Pool queen Shayna Jack’s coach Dean Boxall makes shattering confession about the star’s two-year drug ban
Shayna Jack’s coach Dean Boxall has admitted he thought the Olympic gold medallist would take her own life when she was in the depths of despair over her two-year drugs ban.
Jack, 26, was forced out of the pool in 2019 when she returned a positive test for the banned muscle-building drug ligandrol.
She has always maintained her innocence and eventually cleared her name after proving the rest result was due to contamination.
However, the ban cost her a place at the Tokyo Olympics and left her so shattered that Boxall feared the worst.
The famously excitable swimming guru has revealed Jack was ‘shown a lot of injustice from multiple people’ and was ‘hammered’ on social media in the wake of the ban being handed down, to the point where one troll told her to commit suicide.
‘I thought she might not even be in this world at one stage,’ Boxall told ABC TV’s Australian Story program.
‘It was absolutely criminal, what happened to her. And no one’s accountable.’
The highly regarded coach – who has helped steer several Aussie swimmers to Olympics gold – has never doubted her innocence.
Shayna Jack (pictured right, hugging teammate Mollie O’Callaghan after they won gold at the Paris Olympics) went to hell and back during her two-year drug ban
Jack’s coach Dean Boxall (pictured) has admitted he feared the 26-year-old would take her own life when she was banned from the sport she loves
‘If you do take drugs and you’re caught to be cheating, you should be banned for life, but there are instances where it’s got nothing to do with cheating – like touching a weight, you can be contaminated with your hands,’ he explained.
Jack’s comeback to win two golds at the Paris Olympics was one of the highlights of the Games for Aussie fans, but the scars from her ban and the long legal fight that followed run deep.
‘The way they went about it completely stripped me of my humanity,’ she told the program.
‘No matter what I said or did or how much I proved, no matter how much money I threw at testing, [anti-doping bodies] just wanted to prove that I was a drug cheat.
‘It’s been three years and I still struggle with it.’
The Queenslander also revealed the moment when she came closest to giving up the fight to clear her name.
She and her legal team had successfully argued to the Court of Arbitration for Sport that the presence of the drug in her system was unintentional, but the World Anti-Doping Authority and Sport Integrity Australia appealed the length of her ban regardless.
‘I handed the phone to my partner Joel and said, “I’m done. I can’t afford this. I can’t handle this anymore”,’ she recalled.
Jack (pictured at the Cox Plate horse race this year) revealed the one moment when she came closest to quitting as she tried to clear her name
Jack has lost none of her passion for the pool, as proven by the decision she announced after her last race in Paris back in August.
‘I definitely have that motivation to come back in four years’ time [for the Los Angeles Olympics],’ she said.
‘This is just the start for me.
‘This is my redemption chapter and hopefully there’s more to come and there’s more of a story to tell.
‘I just didn’t think I would ever be here, let alone swimming again.
‘I didn’t know if I would fall in love with the sport again and I’m trying to say I am in love with the sport and I love racing and I love being a part of something that’s more than just about me.
‘I got a bit emotional because I’ve worked so hard to be here and I’m just really proud of everything I’ve achieved personally and part of this team this week so, you know, it is sad to be saying goodbye to it.’
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