Unfair fight has Shayna Jack in corner as swimmer searches for plausible case to put to ASADA

The storm surrounding the positive drug test of Australian swimmer Shayna Jack has obscured the one fact that may determine the length of her ban.

The essential question in the Shayna Jack positive drug test remains unanswered: what levels of the banned substance ligandrol were detected in her positive test.

A minuscule amount would not necessarily save her from the maximum four-year sentence. The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority would also have to weigh up the possibility that she might deliberately have limited her dosage in an attempt to avoid detection.

But a large dosage would indicate that she is doomed and can expect nothing else but the full measure of the anti-doping laws.

Jack emerged from a five-hour meeting with ASADA officials in a grimly determined mood to fight these drug charges with every fibre of her being.

The difficulty will be in matching her actions to her fighting words. This is not a fair fight she is engaged in.

There is no presumption of innocence, she must prove it.

Jack has been found guilty of failing a drug test, both A and B samples, and even if she manages to establish that a contaminated supplement caused her to test positive, the reality is that she will still be punished — though not as severely — because ultimately she is responsible for everything she puts into her mouth.

Though Jack has engaged a high-level sports lawyer Paul Horvath — perhaps better-known for getting Richmond players off on visits to the AFL Tribunal than for fighting drug bans — she herself will play a pivotal role in establishing whether a plausible case can be put to ASADA.

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She will need to go through her diaries, her log book and her memories with a fine tooth comb, searching for any clue as to what caused her to fail the June 26 drug test taken in the pre-world championship training camp in Cairns.

The good news is, however, that ligandrol has a limited lifespan when it comes to detection, so she may need to backtrack only a week or so from that date.

A four-year ban, which she understandably is doing everything possible to escape, would be almost a death sentence for her swimming career, despite the fact that she is only 20.

Australian swimmer Shayna Jack has the weight of the world on her shoulders.

It would wipe her out for next year’s Tokyo Olympics and would only enable her to return to the mainstream swimming system a year out from the 2024 Paris Olympics.

It would be a phenomenal feat if she was able to qualify for those Games with the lack of international competition. Which leaves the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, when she would be 29.

If, in fact, she knowingly ingested that non-steroidal anabolic agent, then she deserves all she gets. But if — and this is the scenario every single member of the Dolphins subscribes to — she tested positive because of a moment’s inattention, then it is as cruel a blow as anyone in the sport has ever faced.

One wonders what on earth she and ASADA officials were talking about for just under five hours, but happily she did have one happy outcome on Friday — she mended her bridges with Swimming Australia.

Shayna Jack (left) and mother Pauline leave the ASADA briefing.

A confident Shayna Jack addresses the media throng late on Friday.

Asked if the national governing body of the sport had gagged her, Jack put the record straight. “To be completely honest, Swimming Australia has been nothing but completely supportive of me and we have been a unit through the whole process and every decision has been made together and we are very happy with every decision that has been made,” she said.

“We were a unit and it was a team effort the whole time and they have been nothing but supportive.”

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Swimming Australia is very aware that a young swimmer is having to deal with issues that are completely beyond her experience, which perhaps explains why it pointed her in the direction of Horvath and gave her access to counselling.

If she is to get through this harrowing time intact, she does not need to be fighting a war on two fronts, ASADA on one side, Swimming Australia on the other.

Jack’s answer accords with everything that Australian journalists covering the world titles were told in Gwangju, that she had wanted to keep her positive drug test quiet until after the meet to avoid further disruption to the team.

Shayna Jack with sports lawyer Paul Horvath and mum Pauline in Brisbane.

There was no cover-up. Swimming Australia was obliged by the terms of its agreement with ASADA to stay silent, while Jack, too, had vowed to stay mum.

Which has led many inside Australian swimming to ponder where the leak came from.

More and more, they keep coming back to swimming’s world governing body, FINA, which had most to gain by embarrassing Australia, especially in the wake of the Mack Horton protests.

It has also become clear that calls for the sacking of Swimming Australia chief executive Leigh Russell and president John Bertrand are way beyond the pale.

Bertrand was in Spain during the world championships, attending the birth of a grandchild — a trip that had been long planned.

As for Russell, if the Swimming Australia boss is to be punished for adhering to her own organisation’s rules for dealing with positive drug tests — rules that predated her appointment — then what has Australian sport become?

And that wasn’t the only criticism of her that was manifestly unfair.