Sun Yang

He finished 32nd in the 400 metre freestyle and 23rd in the 800 metre freestyle.

He finished 2nd in the 400 metre freestyle with a time of 3:49.34.

Sun Yang (Mandarin pronunciation: ; born 1 December 1991) is a Chinese Olympic and world-record-holding competitive swimmer.

Sun was born on 1 December 1991 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

He was named after his parents' surnames.

Sun is an only child, and his family is athletic.

His father, Sun Quanhong (孙全洪), was a basketball player for Anhui Tigong.

His mother, Yang Ming (杨明), was a volleyball player for Zhejiang and is a sports coach.

Sun started swimming in 1998, and his potential was recognised by a teacher at Jinglun Sports School in Hangzhou.

Sun made his international debut at the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia.

In early 2008, he competed at the "Good Luck Beijing" China Open, a test event for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Sun rebounded the following year at the 2009 World Championships, where he won his first international medal, a bronze, in the 1500 metre freestyle with a time of 14:46.84.

Sun achieved further success during the 2010 Asian Games.

He won gold medals in the 1500 metre freestyle and the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay, and silver medals in the 200 metre and 400 metre freestyle.

His 1500-metre freestyle time of 14:35.43 was a new Asian record and the second-fastest time in history, behind Grant Hackett, whose record Sun would surpass the following year.

Sun was subsequently named Rookie of the Year at the 2010 China Central Television (CCTV) Sports Awards.

On the first day of competition at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, Sun came 2nd in the 400 metre freestyle with a time of 3:43.24, 1.2 seconds behind South Korean Park Tae-hwan.

Three days later, Sun won his first World Championship title in the 800 metre freestyle with a time of 7:38.57.

After a day of rest, he swam the anchor leg in the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay, helping the Chinese team win bronze.

The last day of competition, Sun competed in the 1500 metre freestyle.

He won the race with a time of 14:34.14, ten seconds ahead of the rest of the competition.

At age 19, Sun beat Hackett's world record of 14:34.56, which had stood for ten years.

This was the longest-held world record in swimming and the only men's swimming world record not to have been beaten during the techsuit era.

In 2012, Sun became the first Chinese athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in men's swimming.

Sun is the first male swimmer in history to earn Olympic and World Championship gold medals at every freestyle distance from 200 to 1500 metres.

A three-time Olympic gold medalist and eleven-time world champion, he is the most decorated Chinese swimmer in history.

For the 2012 Summer Olympics, Sun was considered a favourite in the 400 metre and 1500 metre freestyle, as well as a contender in the 200 metre freestyle.

In his first event, the 400 metre freestyle, he won the gold medal with a time of 3:40.14, breaking the Olympic record previously held by Ian Thorpe and becoming the first Chinese male swimmer to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

His time was also the third fastest in history, 0.07 seconds away from the world record, and setting a new Asian record.

At the Olympics, Sun, aged 16, finished 28th in the 400 metre freestyle, unable to reach the final.

He later came 7th in the qualifying heats of the 1500 metre freestyle, reaching the final, where he finished last.

In 2017, NBC Sports described him as "arguably the greatest freestyle swimmer of all time".

In September 2018, Sun was involved in an incident during an out-of-competition anti-doping test at his home, where he destroyed his own blood sample after a doping control assistant (DCA) could not provide appropriate accreditations, verifying his identity and whether the test was authorized.

The DCA was later confirmed to be a construction worker.

FINA sided with Sun over the incident and concluded that he did not commit an anti-doping rule violation for not submitting himself to the test.

CAS also ruled that Sun would not officially lose any of his medals because "doping tests performed on the Athlete shortly before and after the aborted doping control in September 2018 were negative" and that "in the absence of any evidence that the Athlete may have engaged in doping activity since 4 September 2018, including on the occasion of the FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea in July 2019, the results achieved by the Athlete in the period prior to the CAS award being issued should not be disqualified".

On 22 June 2021, after the retrial of the case, the CAS upheld the ban but reduced the suspension time to 4 years and three months.

He finished 18th in the 400 metre freestyle with a time of 3:47.51.

On 28 February 2020, Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) delivered its findings, overturning FINA's decision and banning Sun for eight years for tampering with the doping control process.

Some analysts opined that the trial was marred by severe translation problems, conflict of interest, bias and an "absence of evidence" around doping activity.