Shayna Jack back as pop star Cody Simpson also makes Australian swim team
Shayna Jack is back in the Australian swim teams named for the world titles and Commonwealth Games. Photo: AAP
Shayna Jack’s nightmare is over while celebrity Cody Simpson’s dream is a reality after both secured selection on Australia’s swim team.
Jack, after serving a two-year doping suspension, and Simpson, who has put his pop music career on hold, are on the Dolphins team for the Commonwealth Games starting late July.
Jack will also race at next month’s world titles after a triumphant return to elite competition at the Australian championships in Adelaide which ended on Sunday night.
Kyle Chalmers will also swim at the worlds in Budapest after backflipping on his decision to skip the meet and focus solely on the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Your Australian @fina1908 World Championship 2022 team for Budapest! @SwimmingAUS #swimming pic.twitter.com/BqRQyYvDJI
— Eugénie Buckley (@EugeBuckley) May 22, 2022
But Chalmers, citing mental health reasons, was absent from the naming of the teams in Adelaide on Sunday night.
“The negative media attention surrounding my decision to compete at the worlds and the made up story lines surrounding my personal life have been more than I can handle,” Chalmers posted on Instagram.
The Olympic 100 metres freestyle gold and silver medallist will swim butterfly only in Budapest – he only swam the ‘fly at the national titles which doubled as the selection meet for the worlds and Commonwealth Games.
The 23-year-old Jack finished second in the 100 metres freestyle final and on Sunday night won the 50 metres freestyle final in the fastest time in the event in the world this year, 24.14 seconds.
“It’s definitely joy and relief, a bit of both,” Jack said.
“I might have a bit of a moment to myself to realise what I have actually achieved this week because I don’t think I have given myself that recognition.
“I have had so many messages of support and love … I really have to sit down and be proud of myself and reflect on how well I have actually done.
“A lot of athletes probably wouldn’t have ever come back so for me to be back, but also be back on top of the Australian (swimming) community, is amazing.”
Jack was suspended for four years after testing positive to the banned substance Ligandrol about three weeks before the 2019 world championships.
The Queenslander’s ban was reduced to two years on appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which found she did not knowingly ingest the substance.
Pop star Simpson was picked for the Commonwealth Games, his first Australian team, in the 100 metres butterfly.
The 25-year-old was a promising junior swimmer before pursuing a pop music career for nine years until returning to the pool in 2019.
-AAP