Olympic champion breaks down over drug scandal
Olympic swimming champion Shayna Jack has broken down over the drug scandal that almost ended her career in 2019.
After entering the jungle as one of this year's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! cast mates, Paris Olympics gold medallist Jack opened up about the 24-month ban she copped from her sport in 2019.
She was banned for competing for two long years, for an anti-doping rule violation relating to her unintentional use of the anabolic agent Ligandrol.
Jack then spent months embroiled in a case to prove her innocence in which she spent over $180,000, with the case putting her under intense emotional and financial strain.
Jack broke down as she revealed to her campmates that her longtime partner, Kookaburras hockey player Joel Rintala, was scared to leave her at home alone for fear she might hurt herself.
“Some nights I was in a bad place. He said those nights were the most fearful. He said he’d speed home because he just didn’t know if he was going to walk home into something that he wasn’t able to cope with. [If] I’d done something that I would eternally regret,” she said.
Speaking directly to camera in the jungle's confessional, Jack went on to explain why she chose to share the story with her fellow cast members.
“It’s using the people around me to continue to open up about it and face those difficulties and stop giving it so much power,” she said of the scandal.
“I feel like the more I take it off my chest and take it off my heart, the more I can try to move forward with my life and not feel this huge aspect of my life pulling me back."
Image credits: Ten