Swim star Shayna Jack has revealed she attempted to take her own life as she battled trauma and reactive depression during a years-long fight to clear her name in the wake of a baffling positive drug test four years ago.
In an at-times confronting but important column for Code Insight’s mental health issue, guest editor Jack reveals her low point after feeling she’d become a burden to everyone she loved while fighting the guilty till proven innocent system surrounding sports drug testing.
Jack told her story as a warning to others to recognise the dangers of not speaking up when going through hard times in life.
“I was home alone, I had my dogs there, my partner was at work – and I was done,” Jack writes.
“I was done with the process. I was done with life.
“And boy, did it scare me.”
Jack eventually served a two-year ban after winning an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to have her four-year suspension cut in half but had to endure a second CAS hearing after an 11th hour appeal from Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that was eventually fruitless.
Read the full exclusive from Shayna Jack’s mental health battle here
The Brisbane sprinter, who returned to the pool at the end of 2021, and the Australian swim team just months later, details how she is now keenly aware of the mental health challenges many people face daily and encouraged others to reach out for help if struggling.
“I started seeing a psychiatrist and it was the best thing that I ever did,” she said.
“It’s something I’d recommend to anyone.”
Also in the October issue of Insight, inside today’s paper, Olympic champion Sally Pearson opens up about her social anxiety and making the transition from professional athlete to career woman and mother; world surfing champ Tyler Wright reveals the effect of trauma on her life; and rising football star Nikki Flannery talks about dealing with mental health challenges during Covid lockdown.
There’s also previews of all of October’s biggest women’s sporting action including the A-League women’s kick-off and Matildas’ return and the world-conquering Diamonds’ quest to beat their New Zealand hoodoo.
