Chinese fans of Sun Yang wipe superstar swimmer
Fans of Chinese swimming superstar and drug cheat Sun Yang have apologised to “all those who have been threatened and cursed”.
Fans of Chinese swimmer and drug cheat Sun Yang have apologised to “all those who have been threatened and cursed” less than a month after The Weekend Australian Magazine revealed a campaign of harassment and intimidation by Sun supporters against Australian swimmer Mack Horton and his family.
The Sun Yang Global Support Association announced its intention to close on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site, the US-based Swimming World Magazine reported.
“For some time there has been a lot of criticism on the internet for Sun Yang fans, we sincerely accept that,” the support association said.
“To all those who have been forced to pay attention to fan behaviour and persecution, we sincerely apologise and decide to disband the support group.
“Under the premise of Sun Yang’s public voice causing cyber bullying, stirring up nationalism, and violent resistance to inspection, here we would like to say sorry to the Chinese people and all athletes.”
Mack Horton’s father, Melbourne businessman Andrew Horton, said on Tuesday: “The biggest loser from all of this has been the sport. My hope in the post-pandemic restart is that sportsmanship is celebrated as much as medals.”
Swimming World Magazine reported on Monday that the support group’s contrition “follows a feature in the Weekend Magazine of The Australian newspaper in which Sun’s fans were cited as having targeted his long-time rival and critic Horton, the 2016 Olympic 400m freestyle champion”.
The Horton family spoke of a campaign of intimidation that included death threats and ‘‘glass shards being placed at the bottom of a garden pool”.
The group’s decision to disband comes as the Chinese swimmer, a triple gold medallist, awaits his appeal to a Swiss court against an eight-year suspension handed down by the Court of Arbitration for Sport this year for refusing to co-operate with anti-doping testers in 2018.
Horton’s rivalry with Sun goes back to the Rio Games in 2016, when the Australian won gold in the 400m freestyle event after labelling Sun a drug cheat at a press conference — a reference to a doping ban served by Sun the previous year.
It came to a head at the World Swimming Championships in South Korea last year when Horton, who ran second in the same event to Sun, refused to join his rival on the winner’s podium.
In an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian, the Horton family revealed that during the Rio Games their family home in Melbourne was burgled amid threats against their youngest son, who was preparing for his Year 12 exams.
At Rio, Brazilian commandos shadowed Mack, Andrew and Cheryl Horton. The computer system at Horton’s firm was repeatedly hacked, and the family was targeted with death threats and abuse online.
The family said supporters of Sun regularly banged pots and pans late at night in the alley behind their home and abused the family from the driveway. Plants have been poisoned, dog faeces hurled over the fence, and a man calls Andrew Horton regularly to threaten his daughter (he has no daughter). Last year Cheryl Horton discovered “a bucket load” of broken glass at the bottom of the family pool.
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