These days, an Australian named Horton is on fire on major platforms in China. Because after Sun Yang won the men's 400-meter freestyle at the recent Gwangju Swimming World Championships, Horton, who was the runner-up, was unwilling to "share the frame" with Sun Yang.
At the urging of the cameraman and braving the boos of the audience, he refused to stand on the podium. Afterwards, he repeatedly explicitly and hinted that Sun Yang was taking banned drugs. Although so far, the International Anti-Doping Agency has not detected any clues.
Horton's move, the whole audience was in an uproar, and the media boiled. The People's Daily commented on Horton's "exaggerated and arrogant words and deeds, which are an affront to opponents, an affront to FINA, and even more an affront to rules and morality." CCTV also criticized "Horton's insulters to humiliate themselves." ”
This makes us wonder, who is Horton? Why did he target Chinese swimmer Sun Yang so many times?
Born in 1996 in Melbourne, Australia, Horton received 14 years of education at The Caulfield Grammar School, a top private school in Melbourne that has come out of countless places. It can be seen that Horton has a good family and a good education.
In 2015, Horton, who was under the age of 19, stood at the Australian National Championships and swam a brilliant time of 3:42.84 in the 400 free swimming race, because the world's best time was Sun Yang's 3:41.59.
When the swimmers were all optimistic about the youngster, but on the world championships stage, Horton only won a bronze medal in the 800-meter freestyle. As a rising star, Horton's opponent who urgently needs to catch up in front of him is Sun Yang from China.
Perhaps at this moment he was questioned and disappointed, in 2016, he rearranged his form, set off again, and finally in the Australian National Swimming Championships and Olympic Trials in April, he swam 3 minutes 41.65 seconds in the 400 freestyle, refreshing Sun Yang's record.
And on the last day of the competition, the men's 1500 freestyle, Horton created a "huge miracle" in the media report:
He won the title with a world best of 14 minutes 39.54 seconds in the past four years, which is only more than 8 seconds slower than the current world record of 14 minutes 31 seconds 02 set by London Olympic champion Sun Yang when he won the championship in London four years ago, and Sun Yang has never swum the 14 minutes and 40 seconds mark since the London Olympics, but Horton has now done it.
After this competition, he won the attention of the swimming world and the media, and became a hot sports star.
NetEase News also used that "the Australian youngster swam out of the best in the past 4 years, and the preliminary round surpassed Sun Yang's Asian Games winning results" to mention him and Sun Yang, and pointed out in the report that "Horton said after the game that the 1500 freestyle result was beyond his imagination." Now his mother is accompanying him throughout the preparations for the Rio Olympics, and the Australian boy, who will turn 20 on April 25, is looking forward to the Rio Olympics. Perhaps, it is also from this moment on that the fates of Horton and Sun Yang are destined to be intertwined.
When the fates of the two were intertwined for the first time, Horton broke Sun Yang's dream of winning 4 consecutive championships. In August 2016, this time he did win, winning the Rio Olympic 400m freestyle title, but the off-field approach was also a concern.
During pre-olympic training at the Rio Olympics, Horton and Sun Yang warmed up at the adjacent lane, provoked Sun Yang, and in an interview with reporters, he said: "He splashed me to say hi and i ignored him because I don't have time for drug cheats." (He splashed me with water to greet me, and I ignored him because I didn't have time to deal with a medicated liar.) ）
In an interview, Horton denigrated Sun Yang
At that time, the Australian reporter max margan of the Daily Mail reported that during the training in Rio, Sun Yang deliberately splashed water to interfere with the training of Australian swimming star Horton, and Sun Yang once taunted Horton in training.
At that time, this report caused quite a stir, which had a negative impact on Sun Yang's reputation and seemed to interfere with Sun Yang's mentality during the competition.
Therefore, in the first matchday of the following day, Horton narrowly defeated Sun Yang by 0.13 seconds and won the championship.
After the game, Horton openly called Sun Yang a "doping liar", and said that "players who take banned drugs are not worthy of respect" and "do not want to compete with people who test positive for urine".
Strangely, Horton only made various remarks against Sun Yang, and specifically picked "noisy" during the competition. Is he really aware of what's inside? In fact, he also told his true thoughts.
Some time after the Rio Olympics, Horton revealed in an interview with his own media that the attack on Sun Yang was not intended to be quick, but had been planned for a long time, just to disturb Sun Yang's mind.
Horton said that john Bertrand, the president of the Australian Swimming Association, led the Australian second team to the America's Cup regatta in 1983, and for the "Armada" of the United States, Bertrand never called it by its name, but contemptuously called it "Little Red Boat". As a result, Australia successfully broke the cold, leaving americans to suffer their first defeat in 132 years.
Horton said: "To do this [against Sun Yang], I thought about it in advance, I was just stealing the way John Bertrand defeated the United States." ”
Australia's Sydney Morning Herald also reported: "Horton believes that deliberately releasing these incendiary remarks can remove the champion aura on Sun Yang and compete with this awesome strong enemy, and any slight fluctuation is crucial." ”
In other words, Horton himself has no insider information, that is, he simply intends to engage in "psychological warfare". The purpose is to catch up with Sun Yang in front of him.
Time came to 2019, Horton and Sun Yang met again at the World Championships, this time, Horton still wanted to use the old routine to thwart Sun Yang's confidence, but it did not seem to work.
In this 400 self-swimming competition, Sun Yang pressed Horton to win the championship. Horton refused to take the podium and advised the runners-up not to stand on the podium. In the end, the third runner-up did not listen to his advice and received the award with Sun Yang. The swim club warned Horton of this behavior, and he quickly said that he would protest the swim club warning.
In response to Horton's post-game disrespect, many industry insiders also criticized, and former Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority CEO Richard Ingers said on personal social media that Horton should be severely punished for this.
"I am not a fan of Sun Yang, but a series of things about the previous ones have been clarified. Therefore, Horton's failure to stand on the podium should be severely punished. He wrote.
Not only that, but Horton on social media also attracted resistance from foreign netizens. Some netizens said: "Sun Yang's ability to participate in the competition has proved his innocence, and he does not understand why Horton wants to make a big fuss in this regard", "Why can't Horton face reality, he just can't win Sun Yang?" ”
Some foreign netizens believe that Horton's performance on the international stage is hurtful, "How sad his performance is, and it is out of grace." If you are dissatisfied, you can beat him with strength, otherwise stop bragging. ”
On the other hand, the British Daily Mail also shelled Horton for being rude.
At the end of the report, there are two intriguing paragraphs:
“horton could at least take solace from his silver medal finish at a world titles that, by rights, he shouldn't be contesting.
Horton's silver medal should at least be comforted, after all, it is reasonable that he should not have gone to the game at all.
horton failed to qualify for an individual event at last month's world titles trials but was selected for the championships thanks to head coach jacco verhaeren's discretionary powers.
Horton did not qualify individually at last month's World Championships trials, but was selected thanks to the discretion of head coach Jacco Verhaeren. ”
Coincidentally, Australian media sbsnews published an article as early as July 5, saying that "a lifesaver was thrown at Horton." This "lifeline" is the manager's discretion. The introduction to the report also emphasizes that "although he failed to qualify".
Next, the report pointed out that because the back door was opened to Horton, another player with great potential lost the opportunity to participate.
“while hortonscraped in, a big name omission in the 27-strong squad is defending world champion emily seebohm.
While Horton barely squeezed into the roster, the 27ers were missing the famous defending world champion Emily Sibom. the 12-year national team veteran missed the world titles cut at the trials after missing a top-two finish in the 100m and 200m backstroke.
The 12-year-old national team veteran missed the top two in the 100m and 200m backstrokes and missed out on the chance to win the world championship. ”
Seebohm
According to reports, Sibom has twice won the women's 200-meter backstroke world championship, but the Australian Swimming Federation did not confirm the contestants according to the results, and directly opened the green light for Horton to participate. The question aroused the interest of many foreign journalists, so some reporters asked at a press conference in Australia why Horton could go through the back door.
The australian swimming coach said: "I believe he will perform well at the World Championships". The coach's vision is also unique, and Horton finally got the runner-up, only a little slower than Sun Yang. But after the award-winning incident, the coach couldn't help but say: "No one knew he would do it, it was his idea." The translation of this is: This moth has nothing to do with me, it is all made by Horton himself.
Horton has joined forces with the Australian Swimming Association and the International Anti-Doping Organisation to sue Sun Yang with the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for a retrial of Sun Yang's drug test.
In the face of the allegations, Sun Yang's team chose to accept the challenge and agreed to leave the case to Cas. At the hearing two months later, Sun Yang's drug test case will be tried in public by CAS, and the media can observe it. If there is no evidence that Sun Yang is taking banned drugs, what will Horton say? I remember that when he accused Sun Yang, he always emphasized that "fair competition in the swimming world" was always emphasized.
Hopefully, we can all compete fairly in sports.
This article was created by the author of the Tree Project [Outside the Circle Observation Room], and was published exclusively in today's headlines, and may not be reproduced without authorization.