Sally Pearson hopes Mack Horton's silent protest against Sun Yang will be a beacon for future generations as another of Australia's greatest Olympians, Dawn Fraser, said the Chinese swimmer should not even be competing at the world championships.
Pearson and Fraser threw their support behind Horton after he refused to share the medal dais with Sun after claiming silver in the men's 400m freestyle behind his longtime adversary, who is facing fresh accusations he used a hammer to smash a vial of blood from a recent sample.
Support Sally Pearson with Dawn Fraser and Chloe Esposito were in Sydney to mark one year to the Tpkyo Olympics.Credit:AAP
The 27-year-old will front the Court of Arbitration for Sport in September to defend himself against the doping rule violations which threaten to rob him of a spot in Tokyo.
"I've got to stand behind Mack because he's made his protest," Fraser said. "We all know that Sun Yang has a court case to go through in September and if it were me I wouldn't have been allowed to swim at these championships and that's what should have happened with Sun Yang.
"A lot of the swimmers in the last 15 years have said, 'we want a clean sport'. We had a lot of trouble with the East Germans. We're all fighting for that and I've got to stand behind Mack for what he's done. He didn't want to stand on the podium with a drug cheat.
"I don't think I would have [stood on the podium] knowing what they know."
AOC boss Matt Carroll said his organisation wanted to "get all doping out of sport".
"Mack is a very sincere young man who is true to his values – and you can see that," he said. "He's a man of great integrity and we respect that.
"We will continue to support those athletes and the actual case in question is a matter before the Court of Arbitration for Sport. That has to run its course."
Pearson is hoping to resurrect her quest for back-to-back world championship wins when she heads to Europe within the next month as she recovers from a torn hamstring which has stalled her season. She hopes to run in several low-key events before heading to Doha.
"I would like to be in better position than I am already, but I guess the positive I can take out of it is that when I injured myself I was in incredible shape," she said. "I was in really, really good shape.
"The confidence was sky high about defending my world title. This is a three or four week setback and it won’t take me as long to get back in good shape."
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