Australian swimmer Shayna Jack to fight for her dream in ASADA hearing

Aussie swimmer Shayna Jack remains defiant that she will fight for her dream and prove her innocence after a marathon ASADA hearing.

Under siege Australian swimmer Shayna Jack has insisted she will fight to clear her name, no matter the cost, after a marathon four-and-a-half hour hearing with ASADA in Brisbane today.

The 20-year-old freestyle sprinter, who tested positive to the banned substance Ligandrol during an Australian swim camp ahead of the World Championships in South Korea, is facing four years on the sidelines if found guilty of the doping charge, but was defiant as she faced the media.

“I’m not going to stop until I prove my innocence and will fight to get myself back in the pool because that is my dream and I am not going to let that go,” Jack told reporters.

She also said she had no idea how the banned substance got into her system but that the issue was still being investigated.

“We’re still looking into it but we are not going to leave any stone unturned.”

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Jack also played down a reported rift with governing body Swimming Australia, despite earlier reports that she had wanted to come forward with the positive sooner but was told to keep quiet.

Swimming Australia CEO Leigh Russell had on Sunday put the onus for the positive squarely on Jack’s shoulders.

“I do think that people can make mistakes, and seemingly and inadvertently be taking things,” Russell said at the time.

“It stands to reason that from time to time you are going to get people who have potentially not realised that something is on the list.

“But it doesn’t matter, it is their fault.”

The controversy came after Australian Olympic gold medallist Mack Horton’s podium protest against Chinese swimmer Sun Yang at the world titles — news of Jack’s test broke some days later.

Jack though maintained she is in step with the governing body, despite those reports.

“Swimming Australia has been nothing but supportive of me, and we have been a unit through the whole process, every decision we have made has been together and we are very happy with every decision we made,” she said this afternoon.

That line of questioning was then cut off by her representative.

The next step in the process will come when she is notified by ASADA in four to six weeks via a letter.

Earlier today the swimmer cut a broken figure as she walked in between her mum, Pauline, and lawyer on her way into the hearing.

As the cameras flashed and the questions flew in, Jack remained tight-lipped.

Shayna Jack arrives. Picture: Annette Dew

She offered no comment. Picture: Annette Dew

Shayna Jack with her mother, Pauline. (AAP Image/Darren England)

The emotion on her face was stark. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

Today’s meeting was expected to provide further details behind the swimmer’s positive test and reveal just how much Ligandrol was found in her system after both her A and B samples tested positive for the banned substance.

Jack was expected to present her diary as a key piece of evidence which lists all supplements she’s taken recently.

When asked if Jack has a dietary diary to present to ASADA her manager Phil Stoneman told Macquarie Sports Radio “that’s exactly what they’ll do.”

Shayna Jack is now inside the ASADA briefing, not answering questions on the way in, looking close to tears pic.twitter.com/UwJC6JZ2y2

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He went on to say Jack will not contest the legitimacy of the tests that discovered the Ligandrol in her system, but will instead be pressing her innocence on the basis of being at a loss as to how the drug entered her body.

“I don’t think this is a question of Shayna denying there is something in her body,” he said.

“What she is doing is fighting her innocence because it shouldn’t be in there and she doesn’t know how it got in there.”

Shayna Jack. (Photo by Delly Carr/Getty Images)

Jack hadn’t spoken since releasing a statement via her Instagram account four days ago.

Former CEO of ASADA Richard Ings said the press conference could make for “uncomfortable viewing”, and it did.

“If Shayna Jack is going to do an all in presser then it will make uncomfortable viewing. And it will have been made worse by delaying the inevitable presser weeks while this story festered. Swimming Australia should have advised her to go public immediately,” Ings tweeted.

As she prepares to learn her fate, World Anti-Doping Authority founding president Dick Pound has called out Australian swimming’s contrasting responses to Jack’s positive test and its protest against China’s Sun Yang.

Jack and her mother Pauline arrive at the hearing. Picture: Tertius Pickard / AFP

“There has been a rather strange distinction between Australia’s reaction to Sun Yang and to your own swimmer,” Pound told Nine newspapers.

“Australia should make it clear that they are as upset about one of their swimmers being caught for doping as they would be if the swimmer was Chinese.

“Australia has always been pretty firm about its opposition to doping but if the sauce is good for the goose it has to be good for the gander.

“If you are going to be holier than thou you should come to the discussion with clean hands.”

READ: The ‘dream’ drug behind Jack’s downfall

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Jack was notified she had returned a positive test prior to the World Swimming Championships before her B sample also returned positive on July 19.

Swimming Australia CEO Leigh Russell stated the governing body was unable to go public with the news of the provisional sample unless ASADA or Jack did so first.

That position has been backed by senior Australian swimmers Cate and Bronte Campbell, Mitch Larkin, Jess Hansen and Alex Graham, who released a statement saying they “do not agree with any suggestion that Swimming Australia has attempted in any way to cover this up”.

“Swimming Australia kept our team informed when they were allowed — under the legislation — to do so,” the Australian swimming leadership group said.

Jack has continued to plead her innocence and has previously stated she did not know she ingested the drug. The swimmer has suggested that she took a tainted supplement and that is how Ligandrol came to be in her system.