Shayna Jack’s ray of hope: Swimmer who escaped punishment after getting busted for using same drug as Aussie star could be 20-year-old’s way of beating ban
- Shayna Jack could potentially use a loophole that was successfully used in 2018
- Japanese swimmer Junya Koga said his positive drug sample was ‘contaminated’
- He then had his maximum four year ban halved by Olympic Committee FINA
- Jack is hoping to use the same argument as she faces same four year ban
Shayna Jack could potentially escape severe punishment for doping by using a loophole that let a Japanese swimmer off the hook last year.
The 20-year-old freestyler plans to appeal her charge by saying her sample, which tested positive to a muscle-growing drug Ligandrol in Cairns in August had been caused by a contaminated supplement.
The same defense was used last year by Japanese swimmer Junya Koga, who had his four-year suspension sentence halved after he said he didn’t knowingly take the drug, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
Queensland freestyler Shayna Jack, 20, (pictured left) will be arguing that her sample which tested positive to the muscle-building drug Ligandrol was ‘unknowingly’ ingested
While the loophole may serve as a lifeline to Jack, she will still have to rely on FINA and whether they can come to an agreement around the fact she had unknowingly ingested the drug.
It comes after the Olympic Committee are still unimpressed with Swimming Australia after Mack Horton’s now-infamous podium protest against Sun Yang last week.
Warning letters had even been issued to Mr Horton and Swimming Australia.
Jack still maintains she did not knowingly take the drug Ligandrol but will have to prove her sample was contaminated.
Jack (pictured) tested positive to the drug while submitting a drug test in Cairns last week
Koga, a world-champion backstroker, was kicked off the Japanese team in 2017’s Asian Games after he tested positive to the same drug Jack used, Ligandrol, and another anabolic agent, Ostarine.
The 32-year-old was also slapped with a maximum ban of four years from swimming by FINA, yet successfully appealed his case with the committee agreeing that it was ‘most likely’ that his sample had been contaminated.
He had his four year banning halved as a result.
Junya Koga, 32, (pictured) a world-champion backstroker, was kicked off the Japanese team in 2017’s Asian Games after he tested positive to the same drug Jack used, Ligandrol, and another anabolic agent, Ostarine – he later appealed his case and his ban was sliced in half
It comes after swimming great Giaan Rooney revealed how close she had come to accidentally failing a drug test back in her hey-day.
Rooney said she had been taking Rhinocort Hayfever Spray – a nasal spray used to treat and prevent hayfever when she was asked to do a drug test.
‘It’s completely legal, on the OK list, no issue with it whatsoever, but that exact same product, same name, same packaging, bought over the counter in the US has a steroid in it,’ Rooney told the Courier Mail.
She noted that if she wasn’t aware of the added ingredient in the American product, she would have unknowingly ingested the drug when she took the medication.
‘I’m not in any way trying to excuse the situation, but it is every athlete’s worst nightmare because it is quite easy to make a mistake.’
Former Australian swimmer Giaan Rooney (pictured) weighed into the Jack doping scandal, revealing how she too could have easily failed a drug test in her competitive days