Sun Yang to Swim at Chinese Spring National Championships
Sun Yang is set to swim this month at the Chinese Spring National Championships, paving the way for his possible return to the international scene.
Sun, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, confirmed on Chinese social media that he will compete at the meet in Qingdao, Shandong Province, from March 18-23. It’s just his second meet since his four-year doping suspension elapsed last spring.
Sun could qualify at this meet for the national championships, to be held in Shenzhen in May, which build toward both the World Championships in Singapore this summer and November’s National Games, in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau.
Sun, 33, won gold in the men’s 400 freestyle and 1,500 free at the London Games in 2012 and gold in the 2016 Olympics in the 200 free after silver four years prior. He’s an 11-time world champion.
The Hangzhou native as twice been banned for doping – for three months in 2014 for a positive tested for trimetazidine (the drug that showed up in 23 Chinese swimmers in 2021 and was revealed in 2024 to have been cleared by the Chinese anti-doping agency), and for four years in 208. At the latter, he did not comply with an out-of-competition test in 2018, leading to an original eight-year ban that was shortened to four years on appeal but still ruled him out of each of the next two Olympics.
His ban expired in the spring of 2024, though after the cutoff for Chinese athletes to qualify for the Paris Olympics. Sun’s return to competition came last August at the Chinese Summer Championships.
In addition to Worlds in 2025, China will be ramping up for the 2026 Asian Games, to be held in Aichi and Nagoya, Japan.
