On Sunday, Australian swimmer Mark Horton announced that he had retired from his swimming career.
Born in 1996, Horton won the men's 400m freestyle at the age of 20 at the Rio Olympics. Previously, Australian male swimmers failed to win gold medals at the '08 and '12 Olympics.
Originally, Horton, like famous players like Hackett and Thorpe, should follow the glory of Australia's middle-to-long distance freestyle. But now when it comes to Horton, all the reports and discussions are inseparable from Sun Yang. A review of his and Sun Yang's deeds goes beyond the description of Horton's personal career.
Sun Yang's two doping-related incidents, Horton responded fiercely on the occasion of the high-profile World Championships, filling each other's topics and popularity.
Due to the fact that Sun Yang tested positive for doping in 14 years and was banned from the tournament in 14 years, after defeating Sun Yang and winning the championship in the 16 Olympics, Horton publicly called Sun Yang a drug liar. However, in the 17 and 19 World Championships, he lost to Sun Yang twice in a row and won the silver medal.
In the 19 World Championships, Horton, who was in the second position on the podium, refused to take a group photo with Sun Yang on the podium.
The year before, Sun Yang did not cooperate with the off-competition flight drug test, but at that time, FINA had ruled that Sun Yang was not punished and could participate in the World Championships normally. Due to Horton's behavior, the Olympic Committee issued a special rule that strictly prohibits athletes from refusing to take the stage to receive the award.
After Sun Yang was banned in 2020, Horton's career also went downhill completely.
Thanks to Horton's main event, the 400m freestyle, there are several stronger athletes in Australia. Houghton did not qualify for the individual event at the Tokyo Olympics and only took part in the 4x200 self-relay heats.
In last year's World Championships selection, Horton only won the third place in the 400m freestyle and missed the World Championships.
Coincidentally, in 2023, shortly after Sun Yang and former rhythmic gymnast Zhang Doudou got married, Horton also entered the marriage hall with his girlfriend who had been in love for many years.
Australian swimmers, also who have never really been decoupled from doping scandals. In addition to Xie Na Jack, who happened to hit the cusp, another athlete, Rickard, found a trace positive substance in the urine sample left by the London Olympics when it was tested in 2020, but no punishment was imposed because the IOC withdrew the complaint.
In 2024, Sun Yang will finally lift the ban and can return to compete, but he will not be able to participate in the Paris Olympics. And the reason for Houghton's retirement was that he had lost enough desire to swim. The topic of the two of them is not known if it will end here.