Truth Under Water (13)
Nonfacts that influence WADA v. Sun Yang
False translation by IDTM’s DCO — addition
IDTM Doping Control Officer (“DCO”) Yang made false translation to the supplementary report of Blood Collection Assistant (“BCA”) Lin (the “Lin Report”). Yang’s alteration and deletion of the Lin Report, as discussed before, could be defended as correction of Lin’s misrepresentations, arguably an honest mistake by Yang. Nonetheless, the addtion by Yang to the Lin Report for the purpose of covering up her own false statement was an intentional false translation.
Need some background information to appereciate Yang’s addition in the transaltion. One dispute in the case was around the torn-up Doping Control Form (DCF), which records all information with respect to the associated doping control, including athlete’s personal information, notification procedure, collected samples information, athlete’s comment and so on.
Sun Yang’s narrative was that when the sample collection was done, he saw the DCF lying on the table, so he tore up the form containing his personal information. DCO Yang’s story was different: Sun rushed to her, took away the paper DCF from her file folder with force and tore it up.
The translated version of the Lin Report seemed endorsing Yang’s account, but a comparison of the translation and the original Chinese text shows something fishy (see below).
Chinese version (translated correctly):
The athlete was very angry. [He] stood up and immediately tore up the paper Doping Control Form.
English version (with addition):
Athlete burst into anger and sized the [Doping Control Form] from DCO’s file folder and tore it up.
— Original and translated Lin Report, 2018.09.07, 2:3 & 3:13.
Yang’s translation added in the plot of Sun seizing DCF from Yang’s file folder, which did not exist in Lin’s original report, in order to support the misrepresentation in her own supplementary report (see below).
The Mr. Sun Yang rushed to my side, opened my file folder quickly and tore up the DCF with his signature into pieces.
— Supplementary Report of Yang, 2018.09.07, 3:34.
It was a very successful trick, until a tiny detail at the CAS public hearing was picked up by some ready mind. Sun’s mother took a piece of paper to demonstrate that her son never grabbed the DCF from DCO’s file folder and that he just tore up the form in front of him (see below).
[DCF] was then lying in front of Sun Yang. And there was no file folder at all, just a piece of paper.
— Video of Public Hearing, 2019.11.15, Part 3 at 00:46:58.
Notice that Sun’s mother mentioned that the torn-up DCF was a one-sheet document. It was also the description by DCO Yang of the DCF (see below).
Sun’s Counsel: You testified that the athlete tore up a form with his signature. That was the Doping Control Form. Is it correct?
DCO Yang: Yes. He tore up a sheet of paper DCF, with his signatures on it.
— Yang Rehearing Testimony, 2022.05.25, 16:11.
“A sheet of paper DCF” sounds awkward in English, but DCO Yang testified in Chinese at the rehearing. In the Chinese context, “a sheet of form” refers to a form composed of just one piece of paper. Therefore, according to the testimonies of Sun’s mother and DCO Yang, the torn-up DCF had only one sheet of paper.
Nevertheless, according to WADA’s DCO Training Tool Kit Manual (“DCO Manual”), the DCF is not a one-sheet form, but a five-page document consisting of one original and four copies — Notification Copy, Athlete Copy, Lab Copy A and Lab Copy B, respectively (see below).
It is safe to conclude that Sun Yang did not destory the five-page DCF, but only tore up the Notification Copy, which is required by the DCO Manual to give to the athlete once notification has done.
If what Sun tore up was just a Notification Copy at his disposal, it becomes clear why DCO Yang fabricated the “file-folder” story — there is only a sheet of Notification Copy in front of Sun; if he does not grab other copies from the fild folder, how could he tear up the whole DCF?
But, why did Yang frame Sun of tearing up the whole DCF? Because the DCF was entirely destroyed, not by Sun but by Yang herself, according to the email to FINA on the next day by Yang’s supervisor Tudor Popa (see below).
After hours of arguments and so on, they finally managed to open the sealed tubes and recover the samples, and the DCO teared apart the paper DCF.
— Popa email to FINA, 2018.09.05
Enough on DCO Yang’s false translation. Next move to the collaboration by IDTM employees, current and former, to cook up the supposedly-independent witness statements.
