As more details regarding Australian swimmer Shayna Jack‘s positive doping test unfolds, her St. Peters Western coach Dean Boxall and Olympic and World Championships medalist Mack Horton have offered up his comments on the situation.
For a refresher, here is the timeline on the freestyle ace’s doping situation:
- June 26th – Date of the doping test.
- July 14th – Via her personal Instagram account, Jack announces her shock withdrawal from the World Championships, despite having traveled and practicing with the Aussie squad at their staging camp.
- July 27th – Again via her personal Instagram account, Jack, reveals her positive doing test, but does not explain the substance involved, nor the fact that both the A and B samples were positive.
- July 27th – Swimming Australia releases an official comment on Jack, but does not disclose the substance involved. CEO Leigh Russell stated, “under the specific legislation governing Australia‘s drug-testing regime, Swimming Australia is notified of any adverse test result as is WADA and FINA. Under the process, all details are required to remain confidential until ASADA has completed its investigations, the athlete is afforded due process and an outcome determined.”
- July 28th – Jack announces via Instagram that she tested positive for Ligandrol. Also known as selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM) LGD-4033, was originally developed for the treatment of muscle wasting conditions such as aging, osteoporosis, muscular dystrophy and cancer, is promoted as a selective non-steroidal anabolic agent. (Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority).
- July 28th – Former ASADA head Richard Ings questions the handling of informing the public by Swimming Australia, saying “If Swimming Australia is suggesting that their anti-doping policy, approved by ASADA, forbids them from announcing the Jack provisional suspension, they are wrong.”
- Aussie Head Coach Jacco Verhaeren also speaks, saying, “We are not trying to cover anything up. We don’t play a game. She’s [Jack] not here [in Gwangju] and it shows that the Australian system works.”
The Sydney Morning Herald has published comments from Jack’s St. Peters Western coach Dean Boxall, who says he was informed of the positive test at the very same time as Jack.
“I was called into the room when she was informed. I walked into a very distraught girl. I’ve never seen someone that upset, which of course made me very upset,” Boxall said.
Per SMH, Jack did not want the test result to be made public for fear it would unsettle fellow swimmers at the world titles, which meant Boxall and the select few staff that knew had to keep it secret.
“Of course it’s been difficult because you are trying to prepare your athletes for a world championship. And my athletes have swum pretty well here. I certainly hadn’t told anybody, not even my wife,” Boxall said.
“You could probably call it a burden. But we did the best thing, that was part of the process. Shayna wanted that as well. I thought we stuck to our guns and did a great job for the team.
“They are a pretty professional group. They knew they had a job to do. That was our whole primary focus over the past five weeks since trials. Everybody did their job, now that it’s come out, people are feeling saddened.
“We absolutely didn’t talk about it.”
“I’ve been in contact with her all the time. The girl is devastated. I’m devastated. I love my athletes. It’s about relationships. I support Shayna, I support Swimming Australia and I certainly support our stance on zero tolerance for drug cheating.
“So does Shayna. That’s why she left immediately. We followed the process. It was put in place and it was performed.
“She’s going to fight and we are going to fight with her and Swimming Australia is going to fight with her. I believe in Shayna. I believe strongly her story. I know my athlete. This is a very, very sad story. We’ve got to go through the process and respect it and we trust it.
“I believe it will all be finished (Jack will be cleared). Absolutely.”
As for Jack’s Australian teammate Mack Horton, who visibly displayed his dismay over doping in swimming via his refusal to stand on the 400m free podium on night 1, he told Seven News:
“I was disappointed to learn late yesterday that a fellow Dolphins team member had recently returned a positive A sample,” Horton said.
“I applaud the decision to immediately withdraw the athlete in question from further competition until this matter is resolved.
“My position remains firm — clean sport must be a priority for all athletes, all sports and all nations.”
Mack’s response shows that what he did to Sun was all personal and calculated. He didn’t call this lady a drug cheat; his saying “until this matter is resolved” means he’s giving her a benefit of doubt (a genuine mistake could happen). Why didn’t he extend that to Sun, given the facts that (1) the drug he was tested positive for, Trimetazidine, is not really a stimulant (a modulator of cardiac metabolism instead), (2) his team said it was taken for medical purpose for his heart condition (3) he was ruled that he didn’t intend to cheat (you don’t cheat with a substance that doesn’t really help you), (4) Trimetazidine was only put on the list 3 months prior to… Read more »
hi Mack, if you are so firm about what you believe, why don’t you withdraw your team? It is not clean. You are with them the wholetime.
Artificially Jacked
thanks for the information and advice
Why didn’t her coach know what supplements his athlete was taking. Did Swimming Australia know what she was taking. If not why not! National sporting bodies should know exactly what supplements their elite swimmers are taking at all times and the brands cleared for safe use. If not then her coach and SAL are lacking in their duty of care.
She said the same thing as Ben Johnson did in 1988 Olympic
Can we get a comment from Prince Chalmers?
On closing ceremony, Mack Horton SHALL walk way way ahead or way way behind the Aussie team to show how much he really meant for it.
Supplements. If I were betting, that’d be my take.
Maybe taking something she thought was legal – like protein powder, etc. – and it contained ligandrol as an unlisted ingredient. Don’t know how supplements are regulated in Oz but it’s a dog’s breakfast here in Canada. They’re not covered on Health Canada rules; they’re considered food not drugs so the laws about what exactly is in them – and what manufacturers have to tell you is in them – is far looser.
Don’t take supplements!! Under any circumstances!!!
Not unless you’re in a jurisdiction where those supplements are regulated as medicine.Because if they’e not medicine, there will be no consistency batch to batch; there doesn’t have to be… Read more »
At this point, your surmisal tallies up with mine; supplements.
I can agree that if that is the case, this is an “inadvertent” but realistically this can only be a mitigating factor not a defence. Sportspeople in this day and age receive education on these matters and to take particular care with regards to OTC meds and supplements.
Carelessness, even if not intentional, still leaves you liable ……. barring some procedural failures on ASADA’s part, its hard to see her getting off/escaping sanctions and in all honesty, nor should she.
“Carelessness, even if not intentional, still leaves you liable”
Yep.
Determining the degree of carelessness is what the different sanctions are about. The term “ban” is a misnomer in this day and age. The correct termonology now is sanction. It is all about the degree of carelessness, should it be unintentional, in taking the prohibitive substance.
Yes my guess is a supplement too. Which is very frustrating since ASADA put out a release earlier this year warning athletes that some supplements had been found to contain ligandrole.
The AUS team did what they could – not sure they could have handled the horrible situation much better given the circumstances. In any case there is no place in the sport for drug-cheats.
The only carelessness here was Shayna forgetting to cycle off Ligandrol early enough before competition
Oh please, we get it! You’re all in on Sun Yang. His 2014 defense was he didn’t know it was on the ban list. For any other athlete ignorance is not an excuse. For that matter read the Code published by WADA and recently updated. Ask Ryan Lochte! 3 months < 14 months
Lol the whole “it was a tainted supplement” excuse has been around forever and is never what actually happened.
Josh: It happened (with proof) to Kicker Vencill and Madisyn Cox. I’m sure there are more I don’t even know about. Now I am with you that the excuse is more common than the actual trained supplement, but who knows.
Its not a case of a tainted supplement but rather the fact that this substance can be found in a number of freely available OTC (over the counter) supplements by major brands in ANY retail pharmacy in AUS. Jack should have known better than to take ANY such item without getting it ‘cleared”.
“Proof”. I assume you don’t realize that once these people pop they go out and find some potential supplement to blame? So yes, while technically possible, I highly doubt most cases, even those that are supposedly ‘cleared’ are actually due to tainted supplements.
They have to declare everything they have taken previously on their doping form before they are even administered a drug test. Can’t just go “find a supplement to blame.” Cox and Vencill has been taking theirs for years and declares them on every form for every drug test they had taken.
You’re wrong. Athletes are aware of deliberately ‘tainted’ batches of supplements.
And unless it has changed you don’t have to ‘declare’ anything. After getting busted you produce batch numbers
Well it’s not like that anymore. Everything they take has to be declared on every doping form. And then any product that has tested positive for any contamination is then put on Supplement 411 and published. Athletes have to check everything against this and declare everything prior to any doping test.
What type of athlete do you deal with?
Where are you from and what sports are you talking about? In the US and other places they have data bases for every tainted supplement to date so “deliberately tainted batches” have been identified and they are updated with every proven contamination case. In your scenario the only people getting hit with the doping offense would be the first person tested. Everyone thereafter should know better. Not a very economical idea to any supplement manufacturer. Every elite athlete that I know in the WADA testing pool has to declare anything they take before the test.
JRED: see below. Didn’t know how to edit!
“Athletes are deliberately aware of tainted batches”
That is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read. So what you’re saying is the supplement calls each user when it’s messed up 😂 yeah I don’t think so
So when a whole lot number of a supplement, vitamin, antibiotic or OTC med comes up contaminated by an independent lab with the exact same amount and type of a variant your saying it didn’t really happen?
The unfair advantage is dependent on the type of drug and the amount of contamination.
In the US Supplements, vitamins or OTC medications are regulated differently. They are regulated retroactively. They do not test prior to manufacturing or claims how they do prescriptions but they are all held to the standard and label which they claim. I.E. if something is in the supplement that is not on the label are they liable for that misrepretation,The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act. For any prescription medicine they are required to pass FDA pre-approval.That being said we have had instances of generic prescription medications being contaminated. For any Supplement they are required to pass any standard based on their claims and their ingredient list. Failure to list an ingredient is against the law and subject to fines… Read more »
BTW I love “it’s a dog’s breakfast!” May have to copy that and reinsert it to American phraseology!