Swimming Australia president John Bertrand concedes the Shayna Jack doping matter will act as a test case for other sports, but insists the governing body could have done nothing different in its handling of the situation.
Jack, 20, tested positive for the anti-steroidal anabolic agent Ligandrol and was sent home from a Dolphins training camp in Japan a week before the start of the FINA World Championships in Korea.
Young Australian swimmer Shayna Jack tested positive for Ligandrol.Credit:AAP
She met with ASADA officials last week and declared her innocence, vowing to fight until the end as she tries to soften a potential four-year exile from the pool. The process will likely be measured in months, not weeks, and could end up at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Critics of SA were quick to suggest the matter had been covered up after news broke of the positive sample on the second last day of the meet. None of Jack's teammates had known of the result and had been told she returned home due to a personal matter.
But swimming officials maintained they were bound by a strict anti-doping policy that forbid them from announcing the test result without the consent of the athlete. Jack had wanted the matter kept private until the racing had finished but the story broke early.
Bertrand said there were many lessons to be learned but even in hindsight, Swimming Australia had no room to move unless the athlete wanted to make the results public.
"Part of the ASADA rules … very, very tight legal constraints… is that the athlete is the only person that can go forth and announce this type of situation, and/or ASADA," Bertrand told Eddie McGuire on Triple M in Melbourne.
"ASADA are not in the business of going public because they don't want to slow down their investigations. It was up to Shayna to go forward. She had decided to wait until after the championships were over.
"The situation was leaked. All hell broke loose. The question is how does one control that."
The timing of the news was made worse by Mack Horton's public protest against Chinese rival Sun Yang, who faces CAS later in the year after WADA appealed the result of a FINA doping panel that let him walk free after his entourage smashed a blood sample to prevent it from being taken for testing.
Sun claims the testers had the incorrect credentials and he was concerned for the sanctity of his test. Sun served a three-month doping ban in 2014 and was called a 'drug cheat' by Horton at the Rio Olympics.
"Mack did his own thing. Mack knew nothing of Shayna's situation, nor did any of the team. When it broke, then Swimming Australia was accused of cover ups. It wasn't. We were totally obliged, legally, not to say anything until Shayna went forward," Bertrand told Triple M.
More importantly, Bertrand said, was how similar matters should be handled going forward. Many sports have similar anti-doping agreements with ASADA and while the Jack story has been a major issue, a repeat during the Tokyo Olympics would be magnified 100-fold.
"What have we learned from this? Clearly, a discussion has to be made on what is best going forward. The bottom line is, we are endeavouring to protect the rights of the athlete," Bertrand said.
"The protection of this individual, relative to the world knowing and Swimming Australia being transparent … that's a discussion going forward. It's not clear.
"She was in a state of shock. She needed time to think about it. Her natural reaction – and you can see why – was to hold off until the championship was over and allow her teammates to get on with the job.
"It will be a key discussion with Sport Australia, ASADA and using case studies like Swimming Australia to endeavour to figure out the best way forward."
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