Boxall says a ‘fearless’ Shayna Jack is ready to make her mark

Dean Boxall believes a hungrier, more resilient Shayna Jack has no ceiling on her potential as she prepares for a long-awaited return to competition after being cleared in her marathon anti-doping fight.

After the lows of 2019, when she tested positive for ligandrol ahead of the FINA World Championships, Jack has been on top of the world since Thursday night when she was told an appeal against a reduction in her four-year doping ban had been dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Coach Dean Boxall reckons the sky’s the limit for Shayna Jack.Credit: Getty Images

With her two-year sanction ending in July, Jack can now move forward without the weight of a potentially career-ending ban on her shoulders. Now she is out to prove to the swimming world - and herself - that she can fulfil the talent that made her a junior star and an athlete on the verge of making a serious mark at the highest level.

Boxall shot to global acclaim as the coach of Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus, with his wild celebrations making him something of a cult figure during the Tokyo Games. In the background, he has been a rock for Jack during her doping ordeal and had been overseeing her return to training at the St Peters Club in Brisbane’s west.

He said she was “elated” that she finally had some clarity and the torrid ordeal had hardened her resolve as a competitor. What used to be mountains, he said, now looked like molehills given the context of the past two years.

“It has finally come to an end,” Boxall said. “That’s two years and three months, it’s been brutal. But she’s come out the other side and she can start to head towards her first Australian trials.

“She’s hungrier, she’s a lot more determined. She’s thick-skinned, she has good body armour on her now. There were just so many delays but when I spoke with her yesterday [Thursday], it was a different girl at the end of the phone.”

Jack has been back in training since early May and it has been a steady start, while Boxall was fully focused on the Tokyo Games and his team of swimmers gearing up for the national trials that were held in June. Now he can turn his attention to Jack as she plots a path back to the green and gold, likely beginning with the Queensland titles in December.

What can she do in the water? Boxall isn’t sure but with sprint mainstays Cate and Bronte Campbell nearing the end of their careers, the time is right for the 22-year-old to find out.

“She’s certainly better than she was two years ago. How good can she be? I don’t know. We just don’t know. When she was younger, she was just a prodigy, she looked like the real deal. Now we get a wiser, stronger, determined Shayna, a girl that is fearless. She wants some revenge in the pool,” Boxall said.

Jack was part of the 4x100m freestyle relay team that won gold and set a world record at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 and regaining her place in that team, which went on to win another Olympic crown, would be a among her top priorities.

The Campbell sisters may be starting their preparations for life after swimming but that doesn’t mean Jack will get a walk-up start to one of the best relay squads in the sport. Emma McKeon is a dominant Olympic 100m freestyle champion, while St Peters clubmates Meg Harris and Mollie O’Callaghan both had coming out parties in Tokyo.

The 4x200m freestyle relay, which claimed Olympic bronze, is similarly stacked. Boxall said the competition she will get from within her own squad would be the ideal measuring stick as she prepares for a competitive return.

“Competition breeds results if you play the game properly, that’s what takes you to the next level. We have to look after her properly, of course, but competition in that training environment is a key,” Boxall said.

“She can move through and understand where she needs to be. Mollie, when she trains well, she’s incredible to watch. There is Arnie there setting the standards in the distance program, young kids coming through as well, so the competition is right in front of her. I’ll probably shed a tear I reckon when I see her up on the blocks again.”

Jack confirmed the state titles in Brisbane would be her first competitive appearance before focusing entirely on trying to crack the World Championships and Commonwealth Games squads in a hectic post-Olympic year for Australia’s elite swimmers.

“I have grown so much as a person over the past two years. More importantly, I know when I stand up on those blocks to race I have had to fight to be there,” Jack said. “There is a fire in my belly, I have a point to prove.”

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