{"id":1164,"date":"2010-05-22T06:44:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-22T06:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/jessica-hardy-swims-clear-of-suspension-2\/"},"modified":"2010-05-22T06:44:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-22T06:44:00","slug":"jessica-hardy-swims-clear-of-suspension-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/jessica-hardy-swims-clear-of-suspension-2","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Hardy Swims Clear Of Suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Photo of Hardy and Wilson coach Maggi Twinem at Hardy’s induction to Wilson Hall of Fame by Stephen Dachman<\/em> <\/p>\n

The following sentence might read to you like so much legal gobbledygook:<\/p>\n

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed the appeal filed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against the decision of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) imposing a one year suspension on the US swimmer Jessica Hardy, commencing on 1 August 2008.<\/em><\/span><\/o:p><\/em><\/p>\n

But for Jessica Hardy, Wilson alum and world record-holder in the breaststroke, that sentence is life changing.  <\/span>What it means, in plain speak, is freedom.  <\/span>What it means is that Hardy’s recently-set world records will stand, and that she’s a long way towards her dream of swimming in the Olympics.<\/p>\n

The news, that the CAS was siding with her, came during a practice at USC.  <\/span>Hardy says she had her coach hold her cell phone, in anticipation that a ruling would be coming.  <\/span>When it rang for her, she hopped out of the pool\u2014”I was doing a really hard set,” she says\u2014and heard the good news.  <\/span>“I was really really really happy,” she says.  <\/span>“I had a total emotional outburst on the deck for about 30 seconds.”<\/p>\n

The suspension came after Hardy had qualified for the 2008 Olympics in four events\u2014a drug test she took at qualifiers came back positive for clenbuterol, a banned substance.  <\/span>Hardy maintained that the test was due to a tainted supplement given to her by a sponsor, an assertion that CAS now backs up.  <\/span>The statement reads, the CAS “agreed that Jessica Hardy had shown good faith efforts before ingesting the food supplements at stake<\/span>.”  <\/span>Regardless of intent, she was banned from the 2008 Olympics, and from competition from August 1, 2008 through July 31, 2009, a year-long period of her life she’s happy to turn the page on.  <\/span><\/p>\n

“It brought up a lot of old feelings,” she says of getting the phone call informing her the suspension would not be extended.  <\/span>“It was a release\u2026what I did was compartmentalize everything and put it away.  <\/span>If I didn’t then I wouldn’t have been able to train.”<\/p>\n

With the ruling, which you can read in full by clicking here<\/a>, Hardy’s records, set since her August 2009 return to competition, officially stand, and she’s now a big step closer to finally fulfilling her dreams of swimming in an Olympics.  <\/span>She still needs for the IOC to rule her eligible, but with an official ruling body siding with her and backing her assertion that the test result was a result of a tainted supplement, and not willful ingestion, her odds look good.  <\/span><\/o:p><\/p>\n

Of course, when you’ve been burned as Hardy has, it’s a little harder to put your faith in something.  <\/span>“I’d just say it makes me more\u2026comfortable about London,” she says.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Court of Arbitration for Sport sided with the Wilson alum in its Friday ruling, removing a major roadblock between Hardy and the 2012 Olympics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":16849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1164"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1164"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}