Mack Horton's family detail horror fallout from Sun Yang saga

The family of Australian swimmer Mack Horton have detailed the alarming backlash they copped as a result of their son’s protests against Chinese swimmer Sun Yang.

Sun Yang, a six-time Olympic medalist and the first Chinese man to win a swimming gold medal at the Games, is a national hero for many Chinese. However, Horton’s public stance against Sun has prompted severe backlash from Chinese fans, it even triggered a horrible toll on his family.

Numerous horrible death threats and harassment started almost immediately after Horton’s ‘drug cheat’ comment at the 2016 Olympics. Even Horton’s younger brother Chad was targeted as well, as Chad’s school reported threats directed at Horton’s brother.

Horton and his family were once again targeted after the Aussie star’s refusal to share the podium with Sun at the 2019 World Championships in South Korea.

The business of Horton’s father Andrew was also under attacked, with the only method of preventing online attacks was to completely deny access to the website from China. A normal day for Horton family was to deal with dog faeces thrown at their house, to find shattered glass thrown into their family pool, and to bear with cadres of unidentifiable figures banging pots and pans around their home in the middle of the night.

After the Court of Arbitration for Sport had handed down its ruling in February, months of harassment on Horton family were fading away with Sun’s eight-year-suspension of competition for a drug-test violation.

What has happened to Mack Horton’s family sounds like a movie plot. However, for a #totalitarian state like #China, those are some normal tactics to "fix" an opponent.

#Australia #Swimmers #SunYang #DeathThreats #harassment

Source:
https://au.sports.yahoo.com/mack-hortons-family-detail-horror-fallout-from-sun-yang-saga-000649435.html

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/sports/olympics/sun-yang-doping-ban.amp.html