I love this story. Or collection of stories.

It is about swimmers who have served bans for illicit performance-enhancing substances … being called out by their peers at Rio 2016. While the world watches.

An Australian has generated the most heat by calling Chinese swim hero Sun Yang a drug cheat — to his face — at a post-race press conference. This, after Mack Horton refused to shake Sun’s hand after winning the 400-meter freestyle final.

Which has led to a storm of criticism from China, much of it from people essentially saying to Horton, “How dare you?!?”

Horton, and others clean swimmers (or we prefer to think they are, having not yet failed a test), seem to be saying they no longer will grin and bear it when competing with athletes with a drug ban in their past.

This is important — athletes giving voice to issues they once suffered through in silence.

To wit: Drug cheats winning medals they did not deserve, the bane of international sports for at least 50 years now.

Horton said he felt compelled to win on behalf of clean athletes.

“The last 50 meters I was thinking about what I said and what would happen if he gets me here,” he said. “I didn’t have a choice but to beat him.”

China’s media, some of it, and people in social media, have responded to Horton almost childishly, insisting Horton is too rude to be an Olympic champion and demanding an apology from Horton to Sun — apparently for the crime of pointing out that the guy served a ban for an illegal substance.

A government-backed Chinese newspaper then took on all of Australia, writing: “In many serious essays written by Westerners, Australia is mentioned as a country at the fringes of civilization. In some cases, they refer to the country’s early history as Britain’s offshore prison. This suggests that no one should be surprised at uncivilized acts emanating from the country.”

Another prominent swimmer who has cheated in the past, Russia’s Yuliya Efimova, was cleared by swimming’s international governing body to swim in this Olympics just a few days ago, and that is not going unnoticed.

Efimova appeared to signal a “No. 1” with her index finger after winning a semifinal in the 100-meter breaststroke, but American Lilly King registered a faster time in the other semifinal, and when asked about the gesture by NBC, King said: “You wave your finger ‘No 1’ and you’ve been caught drug-cheating. … I’m not a fan.”

Efimova, the world champion in the event, served a ban in 2014 and was cited for using a banned substance earlier this year. She was booed by the Rio crowd when she was introduced.

Ireland’s Fiona Doyle also weighed in on Efimova after she failed to qualify out of Efomiva’s heat.

“Cheaters are cheaters,” she told the Irish Times. “[Efimova] has tested positive five times and she’s gotten away with it again. It’s like Fina keep going back on their word, and the IOC keep going back on their word … that’s just not fair on the rest of the athletes who are clean. Who are you supposed to trust now? They have signs all over the village saying we are a clean sport and it’s not.”

It is perhaps ironic that Doyle is sticking up for the rights of clean swimmers, when a compatriot, Michelle Smith, even now is considered by many to be the ultimate example of a largely unknown swimmer suddenly cutting time dramatically — in Smith’s case, cutting enough time to win three gold medals at Atlanta 1996.

Smith’s husband, a shot-putter and discus thrower, was, at the time, serving a drug ban, and Smith later was banned four years for tampering with her urine sample.

If some consider it rude for athletes to point out competitors who have served a ban … well, too bad.

Drugs have almost ruined more than one sport, and have been particularly pernicious in the Olympics — and athletes and fans have suffered in silence for too long.

Michael Phelps, who is competing in his fifth Olympics, last week said of swimming: “We all want clean sports and everyone on the same playing field.

“I don’t think I’ve ever competed in a clean sport, but there’s not much other than me I can control.”

Athletes can do more than they have before. They can stand up and be heard, rather than accept that cheating will exist forever and watch dirty athletes win medals they do not deserve.