China Furious After Mack Horton Accuses Sun Yang of Doping

By Diana Park

The feud that started with an Australian swimmer’s slander against the Chinese swimming star Sun Yang at the Rio Olympics is showing no signs of quieting down.

The controversy began when Australian swimmer Mack Horton called Sun Yang a “drug cheat” before their 400m freestyle final match over the weekend. After beating Sun to the gold medal, Horton repeated again that he does not regret his words, and that he hopes “others will follow,” because “it is true.”

Sun had been banned from competing for three months when he tested positive for doping in 2014. He was reported to have used the banned substance trimetazidine for heart palpitations.  

During the freestyle match, Sun reportedly splashed water towards Horton. “He wasn't too happy about that so he kept splashing me and I just got in and did my thing,” said Horton in an interview after the match.

Predictably, the reaction from Chinese netizens has been beyond fierce. In addition to being a top trending topic on Sina Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, for Sunday and Monday, the incident has prompted many Chinese to leave bitter diatribe on various social media platforms. One Chinese user on Twitter called Horton’s action “disgusting,” another called him a “racist,” and a Weibo user wrote that he hopes Horton would be “killed by a local kangaroo.”
The Global Times, the mouthpiece for the Chinese government, has also published a strongly-worded criticism in response to the scandal:

In many serious essays written by Westerners, Australia is mentioned  as a country at the fringes of civilization. In some cases, they refer to the country's early history as Britain's offshore prison. This suggests that no one should be surprised at uncivilized acts emanating from the country. We should think the same way.

With the performances by Chinese players falling short of early expectations, and the incident over the use of the wrong Chinese flag, the Rio Olympics have not been the most enjoyable to watch for the Chinese. The Chinese pride was only further scarred when Sun was spotted weeping on the shoulders of a Chinese reporter after the match.

[Images via WWOS, Daily Mail, Indian Express]

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