Clean or ‘dirty’, Shayna Jack’s fight against ASADA will not come cheap

Australia World

Updated July 31, 2019 17:06:41

Shayna Jack’s positive drug test has dominated headlines, and the controversy does not look like dying down anytime soon.

Jack has revealed she tested positive to Ligandrol, which forced her to withdraw from Australia’s squad for the world swimming championships.

She claims she does not know how the banned substance entered her body.

The 20-year-old is facing a lengthy suspension from swimming and she will learn more about her fate when she meets with the Australian Sport Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) on Friday.

How did Jack find herself in this place?

Swimming Australia confirmed on Saturday night that Jack had failed a routine out-of-competition drug test in late June, just weeks before the world championships began in Gawngju, South Korea.

It was already known Jack had withdrawn from the national squad, although Swimming Australia had initially said it was because of “personal reasons”.

Before Swimming Australia had revealed the truth behind Jack’s withdrawal, the young swimmer took to Instagram to explain why she pulled out.

“It is with great sadness and heartache that I had to leave due to allegations of having a prohibited substance in my system,” Jack wrote.

Jack may not have been a household name before news broke of her positive drug test, but in recent years she has been regarded as one of the rising stars in Australian women’s sprinting.

She helped Australia set a world record in the women’s 4×100 metres freestyle when the relay team won gold at last year’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

What is the length of the ban Jack is facing?

Jack could be issued with a maximum suspension of four years by ASADA, and this is the standard ban given to athletes who test positive for an anabolic agent.

But the length of any potential suspension could be reduced, as former ASADA chief executive Richard Ings pointed out.

“The challenge for Shayna Jack is to prove to a tribunal the source of the prohibited substance and her mitigated fault for how it came to be in her system,” Ings told The Age.

“If her argument is one of contaminated supplements, that has been successfully argued by athletes in the past, but the burdens of proof to achieve significant reductions in sanctions, are very high.”

What happens with ASADA on Friday?

Jack will present evidence to ASADA officials, and it has been reported she will not contest the legitimacy of the drug test but instead aim to prove how she tested positive to Ligandrol.

Her manager, Phil Stoneman, suggested his client would provide a diary of supplements she had taken in an effort to argue she did not knowingly take the banned substance and it might have shown up as a result a contaminated product.

“What she is doing is fighting [to prove] her innocence, because it shouldn’t be in there and she doesn’t know how it got in there,” Stoneman told Macquarie Sports Radio.

How long will ASADA’s investigation last?

We should not expect a decision on Friday, as ASADA investigations are not like an AFL tribunal or NRL judiciary hearing, meaning they are not wrapped up in a matter of minutes or hours.

ASADA has explained it might take some time before Jack learns her fate.

“The time taken to finalise an investigation and complete our legislative process varies but can take several weeks/months due to a range of factors, including affording athletes procedural fairness,” ASADA said in a statement.

Can Jack use ignorance to plead her case?

To put it simply, no.

The anti-doping policy in place for Australian swimmers could not be any clearer, as explained via a series of bullet points on Swimming Australia’s website:

  • You are responsible for knowing what the anti-doping rule violations are
  • You must find out which substances and methods are prohibited
  • Ignorance is no excuse
  • You must be aware of the rules in this anti-doping policy
  • This anti-doping policy adopts the strict liability principle
  • Athletes are responsible for anything found in their system
  • You must be aware of the sanctions that could be applied to you in this anti-doping policy

Both Swimming Australia and ASADA regularly warn swimmers that taking supplements is at their own risk.

“Supplements are one of the leading causes of failed anti-doping tests in Australia, with approximately one athlete testing positive every month,” Swimming Australia said on its website.

“ASADA’s long-standing advice is that no supplement is safe to use and athletes should not risk their careers by taking a supplement.

“This is because many supplements are contaminated with substances prohibited in sport, which may not be listed on ingredient labels.”

If Jack is banned, what does the future hold?

If Jack is slapped with a four-year ban she will be ineligible for selection for next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

The expiry of such a suspension — in 2023 — would also make it an uphill battle for her to qualify for the Paris Olympics the following year.

Even if Jack were able to clear her name, however, she is facing significant emotional and financial costs.

Australia-based human rights lawyer Nikki Dryden, who represented Canada at the Olympics, said Jack’s efforts to prove her innocence would not come cheap.

“The cost to defend herself is going to be huge,” she told the ABC last Saturday.

“She’ll incur debt, whether she is clean or dirty, whereas the swimming federations and ASADA have all of the resources. So it will be a very uneven fight.”

Topics: swimming, sport, brisbane-4000

First posted July 31, 2019 15:30:12