Top sports doctor Peter Larkins intrigued as to how Shayna Jack ingested banned drug
A top sports doctor is intrigued by the Shayna Jack case and says there appears to be confusion over whether the banned swimmer took supplements or not.
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Curiosity and confusion remain at the centre of the Shayna Jack doping scandal, according to leading sports physician Dr Peter Larkins.
Jack’s career is hanging by a thread and her Tokyo 2020 dreams all but over after ASADA confirmed on Tuesday she would be hit with the maximum four-year ban after testing positive to anabolic agent Ligandrol.
“I’m really curious to know what the findings will be because she’s in a heap of trouble considering it’s a positive test for ligandrol — it would be the end of her career with four years out,’’ Dr Larkins said.
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“The question is did she know she was taking the supplement.
“There’s some confusion from my point of view because she says she doesn’t take any pills or supplements.
“Then I read a report that she was providing ASADA with a list of supplements she uses.
“My expectation was that it was going to be an inadvertent use where she wasn’t aware it was a component of the product.
“She wouldn’t be taking ligandrol, she would have to be extremely stupid to be taking it as a pure direct bodybuilding agent because that’s what all the bodybuilders and power lifters do but they’re not subject to WADA.
“It’s very easy for you and I to get caffeine and we’re not realising we’re getting it in an energy drink.
“But to get ligandrol in the system positively in an A and B sample, there’s something strange behind this story.”
The onus is now on Jack’s legal team to prove that the drug entered her system without her knowledge, with her lawyers set to argue that the adverse samples were caused by contamination.
“They will clearly seek any explanation possible – they’re now talking about her food in some way being contaminated,’’ Larkins said.
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