SHAYNA’S CASH PLEA TO FIGHT DRUG BAN
A TEARFUL Shayna Jack has turned to crowd-funding to try to save her swimming career, pleading with the Australian public to help her fight the doping authorities who want her two-year ban doubled.
Fighting back tears, an emotional Jack launched her fundraising campaign through her Instagram account, asking for donors to fund her upcoming appeal against Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The 22-year-old Queenslander is currently serving a reduced two-year ban after testing positive to the banned anabolic agent ligandrol before the 2019 world championships.
That ban is due to expire this June but SIA and WADA have since appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) asking that the penalty be restored to four years.
That’s left Jack having to mount another legal defence, which she says she can’t afford and needs public help to continue.
“It breaks my heart every day that I’m still up against these people which I feel are constantly kicking me down,” she said.
“It breaks my heart every day thinking that I can never win.
“I’d like to ask for your help in order to keep fighting. I don’t have the finds and nor does my family.
“And if I don’t fight, I could potentially get the maximum ban
because I couldn’t set up for myself in my next appeal.”
It was just a week ago that Jack revealed for the first time the crippling financial cost of her ongoing battle to clear her name as worried family and close friends try to keep her spirits afloat.
She divulged that she has forked out more than $130,000 in trying to prove her innocence and privately,
her inner circle have become increasingly concerned about the emotional toll the drawn out antidoping case is having on her wellbeing.
Initially suspended until 2023 after tiny traces of the banned anabolic agent ligandrol were discovered in her urine sample taken at a Swimming Australia training camp in Cairns, Jack succeeded in
getting her ban halved to two years after fronting CAS.
In a judgment that she proclaimed on her social media account as proof she was I•N•N•O•C•E•N•T, the sole arbitrator found that Jack “did not intentionally ingest ligandrol” so was entitled to a reduced penalty even though she failed to prove where the traces came from.