EVERYDAY REWARDS

Why swim star Mack Horton is just your average guy

WORLD-CLASS athletes are a breed of their own: fiercely competitive, highly motivated, intensely focused, determined and driven.

Victorian swim star Mack Horton is no exception. When he dons his trademark prescription goggles and hits the pool deck, all sights are set on victory.

But away from the pool the swim sensation, who is one of Australia’s gold medal hopes in the Commonwealth Games beginning on Wednesday, leads an understated and relatively “normal” life.

In fact, he attributes much of his success to finding that delicate balance between the substantial commitments and pressures of the swimming world with a grounded, full and active life outside it.

“I think it’s all about balance really. I try and really not get too focused and caught up in swimming and try to do other things to keep me busy or take my mind off swimming and to have fun,” Horton says.

His girlfriend of three years, Ella Walter, is a key part of that, a grounding force who knew the swim star long before he became a household name. While they are reluctant to admit it, theirs is a love story that goes back, way back in fact, to their first days in primary school as fresh-faced fiveyear-olds.

“We don’t admit it to too many people, but yes, to be honest I’d had a big crush since the age of five. It’s awful, but I’m not even kidding,” Walter says laughing as she recalls their early interactions. “It’s so cringe, but it was the same for me,” Horton says.

While they met in prep, and went through all of primary school together at Caulfield Grammar, they didn’t actually become friends until grade 6 when Horton was school captain.

“We knew each other but we didn’t hang out together until grade 6,” Walter says.

But they lost contact for a few years in the early stages of secondary school when Walter moved to MLC, before returning to Caulfield Grammar in Year 9.

While both harboured feelings for each other, they never acted on them until their final exams of year 12.

“I went years and years thinking it will never happen. Then we were walking out of exams and we decided to go for brunch,” Walter says.

The 21-year-olds have been inseparable ever since.

Picture: ALEX COPPEL Swimming champion Mack Horton and his girlfriend Ella Walter enjoy a day on the beach before the Commonwealth Games.

Main picture: ALEX COPPEL Mack Horton and his girlfriend Ella Walter on the beach and (below, from left) the pair together during their primary school days; and Horton in the water.