Swim coach calls for review of doping cases after Jack’s ‘nightmare’ finally ends

Australia’s head swimming coach has urged anti-doping authorities for a faster way to resolve disputed cases after Shayna Jack’s drawn out dispute was finally resolved.

NAGAOKA, JAPAN - JULY 12: Shayna Jack during the Australian Dolphins team training camp at Niigata Prefectural Nagaoka Indoor Swimming Pool on July 12, 2019 in Nagaoka, Japan. (Photo by Delly Carr/Getty Images)

Australia’s head swimming coach has urged anti-doping authorities to come up with a faster way to resolve disputed cases after Shayna Jack’s drawn out dispute was finally resolved after almost two and a half years.

Jack was finally cleared to resume her swimming career after the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed an appeal to restore her original four-year ban after she succeeded in getting it reduced to two years.

Shayna Jack during the Australian Dolphins team training camp at Niigata Prefectural Nagaoka Indoor Swimming Pool. Picture: Getty Images

The arbitrators at two different hearings both found that the Australian had not knowingly taken the anabolic agent ligandrol after tiny traces of the banned substances were found in her system.

She still copped a two-year ban because she was unable to prove how she was contaminated but it was the long drawn-out legal proceedings that everyone agrees needs shortening.

“From the outside looking in, it does seem unnecessarily long,” Australia’s head swimming coach Rohan Taylor said.

“Of course you always want an outcome that is fair and equitable for everybody but I think it‘d be better for everybody if things were done a lot faster.

“I‘d like to understand why it couldn’t happen. There must be a way where they can use the same rigour and get the right outcome, but just make it quicker, for everyone’s sake.”

The news that Jack has formally been cleared to resume racing has been applauded by everyone in the Australian team, still beaming after the astonishing performances at the Tokyo Olympics.

Past and present swimmers, from countries all around the world, have sent personal notes of congratulations to Jack on her social media accounts while her teammate and double Olympic gold medallist Ariarne Titmus said she was also relieved it was finally over.

“It is great news, Shayna’s had such a long case, and it would have been such a slog, going through that it would have been tough,” Titmus told Triple M in Hobart.

“I remember when it first started, which I think was two years ago, I’m really glad that’s all over and she can really get back in the water and do her thing.”

Dean Boxall, who coaches both Jack and Titmus, said the ordeal could make Jack an even better swimmer than she was before.

“There was a sense of relief and I could just hear the determination in her voice like it’s over and let’s get on with the job,” Boxall told Channel 7.

“For what she’s been through, these hills look a little bit flatter, she’s going to be tough.”

One of Australia’s top freestyle sprinters, Jack has little time to waste as she begins her comeback with the national trials just seven months away to decide the teams for next year’s world championships and Commonwealth Games.

“I‘m really looking forward to seeing what she can come back and do,” Taylor said.

“We fully respect the process and CAS‘s decision but just from a human level, I’m just really happy for her that she can move forward.”