World Swimming Championships: Shayna Jack worried Australia’s tough anti-drug stance won’t help her case

Shayna Jack knows she is in for the fight of her life as she strives to prove her innocence after a positive drugs test, especially in the wake of Mack Horton’s brave podium stand against Sun Yang.

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Shayna Jack is terrified that she will cop the backlash for Mack Horton’s podium protests against Sun Yang after it was revealed she had returned an adverse doping sample.

Jack is maintaining she did nothing wrong and has no idea why the test — taken during a training camp in Cairns late last month — came back positive but fears she will be judged harshly because of Australia’s outspoken anti-drugs stance.

“She’s vulnerable, she’s devastated,” Jack’s manager Phil Stoneman said.

“She supports Mack in his situation, she certainly understands his position but she feels that she’s now going to be tarnished with somebody else and she’s done absolutely nothing wrong.”

Shayna Jack is devastated after the test result.

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The news that Jack’s withdrawal from the Australian team before the world championships was related to doping confirms what many of the sport’s insiders suspected all along, given the mysterious timing of her sudden withdrawal.

A key member of the relay teams that went on to win two gold medals, she said she was going for “personal reasons” and Swimming Australia, coaches and team members insisted they had no idea why.

It was only on Saturday when the news was broken by The Sunday Telegraph that Swimming Australia came clean and revealed that they had known about the test so ordered her to go home — painting the Australians as hypocritical after Horton’s finger-pointing at Sun.

Stoneman said Jack decided not to go public with her test result because she was worried it would impact on the performances of her teammates.

“She would have liked to have come out with this but she would have preferred to have waited in relation to the announcement because she didn’t want to take away from the achievements of the team,” he said.

“She supports Mack in his situation, she certainly understand her position but she feels that she’s now going to be tarnished with somebody else and she’s done absolutely nothing wrong.

Mack Horton makes his now famous drugs stance.

“She’s not a drug taker, she’s not a cheat and she never has been and now she’s going to be accused of something she hasn’t done.”

Australia’s coaches would not comment on the explosive news about Jack but former Olympic gold medallist Giaan Rooney admitted it wasn’t a good look for Australia in light of the ugly demonstrations of the past week.

“I feel sick hearing this news,” she said.

“I honestly don’t believe Shayna took anything knowingly (her trajectory has been steady throughout her career) but I also understand how that sounds given this weeks extraordinary events at the World Champs …”

Cate Campbell said she had no knowledge of the failed test before Saturday night.

“All I knew was that it was a personal matter and we were respecting her privacy,’’ Campbell said.

Cate Campbell said she was in the dark over the test result until the story broke.

“We have to respect the process. We stand for clean sport. The fact that Shayna isn’t here at the moment strengthens that stance. Full processes will need to be followed. Once more information comes to light we can pass judgment. At the moment, the Australian team stands for clean sport.

“Unfortunately, that is why Shayna is not with us.”

The critics who have accused Australians of hypocrisy for questioning swimmers from other countries but then going silent whenever an Australian gets busted, will be pointing the finger at everyone in the team now.

Jack’s regular training partners include newly crowned world champion Ariarne Titmus, who pulled off one of the biggest upsets in years when she beat American superstar Katie Ledecky for gold in the 400m freestyle final.

They train together at the St Peters Swimming club in Brisbane, under Dean Boxall.

Speaking before her win over Ledecky, Titmus said she had been in contact with Jack and her withdrawal was a “shock”.

“Shayna’s fine. I’ve been talking to her a little but no-one really knows what happened, it’s a personal thing and she had to go home,” Titmus said.

“Everyone’s here to do a job, do their own thing, obviously it was a bit of a shock but you’ve got to think about why you’re here and having someone leave when you race, even if she’s a friend.”