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Jonathan White

Sun Yang’s Court of Abritration for Sport hearing last November was the subject of debate on the video channel of The Beijing News on Sunday.
The newspaper interviewed Chinese sports lawyer Cai Guo, sports reporter Wang Qinbo and Jeffrey Benz, a US sports lawyer who regularly works as an arbitrator at CAS, for the “Case Observation” show.
Cai argued that triple Olympic champion Sun should have pleaded guilty and faced a possible two-year ban, instead of the eight-year ban he was given, while Benz questioned Sun’s decision to request a public hearing.
“Having been in plenty of hearings, it always tends to look like making sausages and making sausages is not a pretty process to watch,” he said via video call.

Chinese sports lawyer Cai Guo, Chinese sports reporter Wang Qinbo and US sports lawyer (and CAS arbitrator) Jeffrey Benz looked back on the Sun Yang public hearing in a video interview with Beijing News. pic.twitter.com/2BvAWnNsUp
— Jonathan White (@jmawhite) April 13, 2020

Translation issues dogged the opening of the hearing with the initial translator, appointed by Sun’s team, relieved of her duties.
“It seems to me that somehow Nixon and Kissinger successfully met with Zhou Enlai and Mao back in 1972 and there must be good interpreters available between English and Mandarin, and he chose these people,” Benz said.


While Benz spoke of his familiarity with Richard Young, who represented the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) at CAS in its appeal against Sun and swimming governing body Fina, he noted that he was less familiar with Sun’s counsel, Ian Meakin.
“He’s one of a handful of lawyers where you would really say, ‘wow, that person is really the anti-doping guru in the world’. Rich is the one who is widely credited with drafting the world anti-doping code. You know I tend to get used a fair amount with CAS and I don’t know Ian Meakin.”
The show’s guests ranked the overall performance of Sun, with sports reporter Wang giving him 7.5 out of 10. Benz took issue with this in his own ranking.

“Unfortunately, I can’t go lower than a zero, but I’d have to give them a one.”
The guests also ranked the performance of Sun’s mother, Yang Ming, who testified. Both lawyers were critical with Benz offering a score of two out of 10. Dr Han Zhaoqi, from Zhejiang College of Sports, was ranked as the best of Sun’s witnesses, with seven from Benz and six from Cai.
Benz also pointed to the inconsistency in Sun’s testimony – where he contested the safety of untrained testers – and his behaviour at the hearing, where he called a translator from the public gallery for his closing statement, a move Benz described as “wild and crazy”.

“Here is an athlete who says I am so worried for my own security, who is this person taking pictures of me while they’re collecting urine and blood, yet they had security at the venue of some kind, and he calls this guy up from the audience and says, ‘Hey, sit down here next to me and be my voice’ without any appreciation of the rules. It was strange. The panel called this out in its decision in paragraph 358 of the award.
“So the panel saying he showed even at the hearing he has no respect for the rules, and then they go on and say, ‘The athlete is a world-class athlete with an impressive list of sporting achievements, he is not however above the law or legal process. The rules apply to him as they do to all athletes and he is required to comply with them.’ That sums up the whole case right there. That is it.”
Sun’s final statement was a missed opportunity in Benz’s eyes – and unusual enough for the panel to note, aside from the impromptu translator.


“That last statement was 15 to 20 minutes of lost opportunity and, in fact, he even turned it around. I have never seen an athlete, actually, go that badly for them. The panels never actually note in the award anything bad in the closing statements, but this one was so outrageous in terms of what he chose to do, and this just shows he has no respect for anything. He has no respect for the rules of sport, or the tribunal or anything. He just does what he wants.”
Sun wasted his own time and that of the panel, Benz said, while failing to come across as a human being.
“This was his chance to talk as a human being about the case and what it meant to him – ‘Maybe I screwed up. I don’t know, That’s why we’re here. We have a difference of opinion about this. But at the end of the day this is going to ruin my career. It’s gonna take me out of the Olympic Games. And I guess at the end it falls on me as the person who made all the decisions’ – That speech would say he is a human being.”
No word on Sun Yang appeal but Olympics delay raises hopes
Sun was banned for eight years by CAS on February 28 and the date for his appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal passed last month without confirmation that the promised appeal had been lodged.
The coronavirus pandemic adds further questions around any appeal and the possibility of Sun appearing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games which have been postponed until July 23-August 8, 2021.
Chinese media have reported that Sun, who has been silent on social media since March 2 and has made no public appearances since the verdict, is training for the Olympics with the national team.


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Sun Yang

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Sun Yang at the Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing in November 2019. Photo: EPA

epa08254833 (FILE) - China's Sun Yang reacts after Brazil's Joao de Lucca declined to take his hand as he came out of the water after completing a 4X200m freestyle relay heat at the 2019 FINA Championships at Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center in Gwangju, 26 July 2019 (issued 28 February 2020). China's multiple Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang, 28, has been banned from competing for eight years, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced on 28 February 2020 in Lausanne, Switzerland. EPA-EFE/YONHAP SOUTH KOREA OUT *** Local Caption *** 55362894

China's three-time Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang at the 2019 world championships in Gwangju, South Korea. Sun was banned for eight years in a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Friday for breaking anti-doping rules. Photo: Bernd Thissen/dpa

No word on Sun Yang CAS ban appeal but Tokyo 2020 delay raises Olympics hopes

China’s Sun Yang recovers after a 4x200m freestyle relay heat at the 2019 world championships. Photo: EPA

epa08254845 (FILE) - Chinese swimming star Sun Yang (2-L), reacts, as he arrives for the Court of Arbitration for Sport, (CAS) public hearing, in Montreux, Switzerland, 15 November 2019 (issued 28 February 2020). China's multiple Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang, 28, has been banned from competing for eight years for breaking anti-doping rules, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced on 28 February 2020 in Lausanne, Switzerland. EPA-EFE/JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT *** Local Caption *** 55634140

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Could Sun shine again? Photo: DPA

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China’s Sun Yang with Australian coach Denis Cotterell after winning the men’s 1,500m freestyle final at the London 2012 Olympics. Photo: AFP

China's Sun Yang (top C) attends a training session ahead of the 2019 World Championships at Nambu International Aquatics Centre in Gwangju on July 16, 2019. (Photo by Manan VATSYAYANA / AFP)

epa03341513 Yang Sun of China celebrates winning the Men's 1500m Freestyle with a new world record at the London 2012 Olympic Games Swimming competition, London, Britain, 04 August 2012. EPA/DENNIS M. SABANGAN

China's Sun Yang, bottom left, listens to his coach Dennis Cottrell, right, during a training session ahead of swimming competitions at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Tuesday, July 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Sun Yang verdict: Chinese superstar pays price for witness intimidation and media leaks detailed in damning CAS report

Sun Yang celebrates after winning the men’s 400m freestyle gold at the 2019 world championships. Photo: EPA

(200229) -- BEIJING, Feb. 29, 2020 (Xinhua) -- Matthieu Reeb, secretary general of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), announces the court's ruling in Lausanne, Switzerland, Feb. 28, 2020. Chinese Olympic and world swimming champion Sun Yang was handed an eight-year ban as the CAS upheld the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)'s appeal on Friday. (Xinhua/Chen Junxia)

FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 8, 2016 file photo China's Sun Yang celebrates winning the final of the men's 200-meter freestyle during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Chinese swimmer Sun Yang has been banned for eight years for breaking anti-doping rules and will miss the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, July 23, 2019 file photo, gold medalist China's Sun Yang, centre, gestures to Britain's bronze medalists Duncan Scott, left, following the medal ceremony in the men's 200m freestyle final at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea. Chinese swimmer Sun Yang has been banned for eight years for breaking anti-doping rules and will miss the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

Sun Yang CAS doping ban – what happens next with China’s star swimmer’s appeal?

Sun Yang is fully focused before the final of the men’s 200m freestyle at the 2019 world championships in South Korea. Photo: AFP

(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 15, 2019 China's swimming star Sun Yang, accused of smashing a blood vial with a hammer, is seen on a TV screen during a public hearing before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Montreux. - Chinese Olympic swimming champion Sun Yang will learn on February 28, 2020 whether he faces a possible eight-year ban for missing a drug test, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said. (Photo by jean-guy PYTHON / AFP)

Sport

China


Jeffrey Benz questions swimmer’s decision to have a public hearing – ‘It’s like making sausages, not a pretty process to watch’
No word on promised appeal as Chinese media report that Sun is still training for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games



CAS arbitrator Jeffrey Benz questions swimmer’s decision to have a public hearing – ‘It’s like making sausages, not a pretty process to watch’.


Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Asian Games 2018

Sun Yang’s CAS performance ranked ‘one out of 10’ by US sports lawyer

Jeffrey Benz questions swimmer’s decision to have a public hearing – ‘It’s like making sausages, not a pretty process to watch’ No word on promised appeal as Chinese media report that Sun is still training for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Jeffrey Benz questions swimmer’s decision to have a public hearing – ‘It’s like making sausages, not a pretty process to watch’

No word on promised appeal as Chinese media report that Sun is still training for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games