Smashing vials - just normal!

Time for a bit of visualisation - Imagine yourself as an elite athlete. You've had a blood test as part of your participation in the anti-doping programme. You then decide the tester has imperfect accreditation so you decide to smash the blood vials with a hammer. How's your imagination going right now - can you imagine yourself doing this? As the Court of Arbitration for sport neatly state "it is one thing, having provided a blood sample, to question the accreditation of the testing personnel while keeping the intact samples in the possession of the testing authorities; it is quite another thing, after lengthy exchanges and warnings as to the consequences, to act in such a way that results in destroying the sample containers, thereby eliminating any chance of testing the sample at a later stage". You can stop visualising now!

There's something unsettling about this story [go to https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1091172/sun-yang-banned-for-eight-years]

I'm sure we all know the backs troy to this athlete's past behaviour. He's been offside with a lot of his opponents, he's another example of what appears as "the distinctly entitles young man syndrome" (DEYMS - it might catch on!). But even then .... he knew the rules, he knew what he was doing, he knew there would be consequences: he'd been banned before for doping. We should have no sympathy for the Sun Yang's of this world. They bring it on themselves.

Swimming World has a very good backgrounder to Sun Yang that's worth a read here

(photo source: 7News.com.au)