Mack Horton

Mackenzie James Horton OAM (born 25 April 1996) is an Australian retired freestyle swimmer. He is an Olympic gold medallist, World Championships gold medallist, and 4-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he took the gold in the 400m freestyle, and became the first male swimmer from the state of Victoria to win an Olympic swimming gold in the Games' history. Horton first represented Australia at the 2012 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Honolulu at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center, where he won gold in the 1500 metre freestyle in a championship record time of 15:10.07. At the same meet, he finished second in the 400-metre freestyle and 4th in the 800-metre freestyle. He also placed fourth in the 4×200-metre freestyle relay with a final time of 7:27.90, tenth in the preliminaries of the 200-metre freestyle with a 1:51.83, and twenty-first in the 100-metre freestyle with a 51.79. 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. At the 2013 Australian Youth Olympic Festival, Horton won gold in the 1500 metre freestyle event. 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, 400 m, 800 m and 1500 m freestyle events and alongside Luke Percy, Regan Leong and Blake Jones won the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay all in new Championships record times.