Mack Horton

Mack Horton
Personal information
Full name Mackenzie Horton
Nickname(s) "Mack" "Mack the Knife"[1]
National team  Australia
Born (1996-04-25) 25 April 1996[2]
Melbourne, Victoria
Height 190 cm (6 ft 3 in)[3]
Weight 88 kg (194 lb)[3]
Sport
Sport Swimming
Strokes Freestyle
Club Melbourne Vicentre[3]
Coach Craig Jackson[3]

Mackenzie "Mack" Horton (born 25 April 1996) is an Australian freestyle swimmer. He is an Olympic gold medallist, World Championships medallist, and Commonwealth Games medallist. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he finished first in the 400m freestyle, winning his first gold medal and became the first male swimmer from the state of Victoria to do so in the Games' history.[4][5]

Career

Horton first represented Australia at the 2012 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Honolulu, where he won gold in the 1500 metre freestyle in a championship record time of 15:10.07.[6] At the same meet, he finished second in the 400-metre freestyle[7] and 4th in the 800-metre freestyle.[8]

Two months later at the final leg of the 2012 World Cup in Singapore, Horton won the 1500 metre freestyle event in 14:54.25.[9]

At the 2013 Australian Youth Olympic Festival, Horton won gold in the 1500 metre freestyle event.[10]

Eight months later at the 2013 World Junior Championships in Dubai, Horton won five gold medals and a silver. He took out the 200 m,[11] 400 m,[12] 800 m[13] and 1500 m freestyle events[14] and alongside Luke Percy, Regan Leong and Blake Jones won the 4×100 m freestyle relay[15] all in new Championships record times. The team of Horton, Leong, Isaac Jones and Jack McLoughlin finished second behind the British in the 4×200 m freestyle relay event.[16]

Horton qualified for his first senior team at the 2014 Australian Swimming Championships where he won the 1500 metre freestyle in 14:51.55[17] and finished second behind David McKeon in the 400-metre freestyle in 3:44.60,[18] setting two new junior world records.[19] Horton also finished 5th in the 200-metre freestyle in 1:47.36[20] which also set a new junior world record.[21]

At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Horton won the silver medal in the 1500 metre freestyle in new junior world record time[22] of 14:48.76[23] and narrowly missed the podium in the 400-metre freestyle finishing in fourth place in 3:44.91.[24] In the 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay event, Horton alongside Thomas Fraser-Holmes, David McKeon and Ned McKendry finished as the fastest qualifies with Horton swimming the anchor leg in 1:49.17.[25] In the final, Horton was replaced by Cameron McEvoy and they went on to win the gold in a new games record time of 7:07.38.[26]

"It feels like all my hard work has paid off and being able to back up with two big competitions this year has given me more confidence for the future and I'm really excited to see how far I can go."

Mack Horton, 24 August 2014[27]

Three weeks later at the 2014 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Gold Coast, Australia, Horton won the silver medal in the 800-metre freestyle in 7.47.73,[28] the bronze medal in the 1500 metre freestyle in 14:52.78[29] and with McKeon, McEvoy and Fraser-Holmes won bronze in the 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay in 7:08.55.[30]

In April 2014, Horton became an ambassador with the swimwear brand Speedo[31] and in August 2014, after his breakthrough performances he was named the winner of the Georgina Hope Foundation Rising Star of the Australian Swim Team.[27]

At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Horton represented Australia in the 400 m freestyle, in which he won gold, and the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay, in which he finished 4th with his teammates.[32] He finished 5th in the final of the 1500 m freestyle.

Career-best times

Event Time Record Meet
Long course
200 m freestyle 1:47.36 2014 Australian Championships
400 m freestyle 3:41.55 2016 Summer Olympics
800 m freestyle 7:44.02 2015 World Aquatics Championships
1500 m freestyle 14:39.54[33] 2016 Australian Championships

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kitson, Robert (August 7, 2016). "Mack Horton speaks out after golden swim as unrest poisons Rio pool". The Guardian. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Profile of Mack Horton". Glasgow 2014. 29 July 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Profile of Mack Horton". Swimming Australia. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  4. ↑ "Mack Horton wins gold in 400m freestyle".
  5. ↑ "Mack Horton the first Victorian swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal".
  6. ↑ "Results of the boys' 1500 metre freestyle at the 2012 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships". Pan Pacific Swimming Association. 24 August 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  7. ↑ "Results of the boys' 400-metre freestyle at the 2012 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships". Pan Pacific Swimming Association. 25 August 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  8. ↑ "Results of the boys' 800-metre freestyle at the 2012 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships". Pan Pacific Swimming Association. 27 August 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  9. ↑ "Results of the men's 1500 metre freestyle at the 2012 FINA Swimming World Cup event in Singapore" (pdf). Omega SA. 11 November 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  10. ↑ "Results of the boys' 1500 metre freestyle at the 2013 Australian Youth Olympic Festival". AOC. January 2013. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  11. ↑ "Results of the boys' 200-metre freestyle final at the 2013 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships" (pdf). FINA. 31 August 2013. p. 42. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  12. ↑ "Results of the boys' 400-metre freestyle final at the 2013 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships" (pdf). FINA. 31 August 2013. p. 1. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  13. ↑ "Results of the boys' 800-metre freestyle final at the 2013 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships" (pdf). FINA. 31 August 2013. p. 73. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  14. ↑ "Results of the boys' 1500 metre freestyle final at the 2013 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships" (pdf). FINA. 31 August 2013. p. 141. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  15. ↑ "Results of the boys' 4 × 100-metre freestyle final at the 2013 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships" (pdf). FINA. 31 August 2013. p. 23. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  16. ↑ "Results of the boys' 4 × 200-metre freestyle final at the 2013 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships" (pdf). FINA. 31 August 2013. p. 95. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  17. ↑ "Results of the men's 1500 metre freestyle final at the 2014 Australian Swimming Championships". Swimming Australia. 6 April 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  18. ↑ "Results of the men's 400-metre freestyle final at the 2014 Australian Swimming Championships". Swimming Australia. 1 April 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  19. ↑ Marsteller, Jason (1 April 2014). "FINA world junior records can begin being set today". Swimming World Magazine. Sports Publications International. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  20. ↑ "Results of the men's 200-metre freestyle final at the 2014 Australian Swimming Championships". Swimming Australia. 2 April 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  21. ↑ Marsteller, Jason (2 April 2014). "Thomas Fraser-Holmes proves successful with difficult double on night two of Aussie nationals". Swimming World Magazine. Sports Publications International. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  22. ↑ Lord, Craig (14 August 2014). "Park Tae-Hwan leads the speed in realm of rare catch-up mission for USA at Pan Pacs". swimvortex.com. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  23. ↑ "Results of the men's 1500 metre freestyle final at the 2014 Commonwealth Games". Glasgow 2014. 3 August 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  24. ↑ "Results of the men's 400-metre freestyle final at the 2014 Commonwealth Games". Glasgow 2014. 3 August 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  25. ↑ "Results of heat 2 of the men's 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay at the 2014 Commonwealth Games". Glasgow 2014. 3 August 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  26. ↑ "Results of the men's 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay final at the 2014 Commonwealth Games". Glasgow 2014. 3 August 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  27. 1 2 Stewart, Mel (24 August 2014). "Mack Horton presented the Georgina Hope Foundation Rising Star of the Australian Swim Team". swimswam.com. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  28. ↑ "Results of the men's 800-metre freestyle at the 2014 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships". Swimming Australia. 24 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  29. ↑ "Results of the men's 1500 metre freestyle at the 2014 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships". Swimming Australia. 21 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  30. ↑ "Results of the men's 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay at the 2014 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships". Swimming Australia. 22 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  31. ↑ "Speedo signs Australian rising star swimmer Mack Horton". Swimming Australia. 9 April 2014. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  32. ↑ "2016 Australian Olympic Swimming Team selected". Australian Olympic Committee. 14 April 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  33. ↑ Lord, Craig (14 April 2016). "Horton Passes Perkins Chasing Hackett in Lake of Legends – 14:39; McLoughlin 14:48". Swimvortex. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
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