Australian swim: a bad look when you lose moral heights in favor of a shameful swimmer

OPINION: You know things are not going very well when you lose moral heights in the face of a disgraced Chinese swimmer who risks a lifetime ban on breaking blood samples with a hammer.

Alas, that's where Australian swimming comes after freestyler Shayna Jack, 20, tested positive for the banned substance Ligandrol, just days after the Australian Mack Horton and his teammates set fire to FINA for allowing Chinese star Sun Yang to compete in the South South World Championships. Korea.

Oops.

Since Jack's positive test was announced, there has been a blur around statements and Instagram posts claiming his innocence; that all this was a big mistake; Shayna is a great girl. it's out of character; she would never knowingly take an illegal substance; it is probably a contaminated sample; or it could be something she ate, something her manager threw on Monday.

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Meanwhile, Sun Yang remains the most hated sports figure of a non-English speaking country since Russian fighter Ivan Drago confronted him with Rocky Balboa in Rocky IV.

The numbing hypocrisy of the commentary surrounding the two doping cases shows why Australian swimmers and their spokespeople should approach moral heights with extreme caution, especially as the Tokyo Olympics approach.

Certainly, this country has been fighting the drug cheater for a long time, as it should be.

We smiled and wore and always did our best as athletes from Eastern Eastern Bloc countries stole gold at the Olympic Games and World Championships in the 1970s.

We were one of the first to set up an anti-drug agency and become a member of WADA.

And we rubbed the best modern day cricketer in Shane Warne for a year just because he just wanted to get rid of a double chin before going on TV, with the help of a banned diuretic .

But we also often have the strongest voices on doping, even though we have very little sad history of cheating in our own backyard.

The strongest voice last week belongs to the legendary Dawn Fraser. Last Wednesday, on Channel Nine Today, she pulled out the machine gun.

"They (FINA) should not have let this guy swim," she said about Sun Yang. "Because he's a drug cheater, we all know him!" He broke his vials of blood, he brought in a security guard to crush his vials of blood and he appeared in court in September. "

"Why did not they stop swimming and give other guys who want to do clean sport the opportunity to make their best time and not have to swim against a deceptive drug?"

"Drug Drug" is becoming a very popular term in sports.

Presumably, Fraser called Sun a "cheater of drugs" because of the events of 2014 when he was tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned stimulant, which had been placed on the list of banned products in competition from WADA plus early that year.

Sun claimed that he was taking the stuff because of a heart problem and that he did not know that it was forbidden. His critics say that he should have and, at the very least, asked for an exemption so that he could accept it because of his state of health.

He was banned for three months and the Chinese authorities did not tell anyone. Drug cheating or innocent mistake? You are the judge. Oh, wait, you've already been there.

Yet, it is premature to call Sun Yang a "drug cheater" because of the recent controversy over broken blood bottles.

Does not he deserve the same presumption of innocence until all the evidence presented is heard, just like Shayna Jack?

The idea of ​​Sun Yang placing the light of her camera phone on the vial of blood while her bodyguard the breeze with a hammer conjures up all kinds of outrageous images.

As always, it is convenient to ignore the details of what is supposedly happened that night, last September, when drug testers went over to check his urine and blood.

His claim that the samples should not have been taken because the official did not have the appropriate accreditation was supported by a FINA jury, which included members from Switzerland, Algeria and Canada. He exonerated Sun from any test violation.

If I had blood tests that would determine the course of my professional career, I would also like them to have the right paper. Again, I would not have given them blood in the first place.

WADA brought the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Sun requested that the September hearing be public. It will be intriguing to hear what is broadcast, not to mention the second bottle of blood.

And should CBS play for the Chinese swimmer? What moral level will Horton, Frasers and others take then?

And will Horton still feel encouraged to take the same position at the Tokyo Olympics next year as at these world championships, when he pulled out of the podium after finishing second at Sun in the 400-meter free masculine?

Strangely, no journalist in the country could call Fraser yesterday on the phone to find out what she thought about Jack's positive tests.

It did not matter, because Richard Ings, the former boss of ASADA, had spoken to whoever wanted to hear him.

He was everywhere on Twitter this weekend, telling Swimming Australia how he had treated Jack's positive drug samples.

SA is accused of attempting to "cover up" the Jack case while Horton and his teammates were hurting themselves in the world of clean sport and Sun Yang, and so on. … Oops.

Ings, as he often does, went half armed.

"If Swimming Australia suggests that their anti-doping policy, approved by ASADA, forbids them to announce Jack's temporary suspension, they are mistaken," said Ings.

He then attached a copy of the ASADA code that shows exactly how the sport can not release the temporary suspension unless the athlete allows it – something that ASADA has again clarified yesterday with his own statement.

Last week's pool discussion at the world championships was about Jack pulling out at the last minute for "personal reasons". Any journalist worthy of the name suspected what that meant. Any athlete would know that too.

Despite this, Australian swimmers have taken advantage of the international scene to spray drug cheaters, thus taking a moral course that must always be approached with caution.