On August 23rd at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Australian diver Matthew Mitcham, the only out gay male athlete at those games, won Olympic gold in men’s platform diving. In doing so, he prevented a gold medal sweep by the Chinese in men’s diving and he did it in most dramatic fashion: winning on his final dive and by posting the highest recorded score ever for an Olympic dive by a man.

Prior to his win, Mitcham had dealt with depression and anxiety, dropped out of competition, only to return and make the Australian Olympic team. When later asked if he was in a relationship, Mitcham disclosed he was living with his partner Lachlan Fletcher. His subsequent triumph at the Beijing Games was the most significant win ever by an out male athlete during the Olympics.

It’s a combination of sports history in the making and moving personal story that usually makes for great Olympic coverage.

Yet during NBC’s two evening’s worth of platform diving coverage, neither Mitcham’s status as the only out gay male athlete, nor his moving personal story was ever mentioned. This dramatic and historic information was instead replaced by the commentators with a vague reference to Mitcham overcoming “personal issues”.

Contacted by AfterElton.com, NBC Sports gave an initial response indicating they had no problem with their coverage of Mitcham, only to later follow up with an apology when we contacted them again.

Bob Costas

In this exclusive interview with AfterElton.com, Bob Costas, NBC Primetime Host for the Beijing Olympics and one of the nation’s most respected sports’ broadcasters, discusses NBC’s omissions in the Mitcham coverage, how and when the sexuality of an athlete may merit mention in sports coverage, homophobia in professional sports, and what it might take for a professional athlete to come out.

AfterElton.com: Since Matthew Mitcham was the only out gay male athlete at the games, and it was historic for an openly gay athlete to win such a high profile Olympic event, do you think it would have made a good story or been worth mentioning that fact?

Bob Costas: Yes, I do. I was not focused on it. It wasn’t like I was sitting there thinking, “Gee, I have a chance to get this in.” It was just something that wasn’t on my radar screen to be perfectly honest. But had it been, I would have thought it was a worthwhile thing to mention.

Why it wasn’t mentioned by the people covering the event, that’s up to them to answer. There’s lots of different dynamics, in all these things. So I’m not being critical of them for not mentioning it. But I think – generally speaking – especially if the guy is out…

AE: He had done a big interview a few months before the Olympics. It was clear he was out.

BC: Yeah. Sure. I think it’s a story.

AE: Did you know that he was out, or that he had come out recently, or that he was an openly gay athlete?

BC: I guess I did, in looking over the profiles of many Olympic athletes in the high-profile sports. But it just wasn’t something that I was focusing on while hosting. Because a lot of times what the host does is he’ll comment on the last thing seen before it comes back to the studio. Kind of capture the whole overview. The case is that more often than not, you’re not commenting on every specific individual athlete or medal winner. That’s more done at the venue than by the host. So it just wasn’t something that was in the front of my mind.

Had it been and had the circumstance arisen so it would have played in a way that made sense, and it wouldn’t have been going around six corners to get to it – I would have done it.

AE: Would you have been concerned that maybe this wasn’t something the audience wanted to hear?

BC: No. My concern would be the privacy and the personal prerogatives of the person involved. But if the person is already out, and actually thinks that it’s an issue and worth talking about – like John Amaechi, the NBA player, or Billy Bean the baseball player – why not?

In fact I had Billy Bean on the radio show about a year ago after Tim Hardaway made his comments and they banned him from the All-Star Game.

AE: The commentators mentioned that Mitcham had overcome some personal issues, so clearly they knew or should have known he was an out gay athlete [the fact that he was an openly gay athlete did appear on the NBC website]. Is there a timidity about mentioning it, not just because there may be concern about audience reaction, but because they may feel that it’s an invasion of his privacy even though he had already come out?
BC: That is possible. Although the other thing is they may feel – and this is a reasonable consideration – that going from one dive to the next, and one event to the next, and you’re analyzing the dives and what the standings are, that those circumstances don’t allow for the proper tone and context to treat this properly.

Burnt out and struggling with depression and anxiety, an up-and-coming Olympic hopeful drops out of his sport two years before the Beijing Games. His coach talks him into resuming training the year before the Olympics and he makes his country’s team which isn’t expected to fare terribly well against China’s powerhouse squad.

Indeed, the athlete performs poorly in his first event, failing to even make the semifinals. In his final event, however, and on his final attempt, he wins in an upset that not only denies China the gold medal, but by winning prevents a gold medal sweep by China in all eight of that sports events.

Now add to that the fact that the athlete also happens to have come out as gay less than six months earlier and is the only out gay male athlete at the games.

As if that isn’t significant enough, his victory is easily the highest profile win ever by a gay man in an Olympic event. Both his mother and partner are in the stands to witness his triumph, something they almost didn’t get to do until a grant from Johnson & Johnson financed their trip to Beijing.

Finally, after receiving his gold medal, he climbs into the stands ala tennis’ Patrick Rafter to kiss and hug his partner.

One couldn’t write a better script. Surely, that is an Olympic story that must be told, right? Not according to NBC.

The athlete in question is, of course, Australia’s Matthew Mitcham who snagged the gold medal in the Men’s 10 Platform Diving and did so on his final dive by posting the highest score ever given to a single dive during Olympic competition.

Curious why Matthew’s award ceremony and story weren’t gripping enough to make the NBC telecast (the medal ceremony was shown on their website) AfterElton.com spoke with Greg Hughes a spokesman for NBC Sports.

While the issue has been addressed and debated by various blogs and writers, until we contacted NBC they were unaware of the controversy. “I’m not aware of any controversy,” said Hughes. “Yours is the first call.”

When asked why at no point during the coverage did NBC mention Mitcham was gay or that his partner was in the stands, Hughes said, “In virtually every case, we don’t discuss an athlete’s sexual orientation.”

When it was pointed out that in fact the network does exactly that by telling viewers about Olympic athletes’ various spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, and even in one case a heterosexual “love triangle” Hughes responded, “Not in every case. Not every athlete has a personal discussion. I could show you 500 athletes we didn’t show. We don’t show everyone. We don’t show every ceremony.”

But surely, taking into account Mticham’s stunning come-from-behind victory, the historical significance of his achievement as a gay man, and his own personal history, it seems unlikely the vast majority of those other athletes truly have as compelling a story as Mitcham. Said Hughes, “How do you know that? How do you know that someone on the rowing team doesn’t have as compelling a story?”

Usain Bolt, Luxin Zhou, Sanya Richards

Pressed that it was hard to believe that there truly any other athletes with stories as compelling as Matthew’s, especially ones who single-handedly prevented the Chinese from sweeping all of the gold medals in an entire sport, Hughes would only say, “It’s not possible to cover the entire personal story of every athlete regarding their performance. … It’s just not possible to single out coverage. “

After that, Hughes offered no further comment.

Anyone watching NBC’s coverage of the Beijing Olympics is aware how much time the network devoted to many athlete’s personal stories: Michael Phelp’s record setting eight Olympic gold medals and his relationship with his mother, Usain Bolt’s gold medals and world records, and even Sanya Richard’s relationship with her fiancée who plays for the New York Giants.

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