Tokyo 2020 Sun Yang to return at China nationals on April 30 - reports

Triple Olympic champion is eligible to swim at Tokyo 2020 Olympics qualifiers in Qingdao ahead of CAS hearing on May 24
Neither star swimmer nor officials have confirmed the report that Sun could be back in pool for first time since 2019 worlds

Sun Yang

Jonathan White

Published: 6:48pm, 24 Apr 2021

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China’s triple Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang is set to return to the pool for China’s national championships on April 30, according to reports.

US swimming website SwimSwam reported the news on Friday, citing posts on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

Chinese media then reported SwimSwam’s story, though some commenters doubted the veracity of the reports as Sun Yang and the Chinese Swimming Association have so far been silent.

The topic of Sun’s return had more than three million reads on Weibo.

The Chinese National Swimming Championships and Tokyo Olympic trials will take place in Qingdao from April 30 to May 8.

01:35

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Sun, who won gold in the 400m and 1,500m in London in 2012, is eligible to swim as he awaits a new hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

That hearing is set for May 24 with a new panel of arbitrators. Sun had been handed an eight-year ban by the CAS last February following a November, 2019, public hearing.

Tokyo Olympics 2020: new Sun Yang hearing set for May 24-28, says sports court

The verdict was overturned last December on appeal with the Swiss Federal Tribunal sending the case back to the CAS.

Sun may yet be able to swim at the Tokyo Olympics this summer, which begin on July 23, where he could defend his 200m freestyle gold from Rio 2016.

He has not swam since the 2019 world championships in South Korea that July.

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