Australian Gold: A Perfect 10

From Joe.My.God, a story that's all over the gay press: Australia's openly gay Olympic diver, Matthew Mitcham, took the gold with a perfect dive. From the Sydney Morning Herald:

From teenage retirement to Royal Easter Show high-diver to gay icon to gold Olympic medallist; Matthew Mitcham's journey to success has been an amazing roller-coaster.

Mitcham's pulled off a stunning final dive in the 10 metre platform, scoring an incredible four perfect 10s, to steal the gold off favourite Chinese diver Luxin Zhou. Mitcham finished with 537.95 points.

It was a massive upset defeating the premiere and form Chinese divers Liang Huo and Luxin Zhou in front fierce home crowd.

I don't know if this is "the" dive -- from the comments, I think it is, although documentation on YouTube can be kind of sketchy -- but it's Mitcham in action, and it's impressive:



Mitcham and his medal:

By Jamie Squire/Getty.

Update: From Pam's House Blend, this report on how Mitcham's boyfried was ignored by the media.

Does the Peacock Network have a homophobic slip showing? Diver Matthew Mitcham of Australia won the 10 meter diving competition, besting the dominant Chinese divers in the event. He's also the first openly gay athlete to medal (Greg Louganis came out publicly after his win).

We saw plenty of significant others' reactions to their loved ones winning medals, but NBC chose to ignore the partner of Matthew Mitcham (or any of his family, for that matter.

As Cyd Zeigler at OutSports noted (quoted by Spaulding):

Only a handful of sites and newspapers are mentioning it. Even the New York Times decided to not mention his sexuality, or his struggle to get his partner to Beijing with him. People will say, "it's not part of the story, he's just an athlete," but they are wrong. His sexuality, specifically because he's the ONLY ONE, and because gay men are painted as unathletic in our culture, makes it a big part of the story.

Spaulding notes that LA Times, the Guardian, and the Sydney Morning Herald did acknowledge Mitcham's sexual orientation.