Shayna Jack Completes Emotional Fairytale Comeback After Two-Year Doping Ban
Shayna Jack has completed an incredible comeback to Australia’s swimming team following a two-year doping ban.
Jack secured her spot at this year’s Commonwealth Games and world titles by finishing second in the 100m freestyle at the national championships in Adelaide.
The 23-year-old finished behind Mollie O’Callaghan in the final, tearing up after realising she had earned automatic selection into the Australian team.
In her post-swim comments, she said: “I am just overwhelmed with emotions to be back on the team.
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"Not very many people know what I actually really went through – you know the depths of it and to be back and wearing those colours again means more than anything to me.
Brilliant race in the women’s 100m freestyle!
— Lachlan McKirdy (@LMcKirdy7) May 18, 2022
Shayna Jack leads for most of the race but Mollie O’Callaghan chases her down in the final 10 metres. Both qualify for the team, fantastic redemption moment for Jack!
"My goal was to love swimming and fall in love with it again and I have and I'm really, really proud to be back.
"There's a lot of times I thought I might not get to this point – not just obviously because of the whole case and everything like that – but I struggled, I kind of lost touch with why I love swimming and why I did swim.
"It's still a journey, I'm still learning and doing things and working with psychologists with all those things and that's been really, really beneficial with my comeback."
Jack last competed for Australia in 2018 at the Commonwealth Games, before she was handed a two-year ban in 2019 for taking a minute amount of Ligandrol.
She will now travel to Budapest in June for the World Championships before heading to Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games in July.
Her time of 52.60 is the second-fastest in the world this year, just behind eventual winner, Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Mollie O’Callaghan who swam a time of 52.49.
She told Amazon Prime Video after the race: “You're going to make me cry again. It's just one of those moments that I really, really, really wanted.
"To be able to do that with Mollie (O'Callaghan), she swam an amazing time, to come away with a PB like that, I am just so proud of myself and thank you to everybody who supported me to get back to here.”
Jack appeared on SAS Australia in 2020 where she detailed her ‘living nightmare’ after being accused of being a drug cheat.
Shayna protested her innocence during an intense interrogation on the show.
She said: “The one thing that hurts me more than anything to my core is that, yes I have had a dream to represent my country at the Olympics since I was 10, but it’s more the fact that I’ve always done the right thing by my sport and country.
“I can’t see my coach, I cant just go for a swim with my squad, I can’t go and play another sport just for fun.
“I just want to be able to go back to swimming and love swimming again, sometimes I forget how strong I am and it does get to me a fair bit.”
Her latest swim caps off a remarkable comeback from rock bottom.
Jayden Collins