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Loading ...Out Australian Diver Matthew Mitcham Wins Olympic Gold
08.23.2008 5:26pm EDT
In a shocking upset, openly gay Australian diver Matthew Mitcham, 20, has won the Olympic gold medal in the men’s 10m platform at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Going into the final round, Mitcham trailed China’s Zhou Luxin by more than 30 points.But Mitcham scored an astonishing 112.10 on his last dive — a back two and a half somersault with two and a half twists — to earn four perfect 10s and win the gold medal, with an overall score of 537.95 to Zhou’s 533.15.
Mitcham’s gold medal dive
Mitcham earned the highest scoring dive in the history of the Olympics with his sixth and final dive, and became Australia’s first male Olympic gold medallist in diving since 1924. His win earned Australia their second diving medal of the Games, and broke China’s long winning streak in Olympic diving.
Mitcham almost didn’t compete in the Games. He walked away from diving in 2006, battling depression and burnout, but returned to the sport 9 months later, determined to compete at the Olympics.
He came out in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald in May, citing his partner Lachlan as part of the "little support network has made my dream possible."
Although there are 13 openly gay or bi women among the competitors at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Mitcham is the only openly gay male athlete competing in the Games.
Up until the last dive, even Mitcham thought he had a slim chance at taking the lead from the Chinese. “I wasn’t even sure of my medal chances at all," he told reporters after the win. "After I did my last dive and I saw I was in first, I thought, “That’s it, it’s a silver medal, I am so happy with this’ and then I won. I can’t believe it, I’m so happy.”
Mitcham reacts to news of his gold medal win
“Coming back and doing everything that I did was to win an Olympic gold medal," he told reporters after the win. "That was my aim when I was training every single day, twice a day, 11 sessions a week, 30 hours a week, before every single dive, it was like `I want to win Olympic gold’ and that made me try my hardest in every single training session for the last year and a half."
Mitcham is awarded the gold medal
“It’s going to take a while to sink in," Mitcham added. "My cheeks hurt from smiling. My face hurts from the chlorine. My legs are sore from jumping up and down. I’m in pain and I’m tired. But I’m so happy.”
Celebrating the win
Amazing and Inspirational Story.
After reading so much drivel on the election today; it’s great to see this story.
What a positive, not only for the gay community but for Australia. Matthew Mitcham has every right to be a very proud young man, in more ways than one. He has worked very hard, competed very hard and has earned his victory fair and square.
That is so cool. Way to go Matthew!
I would also like to congratulate the Norwegian Woman’s Handball team on there gold. This team was lead in part by to out women Gro Hammerseng and Katja Nyberg, not only are they teammates on the court they are partners. Heia Norge! Heia Hammerseng og Nyberg!
Yeah Matty! Yeah Australia! What a cutie he is too!
Matt’s the man! What an inspiration! For those of us who cheered for Greg Louganis – KNOWING what he could not then admit, this is a moment of validation and utter joy. Thanks, Matt, and may your courage and determination bring a life of blessings.
Im very proud of you Mr. Mitcham.
And your comments are relevant to what?
I am thrilled for him and for all the gay young people who can take inspiration. I am 66 and know that my life was stunted by homophobia and the closet. Matthew deserves our heartiest congratulations and gratitude.
Congratulations Mitcham.
Congratulations all LGBT people that support him. Congratulation Australian Citizens.I watch Mitcham win from Florianopolis City, Santa Catarina Island, south Brazil. I’m gay too and support gay people with my site to comming out.
Thanks Trace, for voicing my feelings on the election stories. I am tired of those endless election stories and can’t wait for just nothing but directly gay-related news, preferably about more GLBT civil rights victories. That this gay Autralian Olympic athlete does all of us GLBTs proud is one story I am glad to read.
Too bad the Olympics has to come at a steep civil rights cost to everyone native to China not fitting a subservient harmonious Chinese mold from Chinese daring to speak up for their rights, Tibetans yearning to be free of Chinese occupation of their homeland Tibet, Inner Mongolians, Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs from China’s Northwest province of East Turkestan. Some of these very non-Chinese Asian ethnic groups living in a China bound and determined to have all of Beijing the very same harmonius place during the Olympics banned these ethnic groups from living and working in Beijing during the Olympics lest they protest their oppression at the hands of the Chinese government and blight the image China wants to show to the world.
One black American running a bar in Beijing was told that he had to fire his 2 Tibetan workers for that reason. So he was forced to violate their civil rights and fire them. People were not allowed to rent rooms to the above ethnic groups even though their homelands had been annexed by China at some point, notably Tibet in 1959, a land where the culture and the people continue to be to violated to this very day reagrdless of surface material improvements brought them by the Chinese invaders. The Chinese rule with a very heavy hand. The Olympics was good for the Han Chinese and terrible for those suffering under Chinese rule, but was the only opportunity the Tibetans, etc had to show the world how the Chinese destroyed their country, their way of life and continue to rape their country and to forbid their disctinctive culture. Now the Chinese want to wipe out the Tibetan language and have the young Tibetans speaing Chinese, a very alien tonal language speaking in one syllable words a language very unlike their non-tonal Tibetan language whose words are 2 or more syllables long and which uses a phonetic writing system related in part to the ancient Sanskrit of India.
But the Chinese are very much like other huge countries like Russia, US, Canada and Australia that either ruthlessly bullied their native populations of non-Slavic peoples, or the American and Canadian Indians, the Australian natives having black skin and tribal cultures. Until the native peoples of these huge countries have a part in their countries Olympics, instead of being kept out of sight, then their countries and ours are not truly deserving of the priviledge of hosting the Olympics. Just my opinion and just speaking for myself.
This is such a heartwarming tale. He is just so adorable during the finals. I could hardly stand it. But it was so sad i could not watch all of it. There was minimal coverage of the diving finals in the States. There was about 20 seconds of Mr. Mitchum’s reacton after the last Chinese dove, then they switched to the relays. So sad. He is so adorable! I wanted to see the medal ceremony. But sadly, since no Americans made it to the medal stand, it was cut out of programming. Sadness.
But a simply smashing job, Mr. Mitchum. I shall have keeping an eye for ya in the London Olympics.
yay! wow i just found out he’s gay now! i was so happy that he won as im australian and now im even happier as im a gay australian.
He’s such an inspiration for being able to compete while being openly gay and not only win but win so amazingly.
Not only is Mitcham’s accomplishment amazing, but his strength and courage to compete outside of the closet should be a lesson to all.
It’s men (and women) like this that help the gay and lesbian community advance from year to year. It’s the actions of the every day people that allow us to advance more than in any other area.
Congratulations Matthew on all fronts.
what a wonderful story to read first thing in the morning. I very happy for Matthew and hope he continues to be a positive role model.