NEWLY crowned 400m freestyle Olympic gold medallist Mack Horton has felt the wrath of Chinese swimming fans after he sledged rival, Sun Yang.

Prior to claiming the gold ahead of Yang, Horton called his rival a “drug cheat” for testing positive to a banned substance for which he served a three month ban in 2014.

Moments after taking out the race at Rio, Horton fiercely stood by his comments in the post-race press conference, all while Yang sat awkwardly beside him.

“I used the words drug cheat because he tested positive,” Horton said after the race, defending his comments to a Chinese journalist.

“He’s one of the athletes here who has tested positive.”

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Supporters of Yang urged Horton to apologise for his comments against the Chinese swimmer, leaving shocking messages across the Aussie’s social media accounts.

“Loser”, “Snake”, “Ugly”, “You make me sick” — this was just some of the abuse hurled at Australia’s newest Olympic champion.

“Although you have to the gold medal, but no matter how much you get the piece because of your character you will always be a loser at least respect you should have! Please apologize to Sun Yang! [sic],” one user said.

“You lost the spirit of the Olympic Games. And you are not qualified to be an athlete. Your comments represent your country obviously you have no idea about it. To insult, attack another athlete on your unreasonable imagination, you suck [sic],” wrote another support of Yang.

“Please apologize to sun. Your country will be ashamed of you. Do you want to play psychological warfare? [sic]” said another on Horton’s Instagram.

The result of the 400m final obviously didn’t sit well with Chinese swimming fans, who continue to troll Horton on his Twitter and Instagram accounts.

@_mackhorton As a professional athlete,you should know the truth and therefore it is disgusting for you to insult Sun Yang. — 七不二 (@1500013376Lee) August 7, 2016

@_mackhorton you're the worst you don't deserve the gold!just cause an asian is good at swimming doesn't make him a drug cheat.THAT'S RACIST — 桜＿婷 (@AlicePace_candy) August 7, 2016

@_mackhorton we won the silver because Sun is good ,we Chinese are good. drug cheater？u serious？？？loser😡😡😡😡 — Yoyo Lee (@sukihisa) August 7, 2016

@_mackhorton You should learn from your team mate McEvoy, learn to respect others, GOLD Loser — 路居安 (@rach_cheung) August 7, 2016