Swimming-Chinese swimmer Sun Yang

Born: Dec. 1, 1991 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

Nickname: The Underwater Meteor

EARLY LIFE

* Took up swimming in 1998 in Hangzhou.

* His father represented Anhui Tigong in basketball and his mother was a volleyball player for Zhejiang in China.

* Made international debut at the 2007 Melbourne worlds.

CAREER

Olympic medals: 6 (3 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze)

World championships medals: 16 (11 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze)

Asian Games: 14 (9 gold, 5 silver)

-- World record in 1,500 metres freestyle (14:31.02) set during 2012 London Olympics

* Served a three-month doping suspension in 2014 for taking the stimulant trimetazidine, which he said he took to treat a heart condition.

* Cleared of wrongdoing by swimming's governing body FINA over his conduct during a random drug test in September 2018, but World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against that ruling.

* Competed at last year's world championships in South Korea under the shadow of the appeal. Three rivals snubbed him after races, by either refusing to shake his hand or join him on the podium.

* His defence against allegations of anti-doping violations was affected by translation problems during the opening stages of a public CAS hearing in November.

* CAS said on Friday it accepted the appeal from WADA against the decision by FINA and issued an eight-year ban. (Compiled by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru Editing by Toby Davis)