Victorian horseman Shayne Fisher has been left shocked and disappointed after his step-son Jamie Kermond was booted off Australia's Olympic team for testing positive to cocaine.
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"I don't drink or smoke. I've heard so many people say everyone is doing it, but I don't care," he said.
"We're shocked and disappointed. This was to be the pinnacle of Jamie's career."
Fisher said Kermond had been picked on ability, despite his controversial selection in the Olympic team.
"That's ignorant people asking questions," he said. "World rankings are all about prizemoney but the Olympic team selection is not based on world rankings.
"Everyone who knows anything about the sport knows why Jamie was picked. He well and truly earned his stripes," he said.
Fisher said Kermond was not in a good state of mind after being axed.
"He's in a bad way. He's very depressed. We can't go because of the COVID situation at present," he said.
"He's there with his wife and new baby. They have two children now.
"He's been doing as much jumping as he could in Australia but it's been hard. COVID has put jumping on the back foot but he's been doing as much work as normal.
"You just don't get the ranking points in Australia, they are few and far between. He's had some outstanding achievements.
"It's heartbreaking because this is one of our greatest teams ever to go to the Olympics. It's a fantastic team."
Fisher said he was speaking to Kermond regularly, but the current situation was difficult.
"We can't be there, but he's fortunate. His wife (Jamie) is very strong. She's very much 'get on with it. You made a mistake, get on with it'," he said.
"At the moment we're angry and disappointed, angry at him, but we'll always support Jamie.
"There are other things much worse than a child missing the Olympics going on in the world right now because he made a mistake, a stupid mistake."
Fisher said Kermond being selected for the Olympics had been a life-long ambition.
"It was the first step in a dream. The big question I have is why?," he said. "He was under pressure through the selection appeal process and that's the only thing I can put it down to. We really hope everything will turn out OK. We hope he comes back bigger and better and gets another chance.
