Controversial Chinese Swimming Champion Sun Yang Keeps Getting Protested

Highly decorated Chinese swimmer Sun Yang has continued his dominant run at the 2019 World Championships in South Korea, and he has also continued his run of pissing off his opponents. Over the weekend, Australian rival Mack Horton refused to share the podium with Sun after Sun won the 400-meter freestyle because of Sun’s murky doping history, and another swimmer joined him yesterday.

Sun won the 200-meter freestyle race yesterday, and British swimmer Duncan Scott, who finished in a tie for third, also protested at his medal ceremony and refused to be photographed with the event winner. This time, however, Sun barked back and called Scott a loser.

Scott was unperturbed, and he said he hoped more people would continue to protest Sun at future events. “I’m team Mack,” he said. “If he can’t respect our sport, then why should I respect him? I think a lot of people, everyone in swimming, got behind what Mack did.” Other Olympic medalists, like Lilly King and Dawn Fraser, have also called out Sun for being allowed to continue racing after an odd incident with drug testers last September that ended with Sun’s bodyguards destroying vials of blood.

Sun’s case will be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in September, and he faces a possible lifetime ban. I hope they let him race at the Tokyo Olympics and continue talking shit to people who can’t beat him.