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EVERYBODY’S GAMES
Aussie diver Matthew Mitcham may well not have realised the enormity of ‘coming out’ earlier this year and consequently becoming Beijing’s only openly gay male athlete at the 2008 Olympic games.
If you cast your mind back to his interview with SX’s Peter Hackney early in July, Mitcham made clear that far as he was concerned, he’d already come out years before. As he explained, ‘all that happened recently was that I was doing an interview with the Herald and there was a pretty innocuous question, “Who do I live with?” and I just said “my partner Lachlan”. And the journalist was really excited – she thought it was absolutely wonderful!’
From there Mitcham snowballed into huge international profile, being lauded by UK broadsheets like The Guardian and scoring a feature, complete with cover, in the US’ Advocate magazine. And though all this may seem like an over-reaction to a young man’s throwaway comment, the fact is Mitcham has now become, intentionally or otherwise, a focal point and indeed role model for thousands of queer or questioning athletes and Olympic viewers alike.
The figures speak for themselves: The Beijing games feature a record 10,708 athletes, only 11 of whom – abut one per cent - are known to be openly gay, lesbian or bisexual. And of those, Mitcham is the lone male athlete. So while it might be nice to think we’ve come a long way, clearly there are still plenty of pressures keeping elite athletes in the closet, at least until their sporting careers are over. They may range from fear of negative response from fans and/or teammates through to fear of loss of sponsorship. For most Olympic-level athletes, worrying about such ancillary matters can only be detrimental to their intensive training regimes.
And so we return to the eternal Catch-22 situation where queer athletes will be reluctant to come forward and be honest and upfront as Mitcham has been, until such time as it’s clear that being queer is no impediment to success in an athlete’s chosen sport. Essentially, we need to make a big deal about how our sexuality is no big deal – no mean feat, obviously, though Mitcham is doing this pretty commendably.
In the meantime, while the number of Olympians prepared to be out and proud remains negligible, the need for alternative events such as the Gay Games is vital for visibility. Many may feel such events are exclusionary or segregationist, but one per cent of Olympic athletes prepared to be out is a telling statistic and hardly coincidental.
We should be at a point by now where athletes like Matthew Mitcham are not trailblazers, but obviously we’re not. The good news is that he’s carrying the burden well – and through our support and encouragement, we can help share the load.
Sam Butler
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