"Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sun's appeal process has been postponed. According to his agents, they are waiting for further notice from Switzerland to finish the appeal," said Feng.

"Since returning to Hangzhou in late February, Sun only rested for a single day before resuming training. It's impossible for him to stop right away as he's been training for decades. And he still won't give up. As long as there's a little chance, he'll do his best to return."

As the poster boy of Chinese swimming for over a decade, Sun's troubles have been a hot topic on Chinese social media, with news of his supposed Team China return viewed over 800 million times by Thursday afternoon.

Despite denying this week's speculation, the CSA continues to back Sun's appeal process.

"Hiring unprofessional and ineligible employees to conduct samples during testing, the doping control procedure was illegal and invalid," read a February CSA statement.

"We fully support Sun in safeguarding his legal rights. In the meantime, we hope WADA, all sports governing bodies and all doping-control agencies improve their respective protocols while strictly following the rules of personnel qualification and certification."