Australian swimmer Shayna Jack has issued an emotional plea for funds as she continues the fight to clear her name after being banned for a doping violation.
Jack’s career is currently on hold as she serves a two-year suspension after traces of the banned anabolic agent Ligandrol were found in her system in 2019.
An initial ban of four years – the standard sanction for a drugs offence – was halved after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport found the substance had not been ingested intentionally.
But Jack is still facing the possibility of serving the full four years after Sport Integrity Australia and the World Anti-Doping Agency lodged their own appeals with Cas in November last year.
On Thursday, she made a public appeal for help to raise money to continue her fight after having “depleted her life savings”.
“I have exhausted everything in the last 19 months fighting and to continue my fight I now need your help,” she wrote in a post on her Instagram account launching a GoFundMe page.
Earlier this month, Jack revealed the emotional and financial toll the case had taken, leading her to question whether it was “all worth it anymore”.
On Thursday, she turned to the public to help fight “for what’s right in sport”.
“During my first court case I went up against Sports Integrity Australia and my family and I spent $130,000 total,” Jack said.
“However, I did prove I did not intentionally ingest that substance, which is why the two-year ban was given to me and I copped it on the chin and looked forward to returning to my sport in May 2021.
“But unfortunately they decided to take me through all this all again. To take me through the heartbreak.”
Jack has always maintained she did not knowingly take a banned substance and suggested the presence of Ligandrol in her system could have been down to a contaminated blender used by her partner or brothers.
By Friday morning, the online fundraiser had reached $25,000.
Jack was a member of Australia’s gold medal-winning Commonwealth Games relay team but the case has stalled a promising career. The two-year ban has already ruled her out of competing at this year’s Tokyo Olympics. A four-year sanction, in the event of a successful appeal by SIA and Wada, could end the 22-year-old’s career.
“It breaks my heart every day I can’t be in the pool with my squad mates,” Jack said, holding back tears. “It breaks my heart every day that I’m still up against these people in which I feel are constantly kicking me down.
“I’d like to ask for your help in order to keep fighting. I don’t have the funds and neither does my family. If I don’t fight I can potentially get the maximum ban because I can’t stand up for myself in my next appeal.”
