Australia's Jack 'proves' her point after successful comeback from doping ban

MELBOURNE : Three years after becoming the pariah of Australian swimming, Shayna Jack can finally look ahead with hope after coming back from a doping ban to book her place at the world championships and Commonwealth Games.

The 23-year-old finished second behind Mollie O'Callaghan in the women's 100 metres freestyle final at national trials in Adelaide on Wednesday and burst into tears while still in the pool.

"I made a joke about not wanting any tears this week but I’m definitely going to have those tears of joy. I’m just overwhelmed with emotion," said Jack.

"I think I proved my point ... but I’ll continue to fight back and continue what I do, which is racing all the way through to Paris (2024 Olympics)."

In 2019, Jack was sent home from a training camp in Japan ahead of the world championships with Swimming Australia (SA) saying she withdrew for "personal reasons".

However, it later emerged she had tested positive for the banned anabolic agent ligandrol, which the governing body had known about for weeks.

The revelations came as Jack's team mate Mack Horton waged a public campaign against Chinese swimmer Sun Yang over his doping record, triggering accusations of hypocrisy.

SA defended its move to conceal the positive test as necessary for confidentiality reasons and to allow Jack a right to fair process, but a former head of the national doping agency said the federation had lied by not disclosing the adverse result.

Jack maintained she had never intentionally taken ligandrol but was banned for four years. The suspension was halved in late-2020 after she appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Sport Integrity Australia, the country's anti-doping authority, fought to have the full ban reinstated but CAS threw out