DAVID PENBERTHY

ming Australia that was telling Jack to keep her mouth shut.

Jack claims that, apart from the fact Swimming Australia prevented her from even saying goodbye to her teammates when she was told about the test results at training camp earlier this month, it also repeatedly advised her not to tell any of her friends.

But by the length of an Olympic pool, the worst of Swimming Australia’s conduct came in the form of the letter Ms Russell sent to the swimmers and their families.

“It was Shayna’s decision when to speak on her matter and she told us that given the team was in competition mode at a benchmark event, her decision was to speak at the conclusion of the worlds, so that her teammates could fully focus on performance,” Russell wrote.

“She told us she wanted to announce the matter this week and was preparing to do so.”

Whatever duty of care this organisation has to its young athletes would appear to have been violated by this extraordinary missive.

It reads as if Swimming Australia is simply trying to wash its hands of any responsibility for the manner in which this drug test has been handled.

Worse, it reads as if Swimming Australia is trying to wash its hands of Shayna Jack.

Perversely, it almost feels as

“Swimming Australia is simply trying to wash its hands of any responsibility”

if Swimming Australia has been boxed into taking this pre-emptive heavy-handed stand against Jack on account of Horton’s podium protest.

And again, if Jack had been allowed to speak out about her failed test – while also maintaining her innocence – Horton would have undoubtedly approached his protest somewhat differently, and possibly not have done it at all.

Instead, as a result of Swimming Australia’s ham-fisted conduct, we’ve got a kid who’s been left floundering in the deep end by an organisation that’s more interested in covering its own backside, and a principled young bloke who has made an internationally explosive protest against the biggest nation on Earth who now looks like a bit of a fraud.

Take a bow, Swimming Australia. This is all your own work. And to think you’re the ones who are meant to be looking after these young people.