Sun Yang, China’s controversial swimming star, was banned eight years in a doping case stemming from destroying a drug-test sample with a hammer in September 2018.
Sun, who owns 14 combined Olympic and world titles between the 200m and 1500m freestyles, received the ban from a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling on Friday.
The World Anti-Doping Agency appealed an international swimming federation’s original punishment of a warning but no ban over the hammer incident.
WADA, which sought a ban of two to eight years, said it was satisfied that “justice has been rendered.