I’m in Toronto today and the daily national newspaper here, the Globe and Mail, ran a story about the upcoming winter olympics in Vancouver. While the gay games always get me excited, I’ve never seen a real intersection between sexuality and the world’s most famous sports competition.

Leave it to Canada to change all that.

The pride tent will be smack dab in the middle of all the press and hubub surrounding the games. But many wonder if any of the athletes will visit it.

This quote from the article is particularly troubling: “Of the 3,400 athletes in the four major professional leagues – the National Football League, the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball – there are no openly gay players.”

For an athlete, dealing with the most pressure-filled days of their lives, coming out of the closet may not be very high on their agenda. And we may not see medal winners flocking to the tent (but what a sight it would be if athletes visited as a solidarity move with their LGBT teammates!).

Still, just having the tent in the area will be an important step forward for gay athletes. Visibility leads to tolerance and acceptance. And when it comes to gays in sports, there is a lot of work to be done.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/12/eudy-simelane-corrective-rape-south-africa

Many of you might remember the flurry of testing that happened before the Beijing olympics. Gender testing, age testing, drug testing, hit the news pretty much every day.

Well this time a South African athlete is subject to a media flurry about her gender identity after winning the 800 metre at the World Championships.

It’s not that gender in sport is irrelevant. Although I believe in gender neutrality in all things, I understand that those who take competitive sport seriously have science that explains exactly why men and women should not be forced to compete against each other. As a person who feels that the gender binary is only harmful, it would make more sense to me to have gender neutral world competitions allowing for the idea that a man, woman or person who wishes not to identify as either gender could be the world record holder in any one sport.

Still, understanding that I’m not going to change the way the entire world of sports operates, it still seems particularly cruel to judge those who might be more masculine in appearance more harshly. Is it not possible that a man with a particularly feminine build would slip by the judges unnoticed because he fit their stereotyped understanding of female? Shouldn’t testing be mandatory for all athletes rather than only subjecting those who look “different” to a public humiliation?

This is especially true for the South African runner in the news today. She comes from a country with rigid concepts of gender identity. It is a country where lesbians are brutally murdered, even in large urban centers, for simply being out. Her masculine appearance has, according to her father, always caused her great hardship and now her parents are forced to defend her “femaleness” to the world.

Well, I find it outrageous.

The international world of sport has dealt with intersexed people for its entire history and benefits from the talents of individuals who don’t fit into gender norms. They should be forced to lead the way in gender openness and inclusion, not target its own superstars for being different.

Elaborate costumes only distract from a strong performance, according to Skate Canada CEO William Thompson.

“What we’re saying (to the skaters) is, don’t detract from the athletic performance,” Thompson said in a recent interview. “Our team is put out very nicely, but relatively simply. Not too much flying off them. The judges appreciate simple.

“Look at Patrick (Chan, the world championship silver medallist). No one does more complicated steps and everything, but it doesn’t get obscured by anything else.”

Skate Canada’s message has become a little lost in translation recently, however.

ABC News recently reported that Canadian skating officials want to give the sport a “macho makeover,” in a bid to draw in “the hockey crowd” and boost ratings.

Skate Canada said all it did was speak to its athletes about trying to keep the focus on the athleticism of the sport.

The national governing body finally had enough, posting a statement on its website last week in hopes to dispel the rumors that sparked outrage among some gay rights groups and figure skating fans.

“There is and never has been any `tough campaign,’ ” Thompson said in the statement. “At the beginning of the season, we did feel that we wanted to message where possible the difficulty of the sport.

“This was in no way to diminish the artistry, rather simply to remind viewers of the level of fitness, mental training and commitment required to be an elite skater.”

That message, Thompson said, got distorted along the way.

The controversy began, he said, when Debbi Wilkes, Skate Canada’s director of marketing and communication, used the word “tough” in an interview which led to reports of a “controversial” marketing campaign that was to be unveiled at the world championships this past March.

Thompson said in his statement the image they wanted to portray wasn’t even intended for the men’s event, but that “the athleticism of the women was being overlooked.”

Former Canadian men’s star Elvis Stojko weighed in, telling The Globe and Mail “skating is about power and strength. It’s so much more than dressing up as a frou-frou.

“I was telling (Skate Canada) this is where they had to go 10 years ago, or you’re going to lose the masses and you’re going to lose the entry (into the sport) of the kids. All that’s happening now. They’re finally doing something about it.”

Gay rights advocates and figure skating bloggers alike were vocal in their displeasure.

Skate Canada officials have insisted repeatedly there never was a campaign in the works.

“What we’re trying to relay is the physical demands and the physical attributes that come with skating,” Mike Slipchuk, Skate Canada’s high performance director, told The Canadian Press recently. “When you’re in the crowd or watching it on TV, it looks simple, but the strength the skaters have to have to be able to do the stuff they do. . . it’s hard.

“They’re spinning, doing three-and-a-half, four turns in the air in less than a second, landing on a piece of steel the size of a finger nail. You’re doing a long program that tests your aerobic and anaerobic capacity. Like (former Canadian pairs star) David Pelletier said, it’s like running a 1,500-meter race with a smile on your face.

“That’s the message we want to get across – that this is a demanding sport, both artistically and technically.”

As for frilly outfits, today’s crop of Canadian skaters aren’t ones for gaudy getups.

Canadian dance duo Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir dressed head-to-toe in black for their free dance program at the world championship in Los Angeles, en route to winning a bronze medal. The skaters believed the judges could focus more on the intricacy of their moves if they were dressed more simply.

“Costumes are there to complement the skater and complement the program, not detract from it,” former Canadian world champion Jeffrey Buttle told The Canadian Press. “You don’t want it to take away from the performance.”

Dear Kellog’s:

You are fools and cowards. A 23-year-old wins 14 Olympic golds and you of course want to ride his fame. The kids use a different phrase for it but this is a family site. However, when Michael Phelps gets caught taking a hit from a bong (quick question: how much cocaine has been sniffed in the Kellogg’s board room?), you decide he must be dropped because Phelps’ behavior is “not consistent with the image of Kellogg.”

You must have giggled writing that hot mess because the guy who gave the company its name was as crazy as bat doo! I was sort of hoping mature heads would prevail at Battle Creek, and you would follow the lead put out by Omega, another Phelps sponsor. The watchmakers decided the whole story was a “non-issue.” Hey Omega: once I start making some cash I’m getting one of your products!

I know what the scolds will say: Phelps is a role model to millions of youngsters, blah, blah. Heck I heard that noise at work already. They will be joined by those who think hysteria is the best voice to use when talking about drug use. Both groups engage in crazy talk. We do children a disservice when we demand heroes with feet of marble as opposed to clay. As for the anti-drug talk camp, rational conversation about drugs would be nice and to equate a bong hit with the death of civilization is waaay from rational.

But you’ve made your decision, went the safe conservative route. Goody for you. Be proud in your cheap moral outrage. Let the mind numbing scolds know how shocked (shocked!) you are by Phelps. As a proud fatty, your products will no longer cross my doorstep. When you start losing cash you’ll know who to blame.

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.

(The Games’ sole openly gay male athlete, Australian diver Matthew Mitcham, took home the gold in the men’s 10m platform.)

To help you get familiar with these new out Olympic champions, we’ve created an overview of their performance at the Games — including Katja Nyberg’s four goals for Norway in the women’s handball final against Russia, Natasha Kai’s game-winning goal for the U.S. in the women’s soccer quarter-finals, and the stunning upset that earned Vicky Galindo and Lauren Lappin a silver medal in women’s softball.

We’ve divided the medalists by sport — click on one of the sections below to get started.

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

Jason Bellini asks her about being out on the team and how she feels about her sport getting the axe.

Beijing health official Jin Dapeng told the Xinhua news agency that the condoms are being placed nightly on beds in hotels with a three star rating or higher – hotels most likely to be used by foreigners.

Jin also said that the government had enlisted a small army of volunteers to promote ways of preventing HIV/AIDS transmission during the games. The volunteers are handing out more than 250,000 health pamphlets at the Olympics.

“Now 180 college students and 500 community volunteers are ready to publicize AIDS-related knowledge,” Jin told Xinhua. “We have opened 40 clinics in Beijing’s 18 districts and counties to offer free HIV tests and AIDS counseling.”

Last month, the United Nations AIDS agency released a report showing the number of new cases of HIV/AIDS is rising in China, with about 700,000 currently diagnosed. Some international health authorities, however, say the figure actually could be 10 times that number.

China has had a checkered past in dealing with HIV/AIDS.

In April, in advance of the Olympics, Hu Jia, a leading HIV/AIDS campaigner and civil rights advocate, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison on subversion charges. A number of Web sites dealing with AIDS issues also were closed.

Last year, the government began enlisting gay bars in Beijing to educate people about safe sex.  The government said that the number of men who have sex with men who are contracting HIV has steadily grown over the previous three years.

Yet Henan province, in central China, barred AIDS activists from holding a meeting to discuss ways of educating the public about the virus.