8 August, 2016. 11:15
CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact
The newly-crowned ‘bad boy’ of Australian swimming, Mack Horton, has today been photographed taking part in a wild rooftop party in the favela slums of Rio De Janeiro.
Not even an entire day after picking up Australia’s first gold medal in the men’s 400m freestyle, Horton has taken a break from calling out his Chinese rival, Sun Yang (silver) for drug cheating, and is believed to have made his way up to the ‘no-go zone’ for Olympics athletes for a bit of sangria and Brazilian barbeque.
The photo, which depicts a shirtless Horton smiling while surrounding by notorious Rio organised crime identities, has been praised by the IOC, with Australian chef de mission Kitty Chiller saying its good to see the ‘young fella’ unwind after a stressful marathon of competitions and media appearances.
“He needs to be able to relax,” she says.
“Our athletes can’t be expected to stay in their rooms rooting and doing stilnox… It’s good to see him up there taking in some of the local sights,”
“I’ve been meaning to take a few of our women’s sides up there to check out the twerking,”
“… and i’m sure someone as vehemently opposed to drug use as Mack would be able to steer clear of the other luxuries found up in the slums,”
Speaking to Sunrise this morning, Mack Horton says he was loving the attention he was getting with a Gold Medal on his neck in the slums.
“They were all over me,” he said.
“These people are so kind. The women are beautiful,”
With his next event scheduled in 5 days time, Horton says he’ll probably spend a bit more time in the slums until it’s time to ramp up again.
“Hopefully I can get all this drug drama out of my system by then.”
Ummm.. That is the worst photoshop job I have ever seen…