FINA attached an "additional article" to its Code of Conduct that makes it "impossible for swimmers to stage a Mack Horton-type protest" in any competition without "running the risk of incurring a sanction," which could extend to being "stripped of their medal." Barely an hour after Duncan Scott refused to shake hands with Sun Yang at the medal ceremony for the 200m freestyle, the FINA Bureau "emailed the punitive addition to all national federation presidents and secretary generals." The additional clause "brings FINA into line" with the IOC’s rules banning protests or offensive behavior. Australian team officials "declined to discuss" the new clause (THE AUSTRALIAN, 7/25).
There was a feeling at the '16 Rio Games that the "athlete revolt against doping had reached a tipping point." Horton and Lilly King, with their "brash public rebukes" of China's Sun Yang and Russia's Yulia Efimova, became the "faces of a frustrated competing cohort." Three years later, that hostility has "reached new levels of animosity." None of FINA's leaders "have been available" for interviews in Gwangju as the event "catches fire around them." There is a perception among other swimmers that Sun "remains a protected species within the sport and a teacher's pet among the FINA hierarchy" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 7/24).
The podium protests this week have "kept the spotlight shining brightly on the doping concerns that have roiled the sport" (WASHINGTON POST, 7/23). A doping cloud "has long hung over" swimming and this week, "it finally burst." Every sport "needs a villain, and in swimming, a sneering Sun seems content to be that person" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/23).
