{"id":392687,"date":"2024-05-11T00:42:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-11T00:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=392687"},"modified":"2024-05-11T01:04:09","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T01:04:09","slug":"hackett-rips-unfair-disparity-that-tortured-aussie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=392687","title":{"rendered":"Hackett rips 'unfair' disparity that tortured Aussie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian swimming<\/a> champion Grant Hackett<\/a> has joined the chorus of voices taking aim at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)<\/a> over its handling of the China drugs saga.<\/p>\n

The three-time Olympic<\/a> gold medallist \ufeffsays the global anti-doping police has a "credibility issue" and, empathising with Australian swimmer Shayna Jack<\/a>, suspects she would be feeling "completely disheartened".<\/p>\n

WADA\ufeff is engulfed in controversy after it was revealed in April that the governing body had cleared 23 Chinese swimmers to compete in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021<\/a>, despite the fact they had tested positive to a performance-enhancing drug.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Upset' Djokovic floored by bottle from crowd in Italy\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE\ufeff:<\/strong> How 'horrible' experience buoyed Seebohm in Paris pursuit<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Olympics selection loophole leaves Aussie gutted\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

In an investigation that for a long time remained in the dark and only came to light via a bombshell media report, the China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) and WADA concluded that athletes had traces of trimetazidine in their samples because of contamination.<\/p>\n

At the same time that those 23 Chinese swimmers competed in the pool in Tokyo, Australian swimmer Jack\ufeff was forced to miss the Games for testing positive to a prohibited substance called ligandrol.<\/p>\n

\"Grant<\/p>\n

The Queenslander's legal team was able to prove that her positive test was due to contamination, but she was nonetheless forced to endure a two-year ban.<\/p>\n

"There's a credibility issue there, most certainly. Athletes that have been caught, or\ufeff who have had something in their system which found its way there that wasn't necessarily through their own means, have all gone through a very transparent process and it's always been disclosed," Hackett told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"The fact this wasn't an open process, it wasn't disclosed, we found out through the media through an investigation … makes you think, 'Well, why isn't WADA having the same playbook for one particular nation or a particular set of athletes versus other athletes that have gone through it?'. So of course there are question marks over that."<\/p>\n

\"Shayna<\/p>\n

WADA said in a statement in April that scientists and external legal counsel "had thoroughly put the contamination theory presented by CHINADA to the test".<\/p>\n

WADA said it was not possible to run its own investigation "on the ground in China" due to a COVID-19 lockdown.<\/p>\n

The agency said it couldn't disprove contamination was the cause and decided the 23 athletes were at no fault.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"They stand by their process and what they did. However, I think a lot of other people are sitting around the table and saying, 'Well, you've been inconsistent. Why?'," Hackett said.<\/p>\n

"I think there's a lot of questions that remain unanswered on things, and until those things get fully addressed\ufeff it's hard not to sit here and think, 'Well, did someone do something wrong?', and if they didn't, 'Why didn't it go through the formal channels? Why wasn't it transparent? Why wasn't it disclosed?'.<\/p>\n

"I'm not going to sit here and point the finger and call people guilty, but at the end of the day, you want to see a consistent process that everyone has to endure if something does go wrong, whether it was your fault or not."<\/p>\n

Jack's ban was lifted\ufeff in July 2021 and she's now trying to qualify for her Olympic debut.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old sprinter is getting ready for the Australian Olympic selection trials, taking place in Brisbane from June 10-15.<\/p>\n

As Jack dealt with the ban, being labelled a drug cheat and intense media scrutiny, her life crumbled to the point where she considered committing suicide.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Jack's<\/p>\n

"Completely disheartened," Hackett said when asked how Jack must be feeling after the China drugs bombshell.<\/p>\n

"Could you imagine going through the process that she did?"<\/p>\n

Jack's two-year ban would have "felt like an eternity", Hackett said.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"She was basically labelled a drug cheat for a very, very long time, until there was a level of innocence that finally came through, which went through an official process," Hackett added.<\/p>\n

"[Jack would be] sitting there thinking, 'I went through that to demonstrate my innocence in a situation that was very, very difficult. Why isn't everybody else going through the same situation if they're in the exact same circumstances that I was?'.<\/p>\n

"It just feels unfair."<\/p>\n

If you or anyone you know needs immediate support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or via<\/strong><\/em> lifeline.org.au<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. In an emergency, call 000<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian swimming champion Grant Hackett has joined the chorus of voices taking aim at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) over its handling of the China […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":392689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=392687"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":392693,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392687\/revisions\/392693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/392689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=392687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=392687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=392687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}