Weibo users furious at suggestion swimmer Sun Yang can no longer cut it among world’s best
- In his first race after a 4-year ban, the former world champion won the 400m freestyle in a time 8 seconds slower than the Paris winning time
Weibo users in China have reacted with fury after local media suggested disgraced swimmer Sun Yang could no longer cut it as one of the best in the world.
Sun, 32, won the men’s 400 metres freestyle final at the National Summer Swimming Championships in Hefei on Sunday with a time of 3 minutes and 49.58 seconds, in his first competitive race since the end of his four-year doping ban.
His time was almost 10 seconds slower than the Olympic record time of 3:40.14 that he put up in London 2012, and almost eight seconds slower than the 3:41.78 Germany’s Lukas Martens swam to win gold at the Paris Olympics.
A hashtag highlighting that was viewed more than 52 million times on Monday, with one local media outlet saying Sun “lacks competitiveness internationally”.
One user replied: “If we have the time to analyse these things [his time], why don’t we think about how to deal with foreign media and how to protect our athletes instead of talking this nonsense?”
Another said: “He is not allowed to participate in competitions, not allowed to participate in [national team] training, how can he achieve results so quickly? The golden period of athletes has been missed. Don’t be too harsh on him.
