December 2, 2014, Gold Coast, Australia – Swimming Australia has decided that current 1500m freestyle world record holder, Sun Yang (China), has been banned from training within the borders of Australia, according to Australia’s The Courier-Mail. The High Performance Director for Swimming Australia, Michael Scott, released the mandate prohibiting Sun Yang from training at any “podium facility”, including the Miami Swimming Club in coastal Queensland, citing the distance swimmer’s recent positive drug test.
This means no more in-Australia-coaching by Denis Cotterell, the coach who led Yang to his 2012 Olympic gold medal-winning performance in the 1500m freestyle. Scott reportedly met with Cotterell last week and advised him that Sun was “no longer welcome in Australia and should not train at the Miami pool on the Gold Coast in the future.”
Yang tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned anti-anginal metabolic agent (i.e., heart stimulant), back in May of this year; however, it was reported the anti-doping agency in China carefully veiled this result and the Olympic gold medalist was minimally banned for a total of three-months (backdated, it should be noted).
Also specified by Scott are new, stricter protocols surrounding foreign swimmers coming to Australia, which includes registering with Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency (ASADA) for out-of-competition testing. According to Swimming Australia, this new policy will strengthen the “integrity of the sport” within Australia, while also warding off any potential links to doping in the future for athletes who train, temporarily or permanently, in the country.
Sun Yang was reportedly scheduled to arrive in the Gold Coast this week.
I agree with the Australians. Sun Yang is a guest using their facilities that are financed by Australian tax payer money or local sponsors and benefactors; therefore he should be in his behavior to enjoy the privilege and opportunity afforded to him by his host country. the Australians have deemed that he isn’t exhibiting the behavior they feel that is appropriate.
Wish they had held their own swimmers to the same standards when they had trouble staying below the 4:1 ration for testosterone level…
I have always found it interesting how many top swimmers train in countries other than their original country of origin. Although the Olympics are not supposed to encourage “nationalism”, we all look to see which “country” wins the most medals etc. Interesting that so many swimmers (and other athletes) come to the USA to train in our system or to get their college educations while attending and competing for our American Universities. Of course, it should be noted that the influx of foreign athletes, (lots of foreign swimmers), limits opportunities for our own American athletes to earn scholarships and excel through their college years. It may be said by some, that none of the “super-star” American swimmers miss out on… Read more »
kevin, excellent points, but be aware, get your flack jacket on because the mortar rounds will be coming in shortly!
Coach T,
I am waiting to see the responses. Some of them might be exciting! I have both my flak jacket and my helmet on….Open discussions, even conflict, is always interesting. One can seldom change the minds of those with “closed” minds, but one can sometimes influence those with “open” minds.
So much in our society is driven by money and job security. I understand the need of our college coaches to put out the best “product” possible, to stay competitive and to keep their jobs safe. I understand that high-profile, fast, foreign swimmers can bring immediate credibility and financial rewards to our elite coaches.
Anyone ever notice how seldom any foreign swimmers (one last year and one… Read more »
It now turns out that the foreign students are harming many of the American athletes…I am very surprised about this, Kevin.
I understand ur point, but in my opinion its a very nationalistic way of seeing things. For me swimming is something that erases the differences between countries and makes for a better understanding between people. This is something that would disappear if we only could train in our own countries.
Pretty much everyone loves Doc Counsilman quotes. John Kinsella – awesome! Do you know that Doc helped Scott May, Kent Benson, and Quinn Buckner develop their vertical jumping during the 1976 IU undefeated season & NCAA basketball championship?
You know a lot of students.. specially postgrads on US are foreigners who pay a lot of money to study there? And a lot of teachers are foreign also? Maybe we should create a system where no foreign teacher/scientists could work on US universities to help “true” americans.. and same for students.. even if they pay and help support the university.. or are we talking a system where it is OK for university to profit a lot and receive a lot of money from outside but it is not ok for them to spen money on foreign people?
And universities are supposed to spread knowledge, not to be a close border place where you limit who can access it.. If… Read more »
I hate this viewpoint. The underlying assumption is that relationship between foreign swimmers and US coaches is a one way street. You’re assuming we give and give to them and receive nothing nothing in return. The way I look at it is when the best swimmers come to the US they bring something to table that we didn’t previously have. For example, when Freddy Bousquet came to Auburn he used his straight arm freestyle to crack 19. (note: I don’t know if he learned that in France or if he picked that up at Auburn). This is something that most US coaches were not teaching at the time, but his success opened up the door for others to follow. And… Read more »
Also, I’m pretty sure Michael Scott didn’t give Yang the boot because he wanted to “level the playing field.” He wanted to protect the credibility of Australian swimming and not let a high profile foreign swimmer tarnish their name.
And as far as this “anti-foreign swimmers training in the US” stuff goes, good luck getting college coaches to take that approach. We live in a capitalist society dawg. You think you could ever win SEC or PAC12 conference titles without swimmers from abroad?
I thought it was a mission to reclaim the yard as the universal standard & counter the massive world movement to bring back the cubit.
Regarding Yang – perhaps the positive window included time spent training in Australia. It isn’t against Chinese or anyone else training though there would be limits in the new system of performance centres where some pulled out because of loss of independence.
As to out of competition testing , I am surprised if they were not included already.
I hate to think that Sun Yang used anything to aid his performance, but angina is a common side effect of performance enhancing drugs. I didn’t think much of it before but with the severity of this punishment it has me curious.
Banned from training, come on. Doesn’t this bureaucrat have anything better to do?
MCMFLYGUY: not extreme at all. They are simply protecting themselves against accusations of complicity and also ensuring that any swimmers doped outside their geographical boundaries are tested regularly, frequently, AND definitely! Good on them.
you can reply to the comment to make it easier to connect the dots between conversations. (but that’s just for conversation purposes)
Well that’s why I asked am I missing something?
I thought it was found that his doctor prescribed something that had the banned substance in it, it was banned this year, so he was given a short 3 month suspension because he was really unknowingly taking it. That’s what I thought had happened. While I understand assuie needs to CTA (cover their …) isn’t there a better way to do it then ban him from training in Australia. Just stricter testing maybe? I don’t know.
and this isn’t me starting arguments, i’m asking, Would the USA… Read more »
he should come train in the US
Yeah, it would be great for the US distance swimmers to get some much needed experience from him. Though he should probably wait for things to cool down.
But China isn’t really welcomed to the idea of sending its swimmers to the US for training. I can think of a couple of exceptions on the top of my head, but it’s not a regular thing.
am I missing something? This seems…….. extreme. I’d understand if he like set fire to a couple buildings and stuff but this seems like they just wanted an excuse for him to not come back.