Truth Under Water (12)
Nonfacts that influence WADA v. Sun Yang
False translation by IDTM’s DCO — deletion
The International Standard for Testing and Investigations required that blood collection comply with local laws and standards (see below). The doping control on 4 September 2018 conducted by the sample collection authority IDTM (“Mission”) took place in China.
Under Chinese laws, venipuncture blood collection is a regulated nurse activity. China’s Administrative Measuers on Nurse Practice Registration provide that regulated nurse activities can only be engaged by a nurse holding a Nurse Practice License (see below).
IDTM’s own protocols also require its Blood Collection Assistant (“BCA”) to carry qualification for blood collection and present it upon request (see below).
BCO/BCA Health Card/Certificate — The BCO/BCA must carry this with her/him to verify that she/he is a qualifed blood drawer and should be shown upon the athlete’s request.
— Johannesson Report, 2018.11.09, 3:21
Therefore, BCA Lin should have carried and presented her Nurse Practice License during the Mission, but she did not.
In her supplementary report (“Lin Report”) produced during the FINA proceedings, Lin stated that Sun Yang’s doctor Ba Zhen deemed her unqualified because she could not show the Nurse Practice License he asked for. But at the rehearing proceedings, Lin tesitifed that nobody asked her for the Nurse Practice License and nobody denied her qualification (see below).
Sun Yang’s Counsel: …whether you had shown anybody, or shown the athlete in particular, the photograph of your Nurse Practice License kept in your phone?
BCA Lin: I did not show anybody that image from my cellphone, because on the night in question nobody asked to see my Nurse Practice License…Nobody claimed that I was unqualifed.
— Transcript of Rehearing Testimony, 2021.05.25, 97:3–97:14.
Lin’s testimony at the rehearing was directly contradictory to her prior written statement, with regard to whehter there was anybody asking for her Nurse Practice License and questioning her qualification. Why did not the arbitral panel notice this conspicuous inconsistency? The answer is simple but shocking: none of the panelists understood Chinese, so they had to rely on the translated version of the Lin Report, but the translation was far from faithful (see below).
Chinese version (translated correctly):
The doctor said that I did not have authorization and my certificate was invalid. He asked me to show him the Nurse Practice License…then, the doctor claimed that I was not qualified.
English version (with deletion):
The doctor said I am not an authorized officer with a nurse certificate…Doctor verified that I am not an authorized BCO.
— Original and translated Lin Report, 2018.09.07, 1:23 & 2:43
Obviously, in translating Lin’s report, the Doping Control Officer Yang not only replaced the concept of “unqualifed blood drawer” to “unauthorized sample collection personnel,” but also deleted the original statement that Sun Yang’s doctor asked to examine BCA Lin’s Nurse Practice License.
Yang’s false translation effectively concealed the contradiction between Lin’s written statemetn and her oral testimony. Most likely it was an intentional coverup, but not as nasty as Yang’s additioin to the Lin Report — making up stuff in the translation to endorse her own misrepresentation.
