Aussie swimmer Shayna Jack has offered a bizarre defence for her positive drug test, laying out the toll the nightmare scenario has taken on her. Photo / Getty Images
Aussie swimmer Shayna Jack has offered a bizarre defence for her positive drug test, laying out the toll the nightmare scenario has taken on her. Photo / Getty Images
Australian swimmer Shayna Jack is relying on a "kiss cocaine case" to prove her innocence, claiming she unknowingly came in contact with a banned substance.
The Australian sporting landscape was rocked by the announcement Jack had returned a positive test for the substance Ligandrol in July.
After withdrawing from theFINA World Championships in mysterious circumstances, it was confirmed Jack had tested positive for the banned substance on July 27th.
Ligandrol, also known as or LGD 4033, is a black market muscle-builder known to improve your appearance without the unwanted side effects experienced with steroid use.
There had been eight previous sanctions for the drug's consumption since 2017.
In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Project, Jack spoke about the surprising commonality of the Ligandrol drug, which is a banned substance for professional athletes.
Shayna Jack revealed she is banned from training outside the hours of 7am-3pm. Photo / Getty Images
"The more you look into it, and the more you speak to people about it, the more you find out that it's actually everywhere," Jack said.
"I had a lot of people come forward and tell me they take this drug — general people who go to the gym. Some people were using it as a recovery. People informed me they took it as a drop."
Jack was notified she would receive a four-year suspension unless she could prove her innocence, an experience she found "traumatic".
The 21-year-old never denied that the drug was found in her system, but rather questioned how it got there. She cited a past case, known as the "kiss cocaine case", to demonstrate the ease of contamination.
"There was a case in the past called the kiss cocaine case … someone had taken cocaine and the partner who was an athlete kissed that person and they were contaminated," Jack said.
"I was being told that anything I come in contact with, within that period, could have been a risk of the contamination.
"There's a chance of it being in a contaminated supplement."
Jack faced intense media backlash when her positive result was leaked earlier this year.
Friends and family were concerned about Jack's mental wellbeing during the aftermath — she received multiple death threats and struggled to cope with her fractured emotional state.
"I wasn't ready for the rollercoaster that was yet to come in regards to media," Jack said.
Jack faced a mammoth international media backlash for her positive test result. Photo / Getty Images
"I wasn't watching the news. The only reason I knew (about the media leak) was because someone had gone on to my Instagram and commented, 'You're a drug cheat and you should kill yourself.'
"I just lost control of all my emotions, and I haven't had much control of my emotions since that day."
Australian swimmer Mack Horton defiantly refused to stand alongside suspected doper Sun Yang during the FINA World Championships, and was made to look foolish when the news of Jack's alleged doping broke.
Horton copped a barrage of scathing backlash for the infamous protest, especially from the Chinese media, many accusing the swimmer of hypocrisy.
Jack claimed she was unaware Horton was enduring any backlash himself, as her focus was primarily on her own mental state.
"I didn't know in regards to how bad his backlash was — I was going through my own experience of social media criticism," Jack said.
"I have never been bullied or harassed as much as I have been since that day."
Jack admitted she has not spoken to Horton since the FINA World Championships, but would be open to meeting with her former teammate to clear the air.
"Mack made a decision in that time and I respect the fact he stood up for clean sport because I have always stood up for clean sport." Jack said.
"Mack and I are teammates and he is still family to me as he's a part of the swimming community.
"I would love to talk to him, but he's still preparing himself for an Olympics next year and I've got a completely different challenge ahead of me."
The scandal has not only affected Jack's mental state — the 21-year-old is paying her own legal fees, as her parents are not in a position to support her financially.
"We're hoping to receive an infraction letter from ASADA (Australian Sports Anti-doping Authority) within the next couple of weeks and then after that we're hoping to move forward and hopefully start to go to court and prove my innocence," Jack said.
"I'm 21-years-old and paying for a lawyer, a barrister, testing fees. It's more than what my parents could pay, so I did take all of the hit."
Despite everything, Jack is hopeful of qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. She was a gold medallist during the 2019 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, but has never competed in an Olympic Games.
"My dream has always been the Olympics, whether that be Tokyo or another four years time. I deserve to be standing behind those blocks wearing the green and gold and I will be back," Jack said.
"That dream is not gone. That dream will never disappear. I will keep fighting for it."
