sun Yang's lawyer, Zhang Qihuai, about British newspaper The Sunday Times publishing a report claiming that Sun faced a lifetime ban after allegedly clashing with anti-doping testers and smashing a vial of blood with a hammer.

Zhang said that legal action against the newspaper is a "definite possibility."

According to Zhang, during a routine out-of-competition doping test conducted by the International Doping Tests & Management (IDTM) at Sun's residence in east China's Zhejiang Province on September 4, 2018, Sun had complained that during a previous test, one of the three testers had failed to show adequate proof of identification.

On September 4, the same tester had come again, therefore, Sun requested all three testers to provide their identity proofs or IDTM authorization letters.

Since they failed to provide any supporting document, Sun immediately called the doctor of Zhejiang Province's swimming team and they reported the incident to the National Swimming Team's leader and the director of the Anti-Doping Agency of Zhejiang Province, who decided to not allow the officers to take his blood samples.

China's Sun Yang competes in the men's 4x200-meter freestyle final during 14th FINA World Swimming Championships. /VCG Photo

Zhang said that the decision was made by Sun's seniors after talking to the testers on phone, adding that there was no clash or conflict during the process as reported by The Sunday Times.

This dispute between Sun and the Doping Control Team was later referred to swimming's world governing body, FINA, which ruled in favor of Sun after a 13-hour hearing on January 3. As far as we know, the IDTM might punish those three testers, and FINA may also suspend them after an investigation.

Sun is also contemplating a lawsuit against the British newspaper for publishing an untruthful report which severely damaged his reputation and violated his privacy, Zhang said.

It's worth mentioning that the details of the arbitration should be confidential and unavailable to the public, so it's confusing how or from where the newspaper got the details.

The Sunday Times has not yet issued any apology to the three-time Olympic champion.