'Not the only one': Fresh bombshell in Aussie doping scandal

The executive director of swimming' s governing body has casually dropped the bombshell that Shayna Jack isn’t the only swimmer to have failed a drug test in recent times.

Jack withdrew from Australia's squad shortly before the swimming championships began last week, revealing she had tested positive for a banned substance late last month.

Swimming Australia on Sunday defended their decision to conceal Jack's positive test at a time when her teammate Mack Horton was conducting a high-profile public campaign against Sun Yang in Gwangju.

FINA boss Cornel Marculescu said the governing body did not comment on Jack's positive test because the final decision had not been reached.

But he also said Jack was "... not the only one, there are another two. But we need to finish the case."

Marculescu said the other two cases were not Australian athletes but he gave no further details and did not specify whether they were related to the world championships.

The Romanian also told reporters that it was FINA's policy to not discuss ongoing doping cases until a decision had been reached and said the "super-transparent" governing body was at the forefront of the anti-doping fight.

FINA boss takes shot at Horton

Marculescu also said he hoped there would be no repeat of the podium protests that marred the world championships this week and that athletes would lose their medals if there was.

Horton refused to share the podium with Sun after his victory in the 400m freestyle last week, while Briton Duncan Scott shunned the Chinese swimmer on the podium after the 200.

The protests were "unfortunate" and the incidents had brought the sport "into disrepute", said Marculescu.

Swimmers could be stripped of their medals for similar serious deviations from FINA regulations in the future as it was "part of the sanction".

Marculescu, speaking at a news conference on the final day of the world championships, said the problem between Horton and Sun was "probably more a personal issue than a doping issue".

"It's more, 'You beat me, I must beat you somehow,'" he said, adding that the swimmers may now be regretting their actions. "Sometimes we make mistakes."

FINA's doping panel cleared triple Olympic champion Sun of a doping offense in January but the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is appealing the case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in September.

Sun also served a three-month suspension for doping in 2014.

"The doping panel is a totally independent body. They decided, you've see the decision and reasons," he said.

"Whatever CAS decides we need to accept."