Shayna Jack Positioned to Flourish in Freestyle Events at World Champs in Doha
At the last edition of the World Championships, held last summer in Fukuoka, Australian Shayna Jack made the most of her opportunities. While she contested only the 50-meter freestyle on an individual basis, Jack saw considerable relay duty for the Dolphins, and came through in that role with a bevy of superb performances.
Next week, Jack is ready to race a trio of solo events at the World Champs in Doha. While the competition will feature less-than-fully-loaded fields, due to impending Olympic Trials and the summer’s Olympic Games in Paris, Jack will use the meet as a chance to further demonstrate how high she has risen in the sprint-freestyle realm – and beyond.
The reigning silver medalist from the World Champs in the 50 freestyle, Jack is seeded second in that event and third in the 100 freestyle. She is also the No. 2 seed in the 200 freestyle, and the potential of earning three medals certainly exists for the 25-year-old. Last summer, Jack was a sub-52 headliner in the 100 freestyle in relay duty and clocked 24.01 in the 50 freestyle.
With Australia stacked in the sprint-freestyle events, Jack will need to be at her peak to earn individual swims at the Paris Games. Consider her appearance at the World Championships in Doha as a tuneup of sorts, where she’ll get in some additional international racing, including anticipated matchups with the likes of Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom and Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey.
Jack missed out on the Olympic Games in Tokyo due to serving a two-year ban for testing positive for Ligandrol. The ban was originally four years, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) reviewed Jack’s case and determined she did not intentionally and knowing use the substance. Consequently, the CAS reduced the ban to two years.
Since returning to action, Jack has excelled under the direction of coach Dean Boxall and alongside St. Peters Western teammates Mollie O’Callaghan and Ariarne Titmus. In Doha, look for Jack to build momentum on the road to the Australian Olympic Trials and Paris Games.
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We need to keep swimmers who have had drug bans out if the sport
She was actually cleared of the offence after two years and the judge in her case said they hadn’t seen such a case of an athlete being wrongly tarred with a drug offence, there was no evidence.
It would be nothing less than Shayna deserves if she came away with a number of medals after what she has been through