Several Chinese athletes had won gold medals at the ongoing Rio 2016 Olympics in Brazil such as weightlifter Long Qingquan, diver Wu Minxia and swimmer Sun Yang.
However, Sun’s victory was marred by an online war between Chinese and Australian netizens, triggered by Australian swimmer Mack Horton’s psychological tactics against Sun. Horton suggested on Saturday that Sun is a drug cheat while they were training for the 400 meters race on Sunday, reports IBT-Au.
Horton, who won the gold while Sun took the silver, was referring to Sun testing positive in 2014 for using a prohibited stimulant and resulted in the Chinese swimmer serving a ban. After he got his medal, Horton admitted he deliberately made the remarks to psycho out Sun who was the gold medalist for the same event in the 2012 London Olympics.
When Horton posted on Instagram photos of his medal, he received more than 300,000 comments from Chinese netizens asking that he apologize to Sun.
In turn, Australians hit back at the Chinese by poking fun at Sun’s teeth. Tony Jones, a Melbourne newsreader, called Sun’s teeth “chompers,” reports News.com.au.
Kasey Donahue tweeted, “sun yang looks like a descendants of the Sharks with those teeth.” Jessica Lutz congratulated the Chinese swimmer for his 200 meter race gold medal but added she could not handle his teeth. But Drunk Mike Hazen accused Sun of being a “cheater with shark teeth.”
Jordan Beall added he is happy with Sun’s gold medal because the Chinese swimmer could sell the medal to have his teeth fixed. Others laughed at his attempt to throw back his swim cap at the stands but Sun failed, so he instead threw it back at the pool.