Australian swimming star Mack Horton said he would still boycott Sun Yang and accuse Chinese fishermen of using doping, even after learning that the young national team teammate Shayna Jack had failed to pass the inspection of banned substances.
According to AFP, after appearing to mixed opinions about the Chinese fisherman breaking a doping blood sample vial, Horton humiliated Sun Yang for not agreeing to take a picture together on the medal platform and from refuses to shake hands at the 2019 World Swimming Championships.
The position of the athlete who won the Olympic gold medal at 400m freestyle is supported by many spectators present at the tournament. However, Horton’s actions also angered the Chinese. The anger was even more explosive when it revealed that Australian female athlete Shayna Jack did not pass the test before entering the tournament.
Jack had returned home before the start of this year’s World Swimming Tournament, and Horton only knew of a positive testimony of the female team member after he had boycotted Sun Yang. However, Horton emphasized that Jack’s story did not affect his position on Sun Yang.
AFP quotes Horton as saying: “The difference is that as soon as she (Shayna Jack) received a positive test result, she returned to Australia and did not compete in the Swimming Championships. That gave me confidence in the Australian system. We do not let the athletes of our country get out of that, so we can ask more questions, doubts and ask more from the rest of the world”.
Sun Yang – once banned for three months for using banned substances in 2014, has been vilified, defamatory in South Korea after reports of Chinese super fishermen using a hammer to smash jars containing blood samples of The doping committee in the World Swimming Federation (FINA) was exposed. Sun Yang (who won the Olympic gold medal three times and 11 times world champion) has denied any wrongdoing.
Before the tournament in Korea, FINA declared that Sun Yang did not violate the law, so he was able to attend the tournament after breaking the jar containing the sample. However, the World Doping Prevention (WADA) has filed an application with the International Court of Sports Arbitration (CAS) to appeal the decision.
Horton has started a verbal war with Sun Yang since the 2016 Olympics, when he called his Chinese rival “doping fraud”. The Australian athlete revealed that he thought of protest days before the final swim of the 400m freestyle he came second after Sun Yang. However, the decision was made in the last minutes.
Horton recalls: “I wavered. I do not feel sure. I’m stress. It was annoying that no one really knew what to do, and then suddenly the audience became aware of what was going on and started clapping, I guess. It touched me and I seemed to think, “Ok, this is the right thing to do.” Later, when I walked into the dining hall, the US team started clapping, then all the rest of the lobby started cheering as I entered”.