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Sun Yang conducts pre-match adaptation training.

From August 25 to 28, Beijing time, the 2024 National Summer Swimming Championships will be held in Hefei, Anhui. This event is the first national swimming event after the Paris Olympics. Although many national team players who participated in the Paris Olympics will miss this event, because of Sun Yang's comeback debut, this event is unprecedentedly popular, and all tickets for Sun Yang's competition day have been sold out. In this event, Sun Yang will represent the Zhejiang team in the men's 400m freestyle competition, which is also his first game after the end of his suspension period.

On August 23, Sun Yang arrived in Hefei with the Zhejiang Swimming Team and conducted a trial training at the competition venue. Sun Yang's last competition dates back to the men's 400m freestyle final of the FINA Champions Swim Series held in Beijing on January 19, 2020, when he won the championship with a time of 3 minutes 44.98 seconds.

It is worth mentioning that in the 2012 London Olympics, Sun Yang broke the Olympic record in the 400m freestyle final with a time of 3 minutes 40.14 seconds, becoming China's first male swimming Olympic champion. This Olympic record still stands today.

According to the schedule, Sun Yang will appear in the men's 400m freestyle preliminaries on the morning of August 25, with a time of 3 minutes 45 seconds. If he advances, he will participate in the final of the event that evening, which will also be Sun Yang's return to the arena after 1,680 days.

In the 400m freestyle event at the Paris Olympics, Chinese athlete Fei Liwei set a personal best, finishing sixth at the Olympics with a time of 3 minutes 44.24 seconds. Another Chinese athlete, Zhang Zhanshuo, swam a time of 3 minutes 46.76 seconds.

Sun Yang's first comeback performance has greatly increased the popularity of the National Summer Swimming Championships.

In June 2021, the International Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that Sun Yang's eight-year ban for refusing an out-of-competition doping test on September 4, 2018 was reduced to four years and three months (calculated from February 28, 2020). Since then, Sun Yang's career in the swimming world has come to an abrupt end.

On May 28 this year, Sun Yang's four-year and three-month suspension ended, marking the restart of his swimming pool career. On the same day, Sun Yang's studio posted a message: "Surpass yourself, swimmers are fearless."

According to the World Anti-Doping Agency regulations, Sun Yang can conduct public training two months before the end of his suspension period.It is reported that starting from March 28, Sun Yang resumed the rhythm of two training sessions a day to prepare for his comeback.

Sun Yang's comeback debut also sold out all the tickets for the day. An insider from the Anhui Provincial Sports Bureau told Da Wan News that the arrival of the star also increased the pressure on security at the competition site, "The General Administration of Sports specifically emphasized that we should improve security measures."

It is understood that there are a total of 499 athletes participating in this competition, mainly young players. Sun Yang, born in December 1991, is the oldest athlete in this event, and the youngest athlete is Anhui team player Zhu Hongjunyi, born in 2013. The two are 22 years apart.

However, for Sun Yang, age is not an obstacle that stops him from moving forward. Sun Yang recently said during a live show: "I will definitely be seen at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao National Games next year, and I will also try my best to show my good side, whether it is my physical condition or my competitive condition, to my fans and swimming fans who support me. In fact, it is also a way to give back to everyone who has cared about me in the past four years."