The fallout from the Mack Horton – Sun Yang incident 
continues. It looks like this could rage on for quite some time. Last night Fina issued a warning to Swimming Australia and Mack Horton in regards to his actions. If you didn’t know Mack refused to stand on the podium for the medal presentation for the men’s 400m freestyle. I must admit that all the posts I’ve read on social media have 99% of the support of Mack Horton for standing up and making his protest.
Solidarity
Horton was even given standing ovation in the athlete’s dining hall. This came from his refusal to stand on the same podium as Sun during the medal ceremony. We are not sure what the letter from Fina to Mack and Swimming Australia said. However, in a statement from Fina they said “While FINA respects the principle of freedom of speech, it has to be conducted in the right context. As in all major sports organizations, our athletes and their entourages are aware of their responsibilities to respect FINA regulations and not use FINA events to make personal statements or gestures”
Clear to see
Sun’s lawyers have requested that CAS hold a public hearing for the case in the interest of transparency. Sun has also spoken to the media saying “Disrespecting me was ok but just respect in China was unfortunate I feel sorry about that.”
Is it fair for others?
Before the race, Mack Horton approached Gabriele Detti and asked him if he too would stand behind the blocks during the ceremony. Detti responded that he had worked very hard to earn his metal and wanted to enjoy it. Mack Horton did not advise any of the Australian coaching staff of his decision to not stand on the podium for the medal presentation according to Australias head coach Jacco Verhaeren.
All for one
Many other swimmers have all come out in support of Mack including Ryan Murphy. Ryan said that he believed Horton’s protest was more directed at Fina and WADA in response to the handling of drug testing. Fellow Aussie teammate Mitch Larkin also supported his teammate. Mitch said, “you can 
never be confident you just got to trust the authorities but with what’s going on in support these days it’s hard to be 100% sure.”. Lilly King also has been very critical of the drug-testing process. Also stated “it was pretty great to see the athletes united on his stance and supporting him as well and I don’t think anyone in Fina is going to stand up for the athletes, so the athletes have to stand up from themselves.
In my personal opinion, I hope this can be laid to rest at least until the events of this week or over. We need to give all the other swimmers the respect and attention that they have worked so hard for and deserve. It would be very unfair to all the other participants if this was to overshadow the entire week’s racing. Being a fellow Australian I personally agree that Mack has done the right thing in making a protest against drugs in sport. However, I do feel conflicted as I don’t think it is fair that this happened on the first night of competition and looks to be the highlighting feature of the week’s events.
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