Just who is Australia’s Rio gold medallist Mack Horton?

MACK Horton won Australia’s first gold medal of the Rio Olympic Games with a stellar swim in the men’s 400m freestyle final. But who is our latest champion?

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August 7, 2016 - 12:11PM

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MACK Horton won Australia’s first gold medal of the Rio Olympic Games with a stellar swim in the men’s 400m freestyle final.

But who is our latest champion?

Australia's Mack Horton. Picture: Phil Hillyard

MACK HORTON - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. Mack Horton was lucky to compete at the Olympic Games after he rolled his Land Rover off the edge of the road and down an embankment in May. The car was written off from the accident but Horton walked away with nothing more than a fractured nose from the airbags.

2. Horton’s love of swimming stems back to when he was just a kid and he met his hero, Grant Hackett, outside the 2006 Commonwealth Games in his home town of Melbourne. Horton has since beaten Hackett’s best 400m freestyle time and is hunting his 1500m freestyle best time here in Rio.

Mack Horton as a child when he met his swimming idol Grant Hackett.

3. Horton is considered one of the “geeks” of the swim team along with sprinter Cameron McEvoy and Mitch Larkin. Why? Well it’s not because he wears thick glasses to make him look like Clark Kent but because he’s studying for an economics degree.

Australian Olympic swimmer Mack Horton. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

4. A keen photographer, Mack Horton is often spotted sitting with teammates in the grandstands cheering and taking photos on his own Nikon camera. Clearly an old school kid, for Rio he has packed 16 rolls of film for his cameras.

5. Melbourne born and bred, Mack is obviously a huge AFL fan. Although his team has not had the greatest run in his lifetime – he supports the Melbourne Demons.

Aussies star in the pool on Day 1