Shayna Jack’s freak broken hand injury is truly wild

The 23-year-old Aussie swim star has revealed how her world championships comeback was cruelled by a freak injury during training, opening up on incident.

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Jack had won gold as part of the 4x100m freestyle team and was looking forward to a hefty medal haul from her first world championships since her drug ban on the eve of the 2019 event.

But it was reported that Jack had slipped and fell on the way to the warm up pool and broke her hand, meaning she missed out on the chance to race for the 100m as well as the 50m freestyle event.

At the Australian National Championships in May, Jack was first in the 50m free and second in the 100m free behind Mollie O’Callaghan, who had a world’s fastest time in the trials.

O’Callaghan went on to win world championship gold in a time 0.07 slower than Jack’s time. Her 50m time would also have been good enough for silver at the world championships.

Speaking to Channel 7’s Sunrise, Jack opened up on the injury, revealing the freak injury occurred while she was swimming.

“I was swimming into a wall, as per usual, my warm-up for my 100m freestyle that day and another swimmer in front of me has turned and pushed off the wall,” Jack said.

“As she’s pushed off the wall, my fingers have unfortunately gone down the back of her togs, and she’s rotated around and taken my fingers with them.”

It resulted in a spiral break in her finger.

“I just instantly went ‘nope, my finger, I’m good, it’s just a jar’. It was one of those pains where I thought ‘oh my fingers are just hurt’,” she said.

“And the pain just started to increase … so I instantly said to one of the managers can they get the doctor because I thought maybe it was dislocated.

“He came over and instantly looked at it and told me to get out, and that broke my heart (because) I knew what that meant.”

Speaking to Fox Sports News, Jack said she hadn’t heard of it in swimming.

“I’ve had people tell me it’s a boxing accident and NRL rugby league accident, and also potentially a water polo accident,” she said. “But I’ve never heard of a swimmer doing it so I am one of the first.”

It’s yet another setback in the 23-year-old career having gone through plenty when she spent two years banned from the sport she loves and missing the Tokyo Olympic Games after it was revealed she had tested positive to anabolic agent Ligandrol in 2019.

Jack was abruptly sent home from the training camp in Japan and was subsequently hit with a four-year ban.

It was the start of years in limbo for Jack, who maintained her innocence and had the suspension cut in half by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in November 2020.

However, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) appealed the leniency of the two-year ban a month later before it was finally quashed in September last year, allowing Jack to continue her swimming career.

Throughout it all, Jack continued to maintain her innocence about how Ligandrol got into her system.

During her time away from the pool, Jack went through some incredibly dark times.

Asked by Seven about how dark it got, she replied: “As low as they can get … I guess that’s the simplest way to put it, they were as low as they could get.

“I didn’t see a future in swimming and, at times, I didn’t see a future for myself in general.”

Jack said the broken finger was devastating after yet another major setback.

“I just thought, my God, someone’s got a plan for me because surely this is not happening again,” Jack said.

“[It’s] Just another situation of feeling that trauma of being told I’m not racing, being told I’m being sent home.

The look on (coach) Dean (Boxall)‘s face, it was just … heartbreak.

“I want to be able to show people that it’s OK to face challenges in life, as long as you keep trying and keep fighting for what you believe in.

“For me, I believe in the fact that I am meant to represent my country and I’m meant to be in Paris in 2024, so hopefully, all my good luck is building and that’s all through to Paris.”

With just a month between the World Champs and the Commonwealth Games, Jack returned to Brisbane for surgery and just six days later was back in the pool.

Currently most of the Aussie swim team are in Spain ahead of a trip to France for a training camp before the start of the Commonwealth Games.

Jack will join the team in France to finalise her preparations.

Originally published as Shayna Jack’s freak broken hand injury is truly wild