By Phil Lutton
China's Olympic swim boss has launched a scathing attack on reports that star distance freestyler Sun Yang was involved in an incident with Australian rival Mack Horton during a training session in Rio.
A Fairfax Media report on Wednesday revealed that Yang, the 400m and 1500m gold medallist from London, has been splashing and attempting to distract Horton as the pair shared the pool just days out from the start of the Games in Brazil.
Horton reputedly ignored the taunts and continued with his work, with his coach Craig Jackson saying the 20-year-old Victorian wasn't going to let anything distract him with the 400m on the opening day of competition.
Fairfax Media stands by its story but the piece infuriated Chinese officials, with team manager Xu Qi denouncing it as 'fake news'. He said Yang was close friends with the Australian swimmers given he used to train on the Gold Coast.
"It is fake news," said Xu on the crienglish.com website. "Sun Yang and the Australian swimmers are very good friends."
Xu also asked for the media to "write about Sun Yang objectively and not to make up stories about him".
"Chinese swimmers respect their opponents and want to make friends with athletes from other countries. They are here to compete in the Olympic Games and realise their dreams," Xu said.
Yang hasn't needed the media to make up stories about him in recent years, providing some rich pickings with doping bans, car crashes and incidents with other swimmers before meets.
He served a three-month drugs ban in 2014 and was suspended by his national federation for driving unlicensed and slamming his Porsche into a bus.
The 24-year-old was also involved in a heated altercation with fellow swimmer Larissa Oliveira at last year's FINA World Championships in Kazan, where he was accused of trying to kick and elbow the Brazilian after an argument in the warm-up pool.