The head of Australian Swimming's governing body says Shayna Jack's failed doping test is "embarassing", while Richard Ings - the former head of ASADA - accused Swimming Australia of trying to cover-up the case.
SYDNEY, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The head of Australian Swimming's governing body Leigh Russell has told reporters on Sunday that Shayna Jack's failed drug test is an embarrassment.
"I do want to say that while an Australian athlete returning an adverse result is both bitterly disappointing and embarrassing to our team, our sport and our country, it does not in any way change the zero tolerance view that Swimming Australia has and our continuing fight for a clean sport," she said.
"I can't categorically say that anybody in Australia is clean, but what I do have in front of me is one adverse test."
With the 2019 World Aquatics Championships currently underway in South Korea, the 20-year-old freestyler pulled out of the competition just days before, citing "personal reasons."
However it has now been revealed that Jack did not join the national squad in Gwangju due to an "adverse test result following a routine out-of-competition drug test conducted by ASADA testers on June 26, 2019," Swimming Australia said in a statement on Saturday.
"Once Swimming Australia was made aware of the adverse test result, it immediately took action - in accordance with the national policy - to provisionally suspend Shayna from the Australian swim team while a process was under way and accompanied her back to Australia from a training camp being held in Japan."
"The Swimming Australia policy also means that any Australian athlete under provisional suspension, while ASADA investigations are underway, cannot take part in any competition, meaning Shayna was unable to travel to Gwangju to compete at the 2019 World Championships."
Critical of the decision to keep the failed test a secret, former ASADA chief executive Richard Ings posted to social media "we now know this was an untruth," he said.
"The real reason, known at the time of this announcement, was she had been provisionally suspended for a positive A sample drug test. Athletes need to be frank from day one.
"By covering up and not telling the truth, it makes the story bigger and worse.
"This is a reminder that these sort of allegations of positive drug tests can happen to any athlete, in any sport, in any country and not just in China.
"The public do not notice and ultimately what was said by Shayna Jack and Swimming Australia weeks ago about vague personal reasons become transparent weeks later as a lie. The truth needs to be told at the beginning," Ings said.
But according to Russel, Swimming Australia could not legally disclose results of the adverse drug test at that time.
"Athletes in these situations have a right to a process. That process is continuing and that is now between Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) and our athlete."
With an official ban still pending on the results of Jack's B sample, the Aussie swimmer who picked up two silver medals and two bronze at the 2017 World Championships, has claimed her innocence.
"It is with great sadness and heartache that I had to leave due to allegations of having a prohibited substance in my system," she said on social media.
"I did not take this substance knowingly. Swimming has been my passion since I was 10 years old and I would never intentionally take a banned substance that would disrespect my sport and jeopardize my career."
"Now there is an ongoing investigation and my team and I are doing everything we can to find out when and how this substance has come into contact with my body."
Sun Yang of China celebrates after the men's 200m freestyle final at the Gwangju 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, July 23, 2019.(Xinhua/Tao Xiyi)
The news comes just days after fellow Australian swimmer Mack Horton was issued a warning letter from the International Swimming Federation, for refusing to share the podium with China's Sun Yang.
