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Barring a successful appeal, multiple Olympic
and world champion Sun's competitive career was brought to an
end by Friday's decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
After publicly calling him a cheat at the Rio Olympics, Horton
had refused to shake Sun's hand or join him on the podium after
taking silver behind his Chinese rival in the 400 meters
freestyle at last year's world championships in South Korea.
"I think, regardless of the outcome, it was always going to be a
statement to the world and my stance has always been about clean
sport never about nations or individuals," Horton told
Australia's Seven News as he headed to training on Saturday.
"I’m just a guy still chasing the dream so, you know, we've got
a job to do this morning and we'll just keep going."
Fulfilling that dream of winning Olympic gold in the 400m
freestyle in Tokyo later this year will be considerably easier
for Horton after Sun's ban.
CAS had accepted an appeal from the World Anti-Doping Agency
(WADA) against a decision by swimming body FINA to clear Sun of
wrongdoing for smashing vials containing blood samples during an
out-of-competition test in 2018.Sun, 28, said through China's
state news agency Xinhua that he would appeal the ban in the
Swiss Federal Supreme Court.
While Horton was already experiencing the start of a backlash
from angry Sun fans on social media, some of his fellow swimmers
welcomed the ban.
South African butterfly specialist Chad Le Clos, who finished
second behind Sun in the 200m freestyle at the Rio Games, said
it should not be forgotten that cheating had an impact on other
athletes.
"Like many other clean swimmers, I have raced against Sun Yang
and 'lost'," he posted on Twitter.
"Drug cheats have no place in sport and we need the governing
bodies to reconsider the damage he has done to our great sport -
and to the results / careers of many other clean swimmers."
Sun, whose punishment was so severe because he had served a
previous ban for the use of a banned substance in 2014, will
keep his many medals because the tests before and after his
latest infraction were negative, CAS said.
British Olympic and world 100m breaststroke champion Adam Peaty
said the decision was "very good".
"For anyone that's been banned once, potentially it’s a mistake.
The odds are yeah – you could have taken any supplement or
whatever," he told Swimming World.
"You’re looking at it twice – you’re a fool. I believe that
you’re disrespecting the sport, you’re disrespecting yourself
and you’re disrespecting your country."
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Stephen Coates)
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