Olympic champ Shayna Jack breaks down on camera over drug scandal

Olympic swimming champ Shayna Jack has broken down while discussing the drug scandal that almost ended her career.

Olympic swimming champ Shayna Jack breaks down while discussing the drug scandal that almost ended her career, in this exclusive preview clip from tonight’s episode of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!

Jack was one of 11 celebrities to enter the African jungle during Sunday’s premiere – tonight they’ll be joined by one more as-yet-unnamed celeb. And in emotional scenes that play out on air, Paris Olympics gold medallist Jack opened up about the 24-month ban she copped from her sport in 2019.

She was barred for competing for two long years, for an anti-doping rule violation relating to her unintentional use of the anabolic agent Ligandrol.

The resulting court case put her under intense emotional and financial strain, as she spent $180,000 trying to prove her innocence.

Shayna Jack has an emotional moment on I'm A Celeb.

Jack broke down as she told her campmates that at her lowest moments, her longtime partner, Kookaburras hockey player Joel Rintala, was afraid to leave her at home alone for fear she might hurt herself.

“Some nights I was in a bad place. He said those nights were the most fearful. He said he’d speed home because he just didn’t know if he was going to walk home into something that he wasn’t able to cope with. [If] I’d done something that I would eternally regret,” she said.

Jack also broke down in the show’s to-camera confessional booth, the Tok Tokkie, as she explained why it felt important to be upfront with her new campmates about her backstory.

Jack said that at her lowest point, partner Joel Rintala was afraid to leave her at home alone for fear she might do something she regretted. Picture: Hannah Photography

“It’s using the people around me to continue to open up about it and face those difficulties and stop giving it so much power,” she said of the scandal that turned her public image from top athlete to figure of notoriety.

“I feel like the more I take it off my chest and take it off my heart, the more I can try to move forward with my life and not feel this huge aspect of my life pulling me back,” she continued.

Jack is one of several professional athletes on this year’s season of I’m A Celeb, in a cast that includes several reality stars, a couple of comedians, a 90s TV presenter and a two-time Big Brother winner.

I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! continues tonight at 7.30pm on 10 and 10 Play.

Originally published as Olympic champ Shayna Jack breaks down on camera over drug scandal