On January 21, it was reported that only half a year before the start of the Paris Olympics, Australian swimmer Mark Houghton announced his retirement and officially ended his career.
Horton said he was eager to go to Paris for the Olympics, but he just wanted to give it his all and not be the "man of the numbers", and now it was time to leave. Horton thanked everyone, including his parents, wife, coaches and teammates.
The highlight of Horton's career came at Rio 2016, when he defeated Sun Yang in the final of the men's 400m freestyle to win his only Olympic gold medal. At the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, Horton won a bronze medal in the 4×200m freestyle relay.
Horton is well known to Chinese swimmers, also at the Rio 2016 Olympics. At that time, he was controversial because he expressed his dissatisfaction with Sun Yang several times. During the Rio Olympics, Horton called Sun Yang a "liar who took drugs", "it is a fact that Sun Yang was found to be using banned drugs", and "the sports world should have zero tolerance for banned drugs".
In response to Horton's remarks, the Chinese Swimming Association called it a lack of literacy and sportsmanship, and demanded that the Australian Swimming Association apologize for the incident. However, the Australian Swimming Association refused to apologize on the grounds that Horton "has the right to express his opinion".
At the 2019 Gwangju World Swimming Championships, Horton won the runner-up in the 400-meter freestyle, and the competition once again caused controversy because he refused to accept the award and take a group photo with the champion Sun Yang. In an interview after the race, Horton said he "didn't want to be on the podium with someone who did that kind of thing".
According to Australian media reports, Horton will start a new life after retiring. He recently married his high school sweetheart, Ella, and is set to work for an advertising agency in Melbourne next week.