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对，正是如此，最早文贵说，后来穆桂英传中南海老领导同志的话，也是这么说；“主持”二字，天雅用得精准。去年12月初，文贵讲，岐山从广州专程去武汉呆了四天，面授郭德银机宜。

https://twitter.com/Li70510868/status/1232465042345316352

在喜馬拉雅戰鷹團Himalaya Hawk Squad2020年5月15日发布的【班農作戰室Pandemic】EP171-1 精選片段提到——

【班农先生：今天，你还有另一个令人震惊的关于解放军参与此事的新闻，我们还剩下几分钟时间，你能给大家介绍一下你最新的报道吗？

Sharri Markson：这真令人惊异，自从今年疫情爆发以来，世界上最有声望的医学期刊之一，《自然》杂志发表了关于新冠病毒的论文，其中发表在《自然》上的一个研究就是如何使冠状病毒从动物传染给人类，这篇论文所依赖的基因测序和病毒分离是PLA实验室做的，中国人民解放军实验室，中共国军队做的基因测序和病毒分离，这是非同寻常的，在这项研究的感谢名单中，有一个叫曹务春的教授，他实际上拥有中国人民解放军上校军衔，文章没有披露，但是列出了实验室的名称，我是一名记者，我正在调查这一领域，我将继续调查此事，这个实验室实际上是一个解放军实验室，在《自然》上却没有透露，这篇文章经过同行评议并于3月出版发表，但根本没有提及（中共军方），但是我认为这是个很大的问题，因为这表明该研究可能受到影响，在澳大利亚悉尼大学的一位科学家是本文的合著者，我向他们提出了很多问题，他们在回复中根本没有否认、没有否认，他们没有辩解。】

那么这个曹务春是何许人也？

据百度百科——曹务春【曹务春，男，1963年生，博士，研究员，博士研究生导师，国家杰出青年科学基金获得者。山东大学公共卫生学院1980级校友。1996年毕业于荷兰依拉姆斯（Erasmus）大学，获博士学位。现任军事科学院军事医学研究院研究员。】 【曹务春研究员曾在英国剑桥（Cambridge）大学、瑞典卡罗琳斯卡（Karolinska）研究院、泰国马希敦（Mahidol）大学进行客座研究。现为军事医学科学院微生物流行病研究所所长，病原微生物生物安全国家重点实验室主任；中国科学院遥感应用研究所兼职研究员、博士研究生导师，山东大学博士研究生导师。曾任微生物流行病研究所所长助理、流行病研究室主任，兼全军疾病检测中心主任。中华预防医学会常务理事。大校军衔。】、【专长的技术领域：传染病流行病学与控制，空间信息技术在公共卫生领域的应用及分子流行病学研究。传染病特别是自然疫源性疾病的流行病学及综合防治对策研究，疫苗联合免疫效果评价，重要生物战剂分子流行病学调查，生物战防护流行病学侦察，生物危害评估。】

在对曹务春的相关信息进行搜集整理后，我认为他就是军中毒王——

据财新网2013年01月28日 20:44发表的习近平签署通令给六单位、24人记功（政经当日快讯）【中央军委主席习近平签署通令，给在单位建设取得突出成绩和完成任务中做出突出贡献的总参谋部某研究所、63698部队、63752部队、91257部队、96165部队、78511部队记一等功

据新华网1月28日消息，中国共产党中央军事委员会主席习近平日前签署通令，给6个单位、24名个人记功。

给在单位建设取得突出成绩和完成任务中做出突出贡献的总参谋部某研究所、63698部队、63752部队、91257部队、96165部队、78511部队记一等功。

给在本职岗位上做出突出成绩和完成任务中表现出色的63620部队一室高级工程师李国顺、63920部队总工程师童斌、93936部队副部队长张建兴记一等功，给总政治部话剧团一级编剧孟冰、解放军总医院主任医师范利记二等功，给解放军总医院南楼临床部主任医师俞森洋、丛玉隆记三等功。

给在科研工作中做出突出成绩的61419部队研究员张宝东，总参谋部某研究所原所长樊邦奎、某研究所研究员王建新，解放军理工大学原工程兵工程学院教授钱七虎，第四军医大学副校长兼第三附属医院院长赵铱民，第四军医大学第一附属医院院长熊利泽，军事医学科学院微生物流行病研究所所长曹务春，95338部队高级工程师林茂光记一等功；给总参谋部某研究所总工程师陈左宁、某研究所研究员马根海、某研究所副所长兼总工程师吕跃广，某研究所高级工程师曹江、某研究所研究员姚富强、某研究所研究员任辉启，解放军信息工程大学原测绘学院教授王家耀，海军工程大学某研究室主任何琳、95538部队高级工程师曹定国记二等功。】（笔者注：对于这份得奖单位不是本文探讨的重点，但是要特别注明获奖单位之一的78511部队据78511部队是一支什么性质的部队啊？建设的？战斗编制？还是后勤部队？地址在哪儿啊？【中国战略核反击部队，主要对象是美国数十座大城市，拥有两百枚左右能直接摧毁美国的洲际导弹。】，根据习近平主席的颁奖时间可以推测，在2013年1月28日之前，中共已经部署好了可以随时攻击美国数十座大城市的战略部队，这一点请美国政府务必注意，不要漏掉这个重要目标，以免它轻举妄动！）

那么这个曹务春都有什么彪炳战绩，可以得到习近平主席颁发的一等功呢？我们下面把通过公开资料可查的曹务春的“业绩”逐一列明——

1、据财新网2006年08月21日发布的中国追溯首例人禽流感【《新英格兰医学杂志》是出版于美国的国际学术杂志。今年（笔者注：指2006年）6月22日，该杂志发表了一篇“致编辑部”的文章，题为“中国H5N1人禽流感死亡病例”，作者是中国军事医学科学院微生物流行病学研究所祝庆余、秦鄂德、曹务春等八名科学家。他们在文章中回顾了对一位2003年中国H5N1人禽流感死亡病例的肺部标本研究。】、【文章称，2003年11月，一位24岁的男子因肺炎和呼吸困难住院，四天后死亡。由于患者的症状以及对其肺部样本及血清学检测都符合SARS诊断标准，最初被认为是死于SARS。但后来，科学家对从穿刺肺组织分离出的病毒进行检测，发现实际上是H5N1禽流感病毒。该病毒被命名为A/Beijing/01/2003。

对病毒的基因排序显示，它是一个与2004年从中国各个禽流感疫区分离的H5N1病毒十分相似的混合型病毒。尽管看上去与1996年广东鹅身上分离出来的禽流感病毒同源，却和此前从其他人禽流感患者身上分离出来的病毒有所不同。】、【目前可以查询到的记载是，香港大学科学家于2003年3月22日首先公布SARS元凶为冠状病毒。实际上，祝庆余、秦鄂德等人更早于2月20日就已经观察到冠状病毒，并于3月21日确认冠状病毒就是SARS的病原。但由于需要对研究结果进行论证，且需经军事医学科学院、总后勤部、卫生部等层层上报，并与国家疾病预防控制中心联合进行整体认可，他们的研究成果最终在4月11日才由新华社发布。】、【2005年5月初，中国青海湖斑头雁、棕头鸥等候鸟发生成批死亡。祝庆余作为课题小组成员，与中国农业大学刘金华教授等专家一起，确诊了候鸟的发病与死亡系H5N1亚型禽流感病毒感染所致。这是中国科学家在禽流感病毒研究领域取得的一项世界领先的研究成果，后来发表于当年7月的《科学》杂志上。】、【至于史某这个病例，发生时正值2003年秋冬季节。当时SARS疫情已经消退，北京已不属疫区，但有关SARS卷土重来的警告不绝于耳，国内对SARS的防控和监测依然严密。祝庆余等最初怀疑史某死于SARS，后经实验室检查，排除了SARS可能性，将其标为“未知病例”。在中国出现新一轮禽流感之后，他们从2004年2月开始对样本进行检测，并由此追溯了中国第一例人禽流感病例。】

这一则新闻有着太多的疑点——

H5N1的病毒是2005年5月初由祝庆余发现的，而由曹务春发现的这个由卫生部追溯为H5N1确诊致死的解放军士官史某死于2003年11月，他的肺标本“穿刺肺组织分离出的病毒进行检测，发现实际上是H5N1禽流感病毒。该病毒被命名为A/Beijing/01/2003。对病毒的基因排序显示，它是一个与2004年从中国各个禽流感疫区分离的H5N1病毒十分相似的混合型病毒。”也就是说在祝庆余2005年5月初的科研之前，中共军方的曹务春团队就已经在2004年从中国各地禽流感疫区取得了病毒样本，而且还能把死于2003年11月初部诊断死于SARS的史姓士官的肺部组织分离出的病毒对比，这是不是可以侧面证明——

中共军方制造了H5N1病毒，并将这种病毒植入了人体实验，而史某就是这次人体实验的牺牲品，随后中共军方将H5N1向禽类植入，以观测禽类与人之间的交互传染，以达到测试生化武器的目的？这一点也在随后曹务春的种种发现上得到验证，同时也可以看出曹务春在科研方面的百发百中其实就是源于他可以先把枪射出去，然后把弹着点列为靶心，这样可以使他的研究百发百中，独中头元。

写到这里稍微打个岔，2003年的SARS的病毒毒株是怎么来的呢？据财新网政府信息公开亡羊补牢（政经）[2003-06-20]（笔者注：这篇文章已经设置了限制阅读，但是我在存底！）【周汉华以自己的亲身经历告诉记者，他就曾经向英国政府致信，要求了解某一信息。“接到申请，他们一定要寄资料或告知获得资料的办法，”周汉华说，“但这样的事在现阶段的中国，几乎不可想像。”基因专家杨焕明和北京基因组研究所的遭遇证明这一点。自春节前获知SARS疫情起，杨焕明们就四处向有关部门寻求病原体样本信息，但屡屡碰壁。直到4月15日，他们接到军事医学科学院紧急送来的病毒样本之后，才赶在不到36个小时内拿出了四株冠状病毒的基因序列图。可以说，由于SARS信息不公开，杨焕明和他的基因组研究所失去了两个月的时间。】。请注意：2003年的SARS病毒毒株来自于军事医学科学院，并且在当初由于军事科学院的拖延就耽误了两个月的时间！！！！

2、据CNR国防时空2012年02月15日 10:03 来自 微博 weibo.com

由中国军事医学科学院曹务春、李松研究员领衔的“新发传染病综合防控技术体系的建立与运用”项目，在14日举行的2011年度国家科技奖励大会，获得国家科技进步一等奖。

那么这个给曹务春带来国家科技进步一等奖的“新发传染病综合防控技术体系的建立与运用”项目是什么项目呢？据科技部2012年2月14日新发传染病综合防控技术体系的建立与应用【进步奖一等奖获奖项目“新发传染病综合防控技术体系的建立与应用”的研究成果在抗击SARS、阻击禽流感、应对甲型H1N1流感等突发疫病中发挥了重要作用，在我国新发传染病防治实践、突发疫情应急和重大活动保障中得到广泛应用，为提高人民健康水平，维护国家安全，保障社会和谐稳定和经济持续发展发挥了重要作用，并为今后我国应对突发传染病提供了可借鉴的经验。】，按照曹务春的这个项目，中国从2012年之后的传染病防治应该是上了一个台阶的，可是我们不要忘了最重要的一点——中共所主导的冠状病毒研究，从来就不是为了救人的，而是为了杀人的，为了杀人于无形，为了制造实战化的不战而屈人之兵的生化武器！这一点可以从曹务春下面几个战果一一体现——

3、科技日报 2013年09月30日 11:45 来自 VDong社交管理

【我军科学家研究蜱虫传染病获新发现】蜱俗称草爬子、隐翅虫，可暂时寄生在牛、羊、狗等动物体表，从而成为多种人兽共患病的传播媒介和宿主。军事医学科学院微生物流行病学研究所所长曹务春研究员团队建立起蜱媒传染病监测哨点，获得多项新发现。O网页链接

对于这种曹务春研究出来的蜱虫，我是在狗身上看见过的，但是我只知道它是寄生虫，我从来不知道它会带有随后在中国肆虐的另一种致命病毒——汉坦病毒。另外这再次引出了曹务春教授百发百中的科研发现之旅——

4、安诺基因 2013年09月30日 16:16 来自 专业版微博

【蜱媒传染病领域研究新进展】病原微生物生物安全国家重点实验室主任曹务春团队与黑龙江省牡丹江林业中心医院合作通过病原体特异性基因检测、序列测定、遗传进化分析和血清特异抗体检测，在世界上首次发现人感染西伯利亚立克次体BJ-90亚种病例。该研究结果发表在《NEJM》上。O网页链接

曹务春教授与石正丽教授都是异曲同工——他们总能发现人类从没发现的病毒，这一次，曹务春教授首次发现了“人感染西伯利亚立克次体BJ-90亚种病例”！我非常怀疑这又是一起实验室制造并人工释放甚至是蓄意人体实验的所谓“科学研究”！

5、掌上医讯 2013年10月03日 22:15 来自 旧版掌上医讯

【蜱传立克次体病研究新进展】军事医学科学院微生物流行病学研究所所长、曹务春研究员团队，近日在国际著名期刊《新英格兰医学杂志》上发表了关于蜱传立克次体病的学术论文。研究团队在世界上首次发现人感染西伯利亚立克次体BJ-90亚种病例，首次发现多例新塔拉塞维奇立克次体感O网页链接

曹务春教授再接再厉，又发现了世界上首例“首次发现多例新塔拉塞维奇立克次体感”！

6、罗恩仪器RSi 2013年10月04日 17:06 来自 360安全平台

[我国科学家研究发现两种罕见蜱媒传染病]日前，我国科学家曹务春研究团队发布了研究成果：继在世界上首次发现人感染西伯利亚立克次体BJ-90亚种病例后，又首次发现多例新塔拉塞维奇立克次体感染病人。另外，他们还发现当地优势蜱种——全沟硬蜱对新塔拉塞维奇立克次体的感染率 ……

我们在农村长大的从来没听说过蜱虫传染，倒是曹务春教授在蝗虫研究方面独中多元，接二连三的发现了全世界一个又一个首例，你确认他这是在研究蜱虫，而不是研究怎么把杀人的生化武器嫁祸到蜱虫身上？

7、曹务春、贺福初、高福Nature携手发表基因组研究重大成果（时间：2015年05月15日 来源：生物通） 【在5月13日的《自然》（Nature）杂志上，研究人员报告称对去年秋天在塞拉利昂5个地区收集的近200份埃博拉病毒（Ebola virus,EBOV）样本进行了测序。他们的结果揭示在疫情的这一阶段EBOV的多样性增加——他们利用来追踪病毒在几个受累社区个体之间移动的一些新EBOV亚谱系体现了这一点。

军事医学科学院微生物流行病学研究所所长、病原微生物生物安全国家重点实验室主任曹务春（Wu-Chun Cao）研究员，中科院微生物所的高福（George F. Gao）院士，和北京蛋白质组研究中心的贺福初（Fu-Chu He）院士是这篇论文的共同通讯作者。】

基于目前的冠状病毒来自于军方的事实，难道曹务春教授的这一重大发现不是提前放毒，然后收集样本研究以便于更好提升生化武器战力的一次演练？

8、新民周刊杨江 02月19日 22:16 来自 HUAWEI Mate 30

【寻找 “零号病人” 专家建议：重回海鲜市场】此次新冠肺炎的零号病人是谁 ？ 要怎么找 ？ 能找得到吗 ？2 月 17 日，军事科学院军事医学研究院微生物流行病研究所研究员曹务春告诉《中国科学报》：目前尚未找到 “ 零号病人 ”，建议重新回到武汉华南海鲜市场溯源病毒。零号病人是一种通俗说法，指病 展开全文c

对于这一次的武汉肺炎危机，曹务春教授在2011年获得国家科技进步一等奖的“新发传染病综合防控技术体系的建立与运用”项目显然没有什么用处，只是一句建议重新回到武汉华南海鲜市场溯源病毒草草打发了事，但是我们必须盯住他！

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Gangs outside the home, constant threats, their business hacked... four years after swimmer Mack Horton outed a Chinese rival as a drug cheat, his family still pays the price.

By LUKE SLATTERY

From The Weekend Australian MagazineApril 25, 202021 MINUTE READ353

On a mild October day last year Cheryl Horton was cleaning the backyard pool at the family home – a chore she rigorously avoids until it can be ignored no longer – when the vacuum head made a curious grinding sound. She raised the appliance, felt beneath it, and winced with pain. Blood coursed down her hand, dripping into the pale water. She called to her husband, Andrew, and together they discovered a “bucketload” of broken glass on the floor of the pool. She holds one of these centimetre-thick glass chunks, -glinting like a rough-cut diamond, as she speaks. “We keep it on the desk in the study,” she says, “as a reminder of how bad things got.”

The couple knew immediately where the -broken glass had come from, and why it was there. Just three months earlier their son, -Olympic 400m freestyle gold medallist Mack Horton, had refused to join Chinese swimmer Sun Yang, a three-time Olympic gold medallist and 11-time world champion, on the medal podium at the World Championships in the South Korean city of Gwangju. Horton had just won silver in the 400m freestyle; Sun Yang gold. Mack Horton’s mute -protest – standing up for clean sport by refusing to stand beside Sun – unleashed a wave of hostility more disturbing than anything the family had ever experienced. And since their son famously labelled Sun a drug cheat at the 2016 Rio Olympics, they’ve experienced a lot. “We’ve had so many death threats that we’ve stopped taking them seriously,” says Andrew with a grim chuckle.

At the Rio Olympics, before competition had even begun, Horton says Sun tried to provoke him in a warm-up pool by splashing water and hurling abuse as they both paused at the ends of their lanes. Asked by a reporter afterwards about the contretemps, Mack coolly replied that Sun had “splashed me to say hello, and I didn’t respond because I don’t have time for drug cheats”.

“That was the moment our lives changed,” says Andrew. “That’s when it all started.”

Mack’s remark in Rio, a reference to a three-month suspension his Chinese rival had served in 2014 for taking a banned stimulant, detonated across all forms of media – print, television and internet – with the force of a depth charge. Within 45 minutes, some 680,000 slurs, insults and death threats had assailed Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the Chinese social media -platform Weibo. His Wikipedia entry was later trolled. Mack was dog shit, a racist, destined for the Paralympics, and perhaps a nuclear bomb strike. He must apologise. Or else.

A week later, with Mack and his parents still in Rio, there was a break-in at the family home in the blue-chip Melbourne suburb of Glen Iris. Andrew’s business – he runs an educational -technology company – also began to experience relentless cyber attacks that could only be mitigated, he says, by denying access from China.

After Mack’s theatrical and somewhat passive-aggressive follow-up protest in South Korea last year, “the hate”, as the family calls it, rose to another level of intensity. Dog turds were hurled at the family home; their trees and plants were poisoned. A passing parade of youths gathered at the back fence to chant slogans while banging pots and pans in the dead of night, or stood in the driveway hurling abuse. Someone who spoke broken English took to phoning Andrew every second day to detail what he would like to do to his daughter (he has no daughter). And there was the broken glass in the family pool.

“The biggest change was the intensity,” says Andrew. “It was unrelenting. Every day and night in the second half of 2019, peaking in September, easing off in February this year.” It relented in the same month that Sun received an eight-year -suspension for destroying a blood -sample in an out-of-competition doping test.

Horton, who has regular and ongoing -security briefings about threats to his family, has been informed that his assailants call themselves -“Confucianists”. The 5th century BC -Chinese -philosopher has been revived in recent years as a national icon by a Chinese Communist Party seeking ethical moorings outside its founding credo of Maoism, and his name has become a codeword for Chinese nationalism. Sun himself seemed to invite a nationalist interpretation of Horton’s comments in Rio, saying: “Disrespecting me was OK, but -disrespecting China was unfortunate.”

Andrew harbours no ill-will towards Sun’s -supporters, believing on the advice of -security officials that they are acting under instructions from the Chinese Communist Party, either directly or indirectly, and “have little choice”. He is concerned, in fact, that some of them will be “beaten up, or worse, if they don’t comply”. He declines, on security grounds, to specify the assistance given to his family by police and security agencies; he’ll only say that he is “very grateful”. The fenced-in suburban family home is by social convention a kingdom, but for the Hortons it is a kingdom under siege.

The family’s challenges are part of a broader pattern of harassment and intimidation of the Chinese Communist Party’s critics and dissenters. Says a national security analyst who keeps a close eye on the case, and spoke on condition of -anonymity: “The Hortons’ story is very disturbing... It says something about the reach of foreign -powers within Australia.” Clive Hamilton, professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University, tells me: “Australians should know that China’s secretive Ministry of State Security has been carrying out a campaign of intimidation in this country against critics of the regime. It’s illegal and nasty.” Hamilton, co-author of the upcoming Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World, says ASIO is trying to monitor activities of this kind. “I hope we see some arrests and prosecutions soon. When that happens, we can expect the usual hysterical -denials and calculated outrage from the Chinese embassy, state newspapers and the Party-affiliated Chinese-language media in Australia.”

It’s understood that no arrests have been made in the Horton case, which has been kept from the public gaze. The Hortons report a “constantly revolving cast of characters” at their fence and in their driveway. If any were apprehended by police they would be questioned, cautioned, released, and another would take their place. “This is not an amateur operation,” remarks a security insider.

Politically motivated attacks on non-Chinese Australians are rare, but not unknown. In July last year a University of Queensland student, Drew Pavlou, a vocal critic of the university’s ties with Chinese organisations, says he was assaulted while leading a pro-Hong Kong rally on campus. “In the aftermath I saw my social media flooded by -hundreds of abusive -messages from supporters of the Chinese government,” says Pavlou, who is Greek-Australian. “There were dozens of threats in Mandarin and English. They threatened to kill me and my family, to rape my mother. It’s a terror -tactic to silence critics of the Chinese government.’’ Another position on the spectrum of debate about Chinese influence in Western society is occupied by John Keane, professor of politics at the University of Sydney, who warns about the “prejudice known as Orientalism” and points to “the treatment of Sun Yang by Australian xenophobes”.

Sun rose to fame in China when he became the first Chinese man to win an Olympic gold medal in swimming in 2012 (he won two: the 400m and 1500m). So when Horton defeated the Chinese superstar in the 400m in Rio, on the evening of August 6, 2016, it was bound to ramp up tensions.

Almost immediately Swimming Australia, the sport’s governing body, received letters from its Chinese equivalent threatening reprisals over Horton’s “drug cheat” claims. Shortly after the expiry of the deadline these letters had set for an apology, Swimming Australia’s website was hacked and crashed. Around this time, the Australian Census website went down after it was hit by -concerted cyber attacks launched from overseas, in a major embarrassment for the Turnbull -government and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Some tech commentators have speculated that these attacks were part of the blowback from Rio.

But there was one lighter moment to the post-Rio backlash. Horton’s coach, Craig Jackson, took six months off to travel around South America and in the jungles of Colombia he met a group of British students who told of a friend in the UK by the name of Matt Horton. “His Instagram account had been bombarded with insults by Sun’s -supporters,” Jackson says. “He even wrote to Mack to ask him to please apologise.”

The Hortons are happy to tell the story of their “grand adventure”, as they like to call it – and in the telling, to put it behind them. I catch up for a video call with Andrew, 53, and Cheryl, 52, a month after the announcement of Sun Yang’s eight-year ban – a punishment that will likely end his career, barring a successful appeal. It’s late March, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have just been postponed. Mack, a 24-year-old La Trobe University business management -student when he is not chewing up laps in the pool, marked the suspension of training with his first drink in a long time – a negroni – and a handful of almond croissants. But now he has been advised to “shut down” any media engagements amid security concerns: his mother had spied a “serious” drone above the house. Things that had once seemed extraordinary – death threats, abuse, home invasions – are now the wallpaper of their domestic lives. Andrew insists that his son’s protest in South Korea last year was as unrehearsed as his “drug cheat’’ remark in Rio. “It’s not about the result and it’s not about China and it’s not about Sun Yang,” he says. “For Mack, it’s all about clean sport.”

Andrew and Cheryl were in the stands at Rio watching the races when they felt the first ripples of all this. “I saw John Bertrand [president of Swimming Australia] and Mark Anderson [CEO] running towards us with a bunch of support staff,” Andrew recalls. “John asked if I’d had a conversation with Mack about what he was going to say about Sun Yang and I said, ‘No. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve no idea what he’s going to say’. At that point John told me [that Mack had made the drug cheat claim] and I went, ‘Oh… ok-ay’.”

Immediately, and without his knowledge, a Brazilian special forces commando was assigned to shadow the swimmer. His parents, too, had -protection; wherever they went they noticed the same two “friendly” young men nearby. “It was only when we were leaving the hotel and saw them putting machine guns into the boot that the penny dropped,” says Cheryl.

Since the Rio games there have been suggestions that Mack’s outing of Sun, made between the heats and the final, was merely astute pre-event gamesmanship: in the 400m freestyle final Sun was more than one and a half seconds off his -winning London Olympics time, and immediately after the race was filmed in tears. Others speculate that it was a way for Mack, at his first Olympics, to spur himself on. He told reporters after the event: “The last 50 metres I was thinking about what I said and what would happen if he gets me here.” Craig Jackson tells me there was “no preconceived plan to say any of that, but after he made the -comments he had to live up to his words. Mack certainly enjoys the big stage, and there is no stage bigger than the Olympics.”

The heats for Mack’s other big event, the 1500m freestyle, were held the following week. The night before, during an interview for Australian tele-vision, Andrew noticed his phone light up with text messages. Two suspicious vans had been -spotted outside the family’s home, where their other son Chad was preparing for his Year 12 exams. Andrew shows me one of the texts from a concerned neighbour, which reads: “The garage door was open and so was the house and Mila [the -family dog] is missing. The alarm is going off now I am waiting for the police to arrive.”

Cheryl cuts a sharp look at her -husband as he tells me this. “This is news to me as well,” she says. “Well I’m letting you know,” Andrew continues. “At around that time the school contacted us by SMS to say they were getting threats concerning Chad. He was actually doing a practice exam so he was escorted out of the school and spent the rest of the Olympics at his mate’s house.” Nothing was stolen from the home, and the dog eventually returned. “By the time the police arrived they’d hightailed it.”

Mark Anderson, former CEO of Swimming Australia, vividly recalls meeting the Hortons in a stairwell of the stadium at Rio soon after their son’s victory in the 400m freestyle. “They were trying to celebrate what was the biggest moment in Mack’s career,” he says. “I was hearing of the break-in at home where the son was still -living. They were concerned about Mack in the intense environment in Rio and their son a world away at home. They were justifiably concerned about the safety of both children. The celebration was tinged with concern – it was etched on their faces. But it says something about them that they were able to conduct themselves with dignity throughout.”

The following year Mack Horton told reporters that the ferocity of the blowback – the threats and harassment aimed at him and his family – had changed nothing. “I think I would do the same thing even if I knew the outcome.” And so, two years later, he did. Andrew and Cheryl were back in the stands to cheer on their son at the World Championships in South Korea. They didn’t know he was considering another protest. “But in hindsight we knew something was going to happen,” Cheryl admits. “There was an expectation – you could feel it in the air. Either Mack was going to protest, or someone else would.”

Her son’s actions are immortalised in the -iconography of competitive sport. In footage of the event, silver medallist Mack, lantern-jawed and bespectacled like a blond Clark Kent, congratulates Italian bronze medallist Gabriele Detti with a handshake but ignores his gold medallist Chinese rival. When it dawns on Sun that Horton won’t stand next to him on the podium his expression stiffens, and he offers a strained smile. None of the three medal winners in this awkward tableau seems to be playing the standard part: Horton, the steely protester, is resolute yet anxious, uncertain. Nor is there much joy in the smiles Sun and Detti are able to muster. When the trio walks off the stage Sun waves to the crowd, but his smile has once again curdled; Horton brings up the rear with long strides, arms clasped behind his back.

Fresh in the mind of Horton and every -swimmer at those championships was a recent report in the UK Sunday Times detailing how three anti-doping testers had arrived at Sun’s home in September 2018 to administer out-of-competition blood and urine tests. Blood was taken at a nearby clubhouse. In the early morning, after a clash between Sun and the -officials about their accreditation, qualifications and behaviour – -followed by a lengthy standoff – blood samples were allegedly destroyed by Sun’s entourage on the instructions of Sun’s mother Ming Yang. In January 2019 – three weeks before publication of the damning Sunday Times investigation – the sport’s global governing body, FINA, had cleared Sun of wrongdoing on a technicality. So when Mack Horton refused to mount the -winners’ podium his protest was as much against FINA’s inaction as it was against Sun.

As the medal ceremony was playing out he heard roars of approval from his fellow athletes. But his parents, who were sitting in a spectator stand opposite, heard only the boos and jeers from Sun Yang’s supporters. “It ramped up after that,” recalls Andrew. Next day a security official told him that in 24 hours “Australian consular officials in China had received more than nine million messages and not one of them was pleasant”. The day after, his company was again targeted.

The following day father and son spoke. It was a testy conversation. “In the athlete’s village they have very little idea of what’s happening outside,” says Andrew. “Athletes turn off their social media and disconnect. I explained to Mack that while I fully support his stance, he just needs to be mindful that these things have flow-on implications. It’s the only time we’ve had a serious disagreement.”

“But if nobody stands up, nothing changes,” says Cheryl. “I get that,” replies Andrew, turning to address his wife directly. “But he just hadn’t -considered the full implications.”

Mack’s silent snub again made global news. It also set off a chain reaction. A few days later -British swimmer Duncan Scott, who was placed joint third in the 200m freestyle, also refused to join Sun for pictures on the winner’s podium or to shake his hand. Sun confronted Scott and called him a “loser”. Scott and Mack received official warnings from FINA, and both were overwhelmed by death threats from Sun’s fans on social media.

Craig Jackson, Mack’s coach, wasn’t in South Korea that night. He recalls a conversation with Mack a week before the championships that -suggested his charge was stewing over the issue of clean sport, and might have been pondering a protest. “I don’t recall the exact words,” Jackson says. “But he didn’t rule it out... We’d spoken a lot about clean sport, and I knew his position. He’s true to his values.” He watched Mack’s protest at the medal presentation from his lounge. “To be honest I agree 100 per cent with the statement he’s making but as a coach I’m sitting there going, ‘You know, I’d prefer you didn’t do that.’”

Mack was well aware of the burden borne by his family after the comment about Sun in Rio. Why then, having poked the dragon and felt the heat, go for Sun again in South Korea? “It says something about his laser-like focus on swimming as well as he can and as fast as he can, and his feelings about fairness in his sport,” Andrew reflects. “And I think he is insulated from a lot of things. One day he’ll have a family of his own and he’ll look back with a better appreciation of how much background support he had.” Mack later spelt out what the protest was, and wasn’t, about: “This isn’t a China-Australia thing. This isn’t a China versus the world thing. This is a principle in the way the sport is governed and controlled.”

In February this year FINA’s decision to clear Sun was overturned on an appeal from the World Anti-Doping Authority to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which slapped Sun with an -eight-year suspension. The unanimous verdict was a blow to FINA’s prestige and authority, and to Sun and his family’s fortunes. And it was a stunning vindication of Mack Horton’s stance.

Andrew Horton is inclined to view Sun – an only child with boyish movie-star looks who is unafraid to show his emotions in victory or in loss – as the “victim” of an enormously powerful -system with a vast global reach. He points to a recent post from Ming Yang, made after her son’s eight-year ban, in which she alleges an official cover-up over his 2014 doping penalty and rages against his legal team at the CAS hearing. Chinese authorities had initially kept Sun’s three-month suspension in 2014 under wraps, revealing it to the public after he had competed in the Asian Games of September that year. In her since deleted post, Ming Yang alleges that the Chinese Swimming Association manipulated the timing of the news so that his results at the Asian Games – three gold and one silver – would remain intact.

In her post Ming Yang gives a touching insight into the family life of a Chinese swimming star: “I couldn’t sleep at night, powerless and helpless. My son struggled in the swimming pool for more than 20 years, and was strangled by power and lies.”

Even at the age of 10, before swimming had taken hold of his life, Mack Horton was unusually attuned to the spirit of fair play. “This is a kid who as a young basketball player used to throw the ball to players on the other team who he thought -weren’t getting a fair go,” recalls his father. “Needless to say, he didn’t get very far with basketball.”

In another life Mack’s sensitivity to injustice might have propelled him into an altruistic profession, but his mother’s feeling for water had a large bearing on his passion for the pool. When Cheryl first started dating the man she would marry – both hail from Perth – a big moment in their courtship was her discovery of his family’s pool. “I could never get her out of the water,” Andrew recalls. “Cheryl and the boys just love the water: the feeling of it flowing over their bodies. It’s in their DNA. It’s like a drug.”

Asked if she recalls how she passed on this -passion to her youngest son, Cheryl makes a dunking motion. “He was a reluctant swimmer,” she laughs. “Scared of the water. But once he put his head under he loved it. He couldn’t stop.”

By 2008, 12-year-old Mack was showing great promise – he had the hunger and what his father describes as the “natural metrics of a world-class swimmer”. Even then, though, Andrew wasn’t sure if Mack knew what he was letting himself in for: the pain as well as, just perhaps, the fame. “Do you really want this?” he asked his son one day. Mack turned towards him with a “deadset straight in the eyes” gaze. “But Dad, you don’t seem to understand,” he said. “When I swim I feel like I’m flying. And the faster I swim the -better it feels.” Andrew felt his chest tighten, as if he had seen his future. He called Cheryl to say, “We’re going to have to get used to this. It’s not going to go away. It’s going to need the support of the whole family.”

“I knew it would have a huge impact,” he tells me. “Swimming can be brutal on families.” And yet Mack “loved the toughness”, Andrew says. “The pain was nothing to him.” He wanted it so badly that some time in his 13th year he pasted the world record time for the 1500m freestyle on his ceiling. The Hortons like to think of themselves as an “ordinary” family; in their pursuit of normality they’ve banished swimming trophies and photos – even swimming as a conversation topic – from the family home. But they’ve kept the old 1500m record on the ceiling of Mack’s room. “We kept telling him as he was growing up that he was an ordinary person who did some extraordinary things,” says Andrew. The desire to ground the child who was flying in the pool is one reason Andrew and Cheryl felt no shame forcing their myopic son onto the tennis court from time to time. “It was a way of bringing home to him that he was just a mug like the rest of us.”

The way Andrew tells it, Mack’s alma mater, Caulfield Grammar, approached him in January last year for guidance with its new $25 million aquatic centre. Both father and son were chuffed by the idea. Andrew was on good terms with the school and he, together with Craig Jackson, who was asked for his expertise in high performance swimming programs, offered their help. “For most of the year we were talking with the school once or twice a week,” he recalls. “Mack and I also were participating in school events.”

But around October – three months after Mack’s protest in Gwangju and coincidentally the same month Cheryl found a bucketload of glass in the family pool – Andrew and Craig felt the school had cooled towards them. Calls that were once answered promptly were now ignored. Around this time, Andrew believes, the school’s contract with its Nanjing campus in China, which hosts Caulfield Grammar’s Year 9 students each year for a five-week program, came up for renegotiation. The school’s Wikipedia entry makes no mention of Mack Horton in its entry on sporting alumni. Instead it notes the achievements of Chris Judd and John Schultz – Brownlow Medallists – and John Landy, who held the men’s mile record in the 1950s.

In February this year, after media reports alleged that Caulfield Grammar had scrapped plans to name its aquatic centre after Mack -Horton, principal Ashleigh Martin moved to -defuse the issue, labelling the reports incorrect. “The school has not started a process for naming the facility after any individual, or decided at this time if it will be named after any individual,” the -statement read. “Caulfield Grammar School and its community have great pride, respect and -admiration for Mack Horton, as both an Olympic swimmer and as a Caulfield Grammarian.”

While Andrew points out that “swimming fast doesn’t entitle you to have a building named after you”, he has at least one powerful ally in Gina Rinehart, Swimming Australia’s patron. “Like many Australians I was very surprised in relation to Caulfield Grammar, as any school should be thrilled to bits to be able to have Mack as alumni,” she tells me by email. “I did ask his -parents if they would like me to write to the school to mention this on Mack’s behalf, but they did not wish this, saying Mack’s focus is on training.”

Things have changed dramaticall y for the -Hortons since Sun Yang was given the -eight-year ban. The “hate” has lost much of its heat. Sun, -disgraced, has been derided online by many of his former fans; Mack, once widely vilified, has been publicly vindicated. Andrew, who claims to have much sympathy for Sun and his parents, shares, at the very least, something of their pain as families dedicated to their athletically elite offspring.

Mack Horton was prepared to make a stand for clean sport. But there is a pyrrhic quality to his moral victory, for it has taken a heavy toll on -family, friends, neighbours and a largely invisible web of support. “It’s been a grand adventure,” reflects Andrew. “But it’s certainly not what we anticipated when we chose to encourage our children in sport.”