North Shore native Conor Dwyer, who attended Loyola Academy, finished fourth in the 400-meter freestyle Saturday in Rio de Janeiro. Australia’s Mack Horton finished first.
Dwyer’s time was 3 minutes, 44.01 seconds. He missed a medal by 0.52 seconds.
Australia’s Mack Horton took down Sun Yang of China without giving his bitter rival so much as a passing glance.
The Aussie grabbed the lead for good on the next-to-last lap and held off the hard-charging Chinese star, who won both the 400 and 1,500 free at the 2012 London Games.
What happened after the race was even more dramatic.
The bad blood between the two was on display for all to see as Horton celebrated after the race without even acknowledging the runner-up. Sun made a move as though he wanted to congratulate Horton, but the winner looked the other way.
They would up climbing out of the pool side by side but never looked at each other. Horton’s winning time was 3:41.55, just 13-hundredths of a second ahead of Sun. Italy’s Gabriele Detti rallied past Dwyer, the top qualifier in the prelims, to take the bronze in 3:43.49.
After the prelims of the men’s 400 freestyle, Horton was asked about a reported incident between the two at the practice pool earlier in the week. The Aussie said Sun “splashed me to say hello, and I didn’t respond because I don’t have time for drug cheats.”
Sun served a three-month suspension for using a banned stimulant in 2014.
Horton and Sun finally gave each other a begrudging handshake on the medal stand.
