Lausanne, 10 December 2019 - The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) heard the appeal filed by the
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against the Chinese swimmer Sun Yang and the Fédération
Internationale de Natation (FINA) on Friday, 15 November 2019 during a public hearing held in
Montreux, Switzerland which was also live streamed via the CAS website, giving all interested persons
across the globe the opportunity to follow the proceedings live.
Although the organization and the schedule of the public hearing was to the satisfaction of the
arbitrators and parties’ counsels, some concerns were raised with respect to the quality of the
interpretation of Mr. Yang’s testimony. It must be emphasized that the CAS regulations provide that
if a hearing is to be held, the CAS Panel may allow a party to use a language other than that chosen
for the arbitration, on the condition that such party provides, at its own cost, interpretation into and
from the official language of the arbitration. It is for this reason that, since the language of the
proceedings was English, the parties agreed on a private interpretation service to assist Mr. Yang and
his witnesses. In order to maintain its independence and neutrality, the CAS cannot engage in the hiring
of external interpreters.
The parties are currently preparing an agreed-upon written transcript of the proceedings, including a
full translation of Mr.Yang’s testimony, which the Panel will work from when deliberating and
preparing the Arbitral Award. In view of these circumstances, the Arbitral Award is not expected to
be issued before mid-January 2020.
CAS
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