Australian swimmer Mack Horton calls it quits months out from Paris Olympics
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Former Olympic champion Mack Horton said he no longer felt he was able to give his best to the sport.
PHOTO: MACK HORTON/INSTAGRAM
MELBOURNE – Former Olympic champion and advocate for clean sport Mack Horton has announced his retirement from swimming only a few months before the Paris Games that were expected to be his swansong.
The 27-year-old Australian, who won the 400 metres freestyle gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics, said he no longer felt he was able to give his best to the sport.
“I dearly wanted to swim in Paris but the hunger wasn’t there,” Horton, who recently got married, said in a Swimming Australia media statement.
“I always want to give my all and I am not someone who just wants to make up the numbers, so this is the right time to step away.”
He later told the Sydney Morning Herald: “Usually when I am not satisfied with a swim, I’ll touch the wall and there is clarity – ‘This is what I need to fix, this is what I need to do’ – and I’m really motivated to do it.
“I touched the wall and for the first time ever, I had none of that. I had done everything that anyone has ever asked of me. I had tried as hard as I can and I just didn’t know if I could go faster.
“Up until that moment, I believed my best would still beat the best in the world... There is no point doing it if I don’t believe my best is going to win.”
In addition to his Olympic gold, he won a bronze in the 4x200m free at the postponed Tokyo Games in 2021.
He won a gold in the same event at the 2019 Gwangju world championships.
Horton also has three world championship silvers, two bronzes and four Commonwealth Games golds.
Apart from his medals, he will be best remembered for refusing to stand on the podium next to Sun Yang
Sun was under investigation for tampering with the doping process, charges which ultimately earned him a ban of four years and three months in 2021.
Horton, who had previously called Sun a “drug cheat”, was subjected to a huge amount of abuse on social media for his stand and accused of hypocrisy when he did not similarly call out fellow Australians who were found guilty of doping offences.
On whether the anti-doping situation now had improved, he said: “I just don’t know. I’m sure there is science we don’t even know about. Everyone is always looking for an edge.”
“I am so grateful for my time in swimming and in regard to legacy, I hope my teammates and the sport think that I was able to help them and the sport in some way,” he added.
“And I hope they just remember me as Mack.” REUTERS
