Amid the back and forth banter between South African Chad Le Clos and American Michael Phelps, another swimming smack talk battle is brewing between Italian distance ace Gregorio Paltrinieri and World Record Holder Sun Yang from China.
Paltrinieri wound up on top of the 2014 world rankings in his signature 1500m freestyle event with his 14:39.93 gold medal-winning time at last year’s European Championships, while Sun Yang ended last year with the 4th-fastest mark in the event from his performance at the 2014 Asian Games, putting both athletes in play to take the World Championship title in Kazan.
Headed into the 2015 FINA World Championships, however, Sun’s doping cloud continued to follow the 23-year-old into the meet. The Chinese swimmer was banned for 3 months in the summer of 2014 due to a positive doping test at last year’s Chinese National Championships. Of the case, while in Kazan, Sun responded to the media with, “For the doping cases, I don’t know why the media paid so much attention to this. The world media seems to think that whenever the Chinese get a good result, we are doping. We are training and working hard, just like athletes in countries all over the world.”
Sun Yang went on to beat Paltrinieri in the 800m freestyle final in Kazan, just out-touching the Italian by less than a second. Sun won in 7:39.96 to Paltrinieri’s time of 7:40.81. But Paltrinieri had his vengeance at least in the heats of the men’s 1500m freestyle, where he came out of prelims with the leading time of 14:51.04, while Sun nabbed the 3rd seed in his mark of 14:55.11, setting up a potentially thrilling head-to-head showdown for the final.
But, swim enthusiasts around the world were robbed of the opportunity to see the athletes grind out a grueling 1500m side-by-side, as Sun Yang shockingly didn’t appear for the final. His camp would later attribute the abrupt no-show to a heart problem.
Reflecting on the entire ordeal, Paltrinieri now is wary to think his Chinese rival will even enter the 1500m freestyle event at the 2016 Olympic Games. “It would be great if for once I could really race him stroke for stroke. I’m not afraid of a showdown with him. In fact I would relish that,” Paltrinieri said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
But, the Italian clearly states the caveat, “But I’ve also got to realize that he might not enter. I’ve got to keep the option open in my mind that if he doesn’t race I’m going to be the favorite in an Olympic final and all eyes are going to be on me just like everyone was watching Sun Yang before.”
Paltrinieri was just 17 years old at the London Olympic Games, yet finished 5th in the 1500m event against a stacked field, which included gold medalist Sun Yang, Canada’s Ryan Cochrane, and Tunisia’s Ous Mellouli.
Specifically regarding Sun’s pulling out of the 1500m final unexpectedly in Kazan, “It could have been that he was ill. I’m not doubting that. But he was definitely tense and nervous. I had finished this close to him in the 800 [signaling inches with his hands]. And in the 1500m heats I had beat him by a lot. So I think he just wasn’t so sure anymore that he could win the 1,500. And that must have been a factor.”
“I still don’t understand what happened and I don’t think we ever will,” said Stefano Morini, Paltrinieri’s coach.
Completely agree with Ferb, it’s difficult to determine what has and is going on in China and other countries with the same background, all too easy to judge when we have no idea what exactly is going on. Not so much with Sun, as there appears to be more information, but with youngsters, who knows what regime they could be subjected too.
So, Sun fails a doping test and gets suspended, and anyone who ever brings it up again does so only out of racism? It sounds like he has taken a page out of Al Sharpton’s playbook. Unfortunately for the Chinese athletes who are clean, there is a history of systematic doping by Team China that won’t soon be forgotten.
And I get annoyed when athletes imply that doping and training hard are mutually exclusive. It’s true that top athletes who dope train just as hard as anyone else, maybe even harder, because many forms of doping allow them to recover more quickly. I don’t think anyone doubts that the East German cheaters of the 1970’s trained very hard. Training… Read more »
I want to clarify that I consider the young East German athletes who were doped unknowingly to be victims, not cheaters.
Sorry! It’s 14 minutes, NOT 15.
This race will be definitely one of the most interesting. There can be four swimmers under 15:40 (Sun Yang, Paltrinieri, Horton and Jaeger), if not more. Earning a medal will be harder than ever. I think that the only one who can make 15:30-15:33 is the chinese superstar as he proved in London, so he is the favourite in my view.
sun yang,s stroke is effortless and he could win against paltrinieri but paltrinieri is improving too.
“Wasn’t so sure he could win the 1500” he’s the world record holder and only 23 his best time is 8 seconds faster than what Gregorio went, he’s undefeated in the 1500 since Rome. I’m 100% sure he would have won and knew he could have won. But I guess we will have to wait for Rio for Yang to crush him and prove why he’s the world record holder.
So much dislikes from one comment. Probably from the same people who were upset when Chad le Clos talked smack to another world record holder Michael Phelps
Not really the same thing. Sun Yang is a confirmed doper, that needs a banned medication to help his heart function properly during a 1500m race. It’s almost comical.