20-year-old Australian swimmer Shayna Jack spoke directly to the media for the first time since having tested positive for banned substance Ligandrol.
Jack has been communicating and offering statements via her Instagram account up until this point, but today, she, along with her lawyer (Paul Horvath) and mother, met with the press after an over-four hour meeting with the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA).
Jack states clearly, “I’m not going to stop until I prove my innocence. I’ll fight to get myself back into the pool because that’s my dream.”
The freestyle ace also commented, “Swimming Australia has been nothing but supportive towards me and we have been a unit through the whole process. Every decision we have made has been together, and we are very happy with every decision we have made.”
Horvath commented, “We will leave no stone unturned in preparing her defense to this case.”
He also stated the team expects to receive a letter from ASADA in 4-6 weeks detailing the case against Jack.
The brief press conference can be viewed below, and you can refresh yourself on the entire timeline involving Jack’s positive test and the aftermath at the bottom of this post.
.@ShaynaJack makes a statement in Brisbane following her meeting with Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) representatives. #7NEWS https://t.co/8H97L4yrt2
— 7NEWS Cairns (@7NewsCairns) August 2, 2019
Shayna Jack Timeline:
- 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.”
- July 29th – Jack suspended from ISL pending outcome of anti-doping proceedings.
- August 2nd – Jack, along with her lawyer and mother, attends an over-four meet with ASADA. At a press conference immediately after the meeting, Jack says ‘Swimming Australia has been nothing but supportive’ and that she and SA are ‘a unit’.
- Jack’s lawyer stated that they would be receiving a letter from ASADA in the next 4-6 weeks, but he and the rest of Jack’s team will ‘leave no stone unturned’ in its investigation of what led to Jack’s positive test.
Australia removes athlete who tests positive from competition then allows an appeal process to investigate. China tries to cover up and sends out internet trolls to muddy the waters. Good job Australia.
Any vials or syringes in sight during this interview?
Audio interview here with Shayna Jack’s training group partner, Ariarne Titmus, also coached by Dean Boxall. At the 6:45 mark of the interview, Titmus discusses her own use of supplements in consultation with a nutritionist–says her supplements are “batch tested”. She says the Shayna Jack situation “does kind of make you think about the things you are putting in your body” and says “it’s really tricky, you kind of second-guess things” and “I try to be as careful as I can, so you gotta just do the best you can.”
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/hobart/programs/breakfast/ariarne-titmus-says-teammate-shayna-jack-will-be-ok/11377314
Wow, Titmus admittedly using supps too. She’s a gambler–surprised she is not running as far away from them and as fast as she can after training pal Shayna J got caught in cross-hairs. Goes and does an interview discussing her use of them? Guess Boxall won’t be happy until all his young swimmers test positive and our national program is completely ruined!!
Titmus would only be using the ones that are tested .
You know that all off elite athletes use some kind of supplement, right?
“I didn’t do it. I’m just a patsy.”
An Aussie triathlete has tested positive for EPO
I was going to ask you to provide the name of the guy and some more details on the case, but decided to google it myself. Here’s what I found:
Stephen Thompson, 37, won silver at the event on the Gold Coast in September last year in the 35-39 age group, but will have his achievement wiped after testing positive to EPO.
Artificially Jack’d
There’s a photo on her Instagram of her mixing a sports supplement powder.
And apparently it’s not on the approved list
So…there you go
There you go what? What does a photograph on Instagram prove exactly? Her guilt? Her innocence? How about nothing. She has been found guilty by ASADA. It is now up to her to prove why the banned substance Ligandrol was in her system ‘accidentally’’ and not deliberately. Hint, to knock off a few months of legal fees, it wasn’t in the mushrooms.
Wasn’t a photo on Instagram enough to prove Ryan Lochte guilty?
Did Horton show up to protest?
She didn’t swim at worlds . What don’t you get about that ?
Right, but the failed doping test of Shayna Jack still wrongly went undisclosed until just before World Championships was over. Ridiculous that S. Jack’s own coach was admittedly allowed to participate in that concealment. Hope Australian athletes (and athletes from other major athletic/swimming countries, USA, China, GBR, Russia, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Canada, etc) begin whistleblower efforts on abuse of supplements, inhalers, and TUEs by their teammates or coaches. It is clear that only the athletes can ultimately clean up their sports. Already, Australian paralympic swimmers have come forward to state that fellow para swimmers are misrepresenting their maladies in order to gain competitive advantage. Hopeful that some more transparency will emerge from the Shayna Jack and Sun Yang debacles… Read more »
Para Swimmers are undoubtedly trying to clean up their sport but the administrative bodies always seem to be that one step ahead. Para Swimming is anything but clean unfortunately and Australia, unsurprisingly, are the absolute worst offenders and the best at covering it up.
Shayna Jack doping scandal: Swimming Australia accused of second cover-up
https://www.news.com.au/sport/more-sports/swimming-australia-accused-of-second-coverup-by-some-of-its-own-athletes/news-story/def03bb0bdf786f2b27ae14043273ac6
Horton should protest all doping swimmers, no matter what. You did not get the point.
And Sun’s positive test was in 2014. So every time Jack competes within the next 5 years I’m sure team Australia will be protesting that?
The issue with Sun was that Chinese Swimming Association wasn’t totally forthcoming when the incident occurred. There are some parallels with how Swimming Australia is handling this, and under increased scrutiny due to the timing coinciding with World Championships (as opposed to an off-period for International Competition in a year with no LCM World Champs or Olympics).
KEY WORD HERE: DOUBLE STANDARDS
Sun is still under suspicion from taking a hammer to break some vials that contained his blood testings, Fina cleared him, but WADA was not please with the clearance, this was not 5 years ago. The whole swimming community gave Horton a standing ovation because, they all feel there is some suspicion with Sun.
Jack did not swim, Sun did.
Sorry for the facts.