Report: Drug-tainted Jack faces 4-year ban
Australian swimmer Shayna Jack has been notified that she faces a four-year suspension after testing positive for a banned drug, unless she can prove her innocence, a report said yesterday.
Jack, part of Australia鈥檚 4x100-meter freestyle team that set a world record last year, tested positive for the banned drug Ligandrol, which helps build muscle mass, out of competition late last month.
The Daily Telegraph said the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority had told Jack she will receive a four-year suspension, the standard penalty for athletes who test positive for anabolic agents. The 20-year-old will be able to contest the sanction as part of normal processes.
Jack returned home days before the world championships in South Korea, citing 鈥減ersonal reasons.鈥 On Sunday she strenuously denied intentionally taking the banned substance, which she intimated could be found in contaminated supplements.
Swimming Australia head coach Jacco Verhaeren, who arrived back in Brisbane from the meet yesterday, said he believed Jack could 鈥渄efinitely鈥 bounce back from the doping scandal.
鈥淭here are cases where the athlete鈥檚 name is cleared and it was all a mistake or contamination or whatever it was. And sure they come back from that,鈥 he said.
The revelation has proved a huge embarrassment for Australian swimming, coming after Olympic champion Mack Horton鈥檚 high-profile protest against Chinese rival Sun Yang at the world championships in Gwangju.
Horton refused to share a podium with Sun, who was cleared of wrongdoing after being accused of smashing vials of blood following a test last year, a decision that is the subject of a World Anti-Doping Agency appeal 鈥 to be heard in September.
Australia鈥檚 newspapers have plastered the story across both their back and front pages, while the social media backlash has been swift, with the swimmer being inundated by trolls calling for her to be banned and denouncing her as a 鈥渉ypocrite.鈥
Her manager Phil Stoneman said on Monday that the 20-year-old did not ingest the drug via supplement tablets and was now examining her diet.
鈥淚t could be meat, it could be mushrooms, it could be anything. It could be something in a bottle,鈥 he told national broadcaster ABC.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit of jigsaw puzzle as to how this has come into her system.鈥
The Australian team was only told of her positive result on Saturday, with Horton later calling the revelations 鈥渄isappointing.鈥
Chinese state media has hit out at the Australian swimmers, accusing the team of 鈥渦tter hypocrisy.鈥
Xinhua news agency did not hold back in its criticism. A strongly worded English commentary also accused Swimming Australia of a 鈥渃over-up鈥 over the Jack case.
鈥淏y lying to the public regarding the Jack case, Swimming Australia has lost every ounce of credibility in its defense of Mack Horton鈥檚 podium stunt aimed at Sun Yang,鈥 the commentary said.
鈥淪wimming Australia is not interested in due process, nor is it interested in protecting clean sport,鈥 it added.
Horton received an ovation from fellow swimmers at the athletes鈥 dining hall for his protest, which was echoed by Britain鈥檚 Duncan Scott. Sun, who served a suspension in 2014, has always denied doping.
Xinhua accused Horton, 23, of 鈥渟elective outrage鈥 and being an 鈥渙pportunist,鈥 intent only on getting one over an opponent.
鈥淗e should stop pretending that protecting clean sport is his intention. Horton is fooling nobody,鈥 Xinhua said.
Many similar opinions were voiced on Chinese social media.
鈥淭hose who call others liars are in truth the liars themselves,鈥 was one typical post on Weibo.
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