Out, Proud and Ready to Go for Gold

The Sydney Morning Herald has an interview with Matthew Mitcham (pictured below), a diver on the Australia Olympic team who has come out of the closet in advance of the Beijing Games. A medal favorite, Mitcham is the first Australian to go to the Olympics having declared his homosexuality. Would that more top tier atheletes felt that they clould come out without destroying their careers. Sadly, how well one competes is still irrelevant to the closed minded and homophobic. I applaud Mitcham's courage and hope he takes gold in Beijing. Here are some highlights:

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MATTHEW MITCHAM is brave enough to dive from a 10-metre platform for Olympic gold and courageous enough to do what no Australian athlete has done. When Mitcham balances on the Beijing diving tower this August, like all Australian Olympians, he will be hoping the ones he loves will be there to watch him. The gold medal hopeful's journey has not been easy. Those close to him have seen Mitcham, 20, battle depression, retire in his teenage years after physical and emotional burn-out, then nine months later resume his sport and build himself into the champion he is today. One person who has been by his side for the entire tumultuous journey is his partner, Lachlan.

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Months out from the Games, Mitcham has taken the courageous step of revealing his sexuality to the media for the first time, in an exclusive interview with the Herald. He has also applied for a grant through a Johnson & Johnson Athlete Family Support Program to have Lachlan near him in Beijing.

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Those who adore him could be watching Mitcham win gold after his performance just over a week ago in Fort Lauderdale. Mitcham stood 10 metres high with the fierce wind whistling in his ears and battling trying conditions. "When I was whizzing around, the sky is the same colour as the water. I was freaking out. It was the first time I had dived outside since I left the sport." His performance was astonishing. Mitcham beat two top Chinese divers who will challenge him for gold. When he saw his four perfect 10s he whooped and leaped on the pool deck.

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Mitcham thinks he would not be going to the Olympics if not for the hardship he endured. "I probably wouldn't have as much of a fighting spirit," he said. "The more you have experienced, the more you have to draw off. I look at the last 20 years as a long, winding path of lessons and some hardship.