Love of Scotty no secret for swim star

OLYMPIC swimming gold medallist Mack Horton jokes about a man-crush on Scotty James because, when it comes to cool, he feels the snowboard contortionist is laps ahead.

Fellow Victorian James may have won bronze at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, yet his package of spinning flips, blind landings, home-spun YouTube insights and daring is gold in Horton’s eyes. Horton’s open admiration, at 21, shows he’s just like thousands of young Australians awakening to snow sports before he pushes his own limits in the pool on the Gold Coast at the Commonwealth Games in April.

“He’s just a really cool dude,” Horton said in Melbourne as he counts down to the start of the Games trials at Southport’s outdoor pool on February 28.

“I’ve seen him around the Victorian Institute of Sport a few times. He does a more interesting sport, he does his YouTube videos (around the XGames) and just comes across real cool and calm.”

Wearing sport’s ultimate bling after winning gold in the 400m freestyle at the 2016 Olympics in Rio made the bespectacled Horton cool, surely? “I’m not ... he’s much cooler than I am,” Horton said with a self-deprecating laugh.

The affable Horton wasn’t soul-searching in any way, merely showing his positive mood for some banter and fun as he approaches a gruelling schedule of racing from 200m to the 1500m at the compressed four-day trials.

Horton had let his admiration go live on Twitter earlier this week.

“I have a man crush on @scottyjames31 so pretty stoked he is flagbearer,” Horton tweeted.

And this: “I just want to be half as cool as him.”