Swimming bosses have revealed Australian swimmer Shayna Jack is not the only one to test positive for banned substances.
FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu said two more non-Australian athletes have been caught doping – but did not disclose whether or not they are world champion competitors.
‘There are another two. But we need to finish the case,’ he said in a news conference on the final day of the world championships.
The bombshell comes just as Jack, 20, faces a ban that looks set to shatter her Tokyo Olympics dream after sensationally revealing on social media on Sunday that her B sample had tested positive for a banned substance.
Her coach Dean Boxall addressed the scandal on Tuesday saying he has ‘no idea’ how things went wrong.
Shayna Jack is the latest rising star to be embroiled in a doping scandal, having tested positive to Ligandrol during a routine drug test last month (pictured during a training trip in Phuket)
Jack (left) made her debut for Australia in 2017, winning two silvers in Budapest, but gained further credibility when she swam alongside the Campbell sisters at the Commonwealth Games (pictured) and Tokyo Pan Pacifics in 2018 to secure a team gold medal
‘I have no idea, I can’t give you an answer, sorry, I have no idea,’ he told Sunrise.
‘She’s a 20-year-old girl going through a very, very tough time, and she doesn’t have an answer yet. She just doesn’t know. It’s very difficult.’
Swimming Australia CEO Leigh Russell admits some doping cases may be the result of athletes making a simple mistake.
Russell said some positive drug tests are the result of an athlete slipping up and ingesting something without fully knowing its contents.
‘I do think that people can make mistakes, and seemingly and inadvertently be taking things,’ she said.
FINA exec Cornel Marculescu revealed two more swimmers have tested positive
‘It does take a high level of care and vigilance, they (athletes) are not living like normal human beings.
‘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.’
Critics have taken aim at Swimming Australia after they remained silent when the sprinter was told her A sample had tested positive to a non-steroid anabolic agent popular with bodybuilders – Ligandrol – on July 12.
She was sent home the same day from Australia’s world championships training camp in Japan, citing ‘personal reasons’.
It led to the awkward situation where the few SA officials who knew of Jack’s positive test could only look on silently as Olympic champion Mack Horton launched an anti-doping protest at the world titles in South Korea, completely oblivious of the fact his former teammate had tested positive.
Marculescu also weighed in on Mack Horton’s controversial protest against Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, saying he believes it was ‘probably more a personal issue than a doping issue’.
‘It’s more, “You beat me, I must beat you somehow,”‘ he said, adding that the swimmers may now be regretting their actions.
‘Sometimes we make mistakes.’
Shayna’s coach Dean Boxell addressed the scandal on Tuesday saying he has ‘no idea’ how things went wrong
Horton, 23, copped criticism last week for refusing to stand alongside Yang in a defiant protest against doping at the world championships in South Korea.
Sun narrowly beat Olympic champion Horton to claim his fourth-straight 400m freestyle world title at Sunday’s opening night of the eight-day event.
Horton accepted his silver medal but did not stand on the podium alongside Sun as the Chinese national anthem played – nor did he pose for photographs with his rival.
FINA’s doping panel cleared triple Olympic champion Sun of a doping offence in January but the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is appealing the case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in September.
Sun also served a three-month suspension for doping in 2014.
‘The doping panel is a totally independent body. They decided, you’ve see the decision and reasons,’ Marculescu said.
‘Whatever CAS decides we need to accept.’
Her announcement comes after teammate Mack Horton copped criticism for refusing to stand alongside Chinese swimmer Sun Yang in a defiant protest against doping at the world championships in South Korea