Sydney (AFP)

Australian swimmer Shayna Jack, whose doping sanction reduction from four to two years has been confirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), said on Friday "overwhelmed with joy" at being able to once again line up in the basins.

The freestyle specialist, a member of the Australian 4x100m relay team that set the world record for the event in 2018, was suspended for four years in 2019, following a positive doping test for ligandrol , a substance that promotes muscle mass gain.

She then proclaimed her innocence and obtained on appeal, in November 2020, a halving of her sentence by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), a decision then contested by Sports Integrity Australia (ex-Asada, the Australian anti-doping body , editor's note), and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which prevented the young woman from applying for a place in the Australian selection for the Tokyo Games this summer.

But the highest sports court, based in Lausanne, rejected this joint request on Thursday, ruling that a two-year suspension was sufficient, given that the swimmer had established "not to have intentionally or recklessly consumed the prohibited substance" .

"I am now free to do what I love, with no restrictions, and I am overwhelmed with joy," Jack, 22, said on his Instagram account, in a message accompanied by a photo showing her. seen preparing to dive into a swimming pool.

"I will now take some time for myself to cherish this moment and reflect on what I have been through. The nightmare is finally over," she said.

"I will speak more in the future, now is not the time ... But watch this account, this is only the beginning," she added.

The revelation of Jack's positive test came days after one of the Australian delegation's swimmers, Mack Horton, at the 2019 Worlds in South Korea, refused to step on the 400m podium to receive his medal. money, in order to show his mistrust of the Chinese Sun Yang, multiple world champion at the heart of a doping controversy.

In February 2020, Sun was suspended for eight years for destroying a vial of his blood during an unannounced doping control in 2018, a sentence reduced to four years and three months last June by the CAS.

© 2021 AFP