Jack breaks silence on China drugs scandal as further positive cases emerge

Australian swimmer Shayna Jack has declared she won’t let the latest Chinese doping scandal derail her maiden Olympic campaign after news of further positive tests emerged on Saturday morning, raising questions of double standards by world anti-doping agencies.

It came as Australia’s head coach, Rohan Taylor, said athletes would be free to express their opinions on the issue but that he didn’t believe it would be a distraction at the Olympics in Paris.

The sport was rocked by news that three of the 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive to the banned substance trimetazidine before the Tokyo Olympics – but were allowed to compete because the samples were deemed to be “contaminated” and only found in small traces – had also avoided punishment despite testing positive to Clenbuterol several years earlier.

One of those three swimmers, Qin Haiyang, is the world-record holder in the 200m breaststroke and a main rival of Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook.

In a statement, the World Anti-Doping Agency confirmed that the three swimmers had tested positive for “trace amounts” of Clenbuterol, a banned steroid, in 2016 and 2017 through “meat contamination”.

“Clenbuterol, which is a prohibited substance in sport, is used in some countries as a growth promoter for farm animals and, under specific circumstances, can result in a positive sample from an athlete who consumes meat from animals treated in that way,” the statement read.

Shayna Jack competes at the Australian swimming trials. Credit: Getty Images

“Over the years, WADA issued many warnings about this problem that exists in China, Mexico, Guatemala, and other countries. It is a pervasive issue that has resulted in hundreds of positive tests for trace amounts of clenbuterol in the samples of innocent athletes.”

Wang Shun and Yang Junxuan were the other two Chinese swimmers named in a New York Times report as having tested positive. The trio were not publicly identified or suspended at the time but are free to compete at the Paris Olympics, which starts next month.

Despite two positive tests, albeit in small traces, Qin was able to compete at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and burst onto the scene last year when he won three breaststroke gold medals at the world championships in Japan.

Qin beat Stubblety-Cook, the reigning Olympic champion, in the 200m breaststroke and broke the Australian’s world record by 0.47 seconds.

Qin Haiyang celebrates his 2023 world championship win against Australia’s Zac Stubblety-Cook in the men’s 200m breaststroke.Credit: Getty

Wang Shun won gold in the 200m individual medley in Tokyo, while Yang Junxuan was a member of the victorious Chinese 4x200m freestyle relay team.

Jack served a two-year ban after testing positive to Ligandrol in 2019, which deprived her of the chance to compete in Tokyo. Her test results were made public, unlike those of the Chinese swimmers. The decision to release test results is at the discretion of a country’s anti-doping agency.

Swimmers around the world have demanded greater transparency from WADA and voiced concerns ahead of competition in Paris.

Jack has remained silent on the Chinese doping news because she doesn’t want it to impact her preparation for Paris.

“For now, I’m just focusing on my dream and not letting anything crush that,” Jack told this masthead on the final day of Australia’s Olympic and Paralympic trials in Brisbane on Saturday. “To be honest, I’ve tried to put it on the back burner for now.

“My focus has been on the Olympics and getting through the trials and through to the Olympics. I really appreciate there’s been a lot of people who have reached out and wanted to know my thoughts and my opinion, but I’ll definitely be commenting on it after the Olympics.”

Meanwhile, Taylor said external noise wouldn’t affect preparations but admitted he wouldn’t stop swimmers from expressing their opinions like others around the world.

“If they have their own personal opinion, that I’ve got no problems with. They can express that themselves. It’s not for me to talk about that,” Taylor said. “If somebody’s not doing the right thing, we hope the system catches them and that’s basically how we work because our guys get tested all the time too. We’re in the same boat.

“We have to trust that WADA and World Aquatics are going to continue to investigate and that we are aligned with a clean sport. For it to be a distraction, I think it’s probably a waste of energy.”

Stubblety-Cook addressed the China issue last week at a press conference in Brisbane before the trials.

“It does affect me and it affects a lot of other athletes as well, including [members of the Australia’s women’s] 4x200 relay,” Stubblety-Cook said. “For me personally, it’s something I’ve had to kind of go, well, this sucks, but what can I do about it? I have to have faith in the WADA system.”

American anti-doping boss Travis Tygart, who brought down cycling drug cheat Lance Armstrong, was scathing of WADA’s handling of the matter.

“Unbelievable does not seem fitting enough for the NYT report from today about WADA once again allowing China to sweep positive tests under the carpet,” Tygart said in a statement.

Ahead of the US swimming trials next week, American star Lilly King was asked about news of an extra three Chinese positive tests.

“It’s really frustrating for athletes to always have in the back of our mind that maybe this sport’s not fair,” King said. “We put everything on the line. Our privacy, everything that we do to compete on a level playing field. It’s really frustrating to not have faith that others are doing the same thing.”

Contamination positives for Clenbuterol were so common that WADA changed its guidelines in 2019 by raising the threshold for a positive result.

2024 Australian swimming trials; exclusive, live and free on Channel Nine and 9Now. Finals start at 7.30pm AEST each night.

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