The Swiss Federal Supreme Court Thursday confirmed that it has set aside the arbitral award of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which bans Chinese swimmer Sun Yang for eight years.

The Swiss tribunal said it upheld the multi-Olympic champion's appeal "on the grounds of bias of one of the arbitrators of the CAS."

Sun appealed to the Swiss federal tribunal, his last court of appeal, as the CAS handed him an eight-year ban in February after finding him guilty of refusing to cooperate with sample collectors during a visit to his Hangzhou home in September 2018.

Sources told Xinhua early Thursday Beijing time that the Swiss court has overturned the CAS ruling, which could give Sun a chance to compete at the postponed Tokyo Olympic Games next year.

"In its decision of 22 December 2020, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court approved the request by the Chinese swimmer Sun Yang for revision of the arbitral award of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne dated 28 February 2020 (decision CAS 2019/A/6148) on the grounds of bias of one of the arbitrators of the CAS," the court said in a press release.

"The award of the CAS is set aside. The CAS will have to render a new award in the case of Sun Yang in a different composition of the panel. The reasoning of the judgment of the Federal Supreme Court (4A_318/2020) is not yet available," it said.

Sun's case was first heard by swimming's world governing body FINA, who decided on January 3, 2019, that the swimmer was not guilty of anti-doping rule violations. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) disagreed and appealed the decision to the CAS.

As requested by Sun, the CAS held only its second public hearing in November 2019, which was marred by poor translation. The CAS later was forced to ask all parties to submit a written transcript of proceedings, including a full translation of Sun's testimony.

On getting the news, WADA said it would "present its case robustly again" when the case returns to the CAS panel which will be chaired by a different chairperson to replace Franco Frattini.

"The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has been informed of the decision of the Swiss Federal Tribunal to uphold the revision application filed by Chinese swimmer Sun Yang and to set aside the 20 February 2020 award of a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) Panel," said WADA in a statement.

"The case is in relation to WADA's successful appeal against the original Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) disciplinary panel decision following an incident that led to a doping control involving Sun Yang not being completed as planned," it said.

WADA said it had "clearly prevailed on the substance of the case" in the CAS award.

"...it was able to show that there were a number of aspects of the original FINA decision that were incorrect under the World Anti-Doping Code and the related International Standard for Testing and Investigations."

"WADA will take steps to present its case robustly again when the matter returns to the CAS Panel, which will be chaired by a different president," the statement read.

In WADA's statement, it mentioned the Swiss Federal Tribunal decided to uphold "a challenge against the Chair of the CAS Panel and makes no comment on the substance of this case," which seems to reveal at least part of the reasons for the Swiss court to set aside the CAS ruling.

Then CAS panel chair Frattini informed Sun after the 11-hour hearing in February to be "sure of two things that he has the full right to be heard and is completely respected."

However, Frattini was revealed making racist comments about China on social media. "This yellow face chinese monster smiling while torturing a small dog, deserves the worst of the hell!!!" the CAS Chair tweeted in 2019 in response to an unverified video of an unknown market seller.

Observers have maintained whether Frattini was the right person to chair the Sun Yang case after a string of abusive tweets over a number of years aimed at China.

WADA vice president Yang Yang said the organization will follow the process closely and wait for more details to be released.

"The Swiss Federal Tribunal upheld the challenge of the president of CAS panel, but did not comment on the substance of this case. WADA just received the brief information instead of a full judgement. We are waiting for more details," she said. 

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