Sunday Telegraph editorial: Every sports cheat must pay

News that Australian swimmer Shayna Jack has failed a drug test will come as a shock, but the push for drug-free sport shouldn’t get lost in grubby nationalistic tit-for-tat.

• Australia’s swim team rocked by doping scandal

The drug test failed by Shayna Jack could not have come at a worse time for Swimming Australia.

Our swimmers, particularly Mack Horton, will undoubtedly be accused of being hypocritical and that’s something the team will have to manage.

Shayna Jack drug test fail has come at a particularly bad time for Swimming Australia. Picture: Delly Carr

But, whatever the outcome of Jack's follow-up drug test, this should not quieten the fight against doping in sport.

If Jack is proven guilty, then she, like Chinese drug cheat Sun Yang, should bear the brunt of the punishment coming to her.

Shayna Jack (l to r) Bronte Campbell, Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast last year. Picture: Darren England

Drug cheats should be punished equally — no matter which country they represent — and the campaign to encourage swimming administrators to have a consistent and stringent
anti-doping position shouldn’t get lost in a grubby nationalistic tit-for-tat.