Sun Yang’s coach Denis Cotterell has defended the Chinese Olympic champion from doping accusations and labelled criticism from the Australian team’s swimmers as “hypocritical”.
Rivals have shunned Sun at the world championships in Gwangju, with Briton Duncan Scott snubbing him at the 200 metres freestyle medal ceremony days after Australian Mack Horton refused to share a podium with him after the 400.
Triple Olympic champion Sun was cleared of a doping offence in January but the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is appealing the case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in September.
Australian Cotterell, who has worked on and off with Sun for 11 years, said the implication that he would coach a drug cheat was an “insult”.
“If you think for a second I would be doing that with someone that is a cheat, then people don’t know me,” Cotterell told The Australian newspaper on Thursday.
“What is the definition of a drug cheat? Someone who has failed a test? By that definition, they have got drug cheats on the Australian team.
“I have been on teams where people have failed a drug test, accidentally and through no fault of their own. I would never call them cheats. It seems to be very hypocritical.”
Sun was banned for three months in 2014 after failing a drug test, with the case kept under wraps by world swimming governing body FINA and the Chinese Swimming Association until well after the ban’s expiry.
