Horton's impromptu protest in Gwangju cost him a potential sponsorship deal with Coke. It also presented a dilemma for Caulfield Grammar,an independent school heavily reliant on good relations with China.
Credit:Matt Golding
Caulfield Grammar was the first Australian school to open a campus in mainland China. Since 1998,it has sent groups of year nine students to its Nanjing boarding facility for a five-week,language and cultural immersion program.
At the school’s secondary campus in Wheelers Hill,a suburb in Melbourne’s east where one in six residents were Chinese at the time of the most recent census,Chinese children make up a large percentage of the student body.
Former federal government minister Kelly O’Dwyer,who as parliamentary secretary to Joe Hockey was part of the team that worked on securing a free trade agreement with China,joined the Caulfield Grammar school council in December.
Ms O'Dwyer referred questions about Horton and the pool to the school's spokeswoman.
When Caulfield Grammar principal Ashleigh Martin announced two years ago that the school had commissioned the construction of an indoor,olympic-sized pool equipped with a moveable floor to accommodate waterpolo and competition diving,he invited Horton’s father,Andrew Horton,to consult on its potential use.
Informal discussions were held between the school,Andrew Horton and Mack Horton’s coach Craig Jackson about whether Horton and his high performance squad,which currently trains at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre,would shift to the new pool.
Swimming Australia,which employs Jackson as a high-performance coach and contributes AIS funding to his squad,was aware of the discussions.
The Caulfield Grammar spokeswoman confirmed Andrew Horton’s involvement as a consultant. Andrew Horton declined to comment when contacted by theSunday Age,saying it was a matter for the school.
By November last year,when Sun Yang appeared at the Court of Arbitration of Sport in Switzerland to defend himself against allegations that he tampered with a blood sample in a bizarre altercation with drug testers at his Hangzhou villa,all discussions with Jackson and Andrew Horton had been abandoned.
Sun Yang’s Swiss-based lawyer,Fabrice Robert-Tissot told theSunday Age that the Court of Arbitration for Sport had given no indication when Sun Yang would learn his fate. The outbreak of the coronavirus has prevented the three-time Olympic champion from travelling outside his native Zhejiang province to train or compete.
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The coronavirus has also forced Caulfield Grammar to abandon its program in Nanjing. The school has done much the same to Horton,who now has his eyes firmly on booking a seat to Tokyo at June’s Olympic swimming trials.