Australian swimmer Shayna Jack learns fate on career-ending doping ban
Aussie swimmer Shana Jack has been given a suspension of only two years after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decided to half her four-year doping ban.
Jack was dumped from the Australian team for the 2019 world titles after she tested positive in July last year, resulting in a possible four-year ban.
The 22-year-old has always maintained her innocence and claimed that the positive test to non-steroid anabolic agent Ligandrol may have been due to cross-contamination.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday ruled that Jack did not knowingly take the banned drug Ligandrol and elected to reduce her four-year ban to just two years.
"The Sole Arbitrator in charge of this matter found, on the balance of probabilities, that Shayna Jack did not intentionally ingest ligandrol and considered that she had discharged her onus of proving that the anti-doping rule violation was not intentional," CAS said in its ruling.
"As a consequence, the Sole Arbitrator imposed a reduced period of ineligibility of two years, commencing on the date of her provisional suspension."
Jack can continue her career next year but will not be able to take part in the rescheduled Tokyo 2021 Games.
"The anti-doping rules are far from satisfactory and can produce results that are far from fair. In my case, I have proven that I have NOT ever cheated, nor used prohibited substances intentionally or knowingly," she wrote on Instagram.
"I cannot change the rules and the rules will remain as they are for the time being. Therefore, I accept this decision with a positive attitude and with gratitude that my career as a swimmer will resume next year.
"I have never doubted myself for a minute throughout this ordeal and I have never allowed my integrity to be compromised. I walk a little taller tonight with the fact that this ordeal is finally over. I am returning to swimming – the sport that I have loved all my life and the sport that I will cherish just that little bit more ongoing."