Culture no issue for Aussie swim team: Horton

Olympic swimmer Mack Horton says reviews into Australia’s showing in the pool at Rio will focus on purely on team performance and not culture.

Australia’s swim team won three gold medals, four short of the AOC’s predictions from their benchmark study last December.

A Fairfax report said last week there was a divide between swimmers and other Australian athletes in the Olympic village.

They story claimed swimmers pulled down posters of past champions including Herb Elliott and Cathy Freeman from the village.

But gold medallist Mack Horton said Australia’s smaller-than-anticipated medal haul was purely a performance issue.

“(Coach) Jacco (Verhaeren) summed it up perfectly in one of the team meetings,” the 400m freestyle winner told AAP.

“The reviews aren’t going to be about team culture like in 2012 – they’re going to be about performance.”

The swim team’s culture at the London Games was heavily criticised, with a win-at-all-costs attitude described as “toxic” by an independent review commissioned by Swimming Australia.

Australia claimed just one swimming gold in 2012.

Rio gold medallist Kyle Chalmers, like Horton also in his maiden Olympics, said the swim team was supportive regardless of results.

“Obviously some people didn’t swim as well as they were hoping,” the 18-year-old sprinter said.

“We’re a very close team. The people that swam well got around the people who didn’t swim well.

“We’ll keep building for 2020.”