Sun Yang's Australian coach, Dennis Cotterell has quit after the disgraced swimmer was banned for eight years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Sun was last week slapped with a whopping eight year ban which will effectively end his competitive swimming career.
The Chinese star has already initiated an appeal process, which Cotterell does not support.
"I have terminated my contract with (the) Chinese Swimming Association," Cotterell told The Sunday Telegraph.
MORE: Sun Yang's mum's wild social media accusation
It's a huge move from the highly respected Cotterell, who has consistently defended his star pupil's doping record.
As recently as last year, when the controversy around Sun was at its height, Cotterell was a vocal backer.
"What is the definition of a drug cheat? Someone who has failed a test? By that definition, they have got drug cheats on the Australian team," he told The Australia.
"I have been on teams where people have failed a drug test, accidentally and through no fault of their own.
"I would never call them cheats.
"It seems to be very hypocritical.”
The fallout looks set to continue, with Sun appealing the ban. His lawyer released a wild statement days after the decision handed down by CAS.
“February 28, 2020 was a dark day," the statement said.
"It shows the scene where evil defeats justice and power replaces self-evident truths.
“On this day, CAS listened to prejudice, turned a blind eye to rules and procedures, turned a blind eye to facts and evidence, and accepted all lies and false evidence.”
Shortly afterwards, Sun's mum, Ming Yang, issued a statement of her own, saying the Chinese Swimming Association tried to cover up an earlier failed test.
In the deleted social media post, Yang confirms the long-held rumour that CSA covered up the results when her son tested positive for the heart booster trimetazidine.
She said the cover up was undertaken to allow Sun to compete in that year's Asian Games and not have his results affected.
“If we report this offence in the way we left it, it will not be approved," Ming's social media post read, according to Swimming World Magazine.
"Now the Asian Games are over, your result will not be affected and the final outcome in this case will not be announced to the public either.
"We can say that the penalty was for three months sometime between May and October.”
