OUR GOLDEN BOY

I cannot think of a better way for Australia to have finished off its Beijing Olympics campaign than with Matthew Mitcham’s stunning, gold-medal winning final dive at the 10m platform.

Mitcham earned the highest single score ever in the history of Olympic diving, including four 10s from seven judges, to crush the Chinese ambition of clean sweeping eight gold medals across all diving competitions. He also became the first openly gay Olympian to do so.

It’s probably quite politically incorrect to say this, but there’s something compelling about watching an out and proud athlete wipe the floor with his competition. Ian Roberts used to do it in his heyday – it would have been a brave player indeed to call him a ‘faggot’ to his face – and Mitcham has done it here. So many of us latent homos endure all manner of bullying and victimisation during our formative years and it is a brave few who can conquer this through being the best in their chosen sport.

Perhaps even more impressive than Mitcham’s dive was the endearingly classy way he composed himself during both the competition and medal presentation. He maintained a genuine, albeit unnecessary display of humility, claiming he could not actually comprehend winning something greater than silver, even after his name was placed at the top of the scoreboard.

Encouragingly, the media did not airbrush out Mitcham’s sexuality as much as we assumed they would. Though the Channel 7 commentator neglected to mention ‘partner Lachlan’ when referring to his ‘mum, coach and 20 million-odd countrymen’ watching him take his final dive, the following day’s headline bulletin opened with Mitcham running to embrace Lachlan outside the Water Cube. In the post-competition interview Johanna Griggs engaged with Mitcham about Lachlan with no apparent awkwardness, and all major newspapers variously referred to the ‘out-and-out champion, ‘openly homosexual’ and so on. Not that his personal life should have any bearing on his sporting achievements, of course – but given a media that’s intent on treating, for example, Eamon Sullivan and Stephanie Rice’s break-up with as much gravitas as the three gold medals she won, it’s encouraging to see a move away from the traditional ignoring of the rainbow elephant in the room.

Now everybody will want a piece of the affable and photogenic Matthew Mitcham, and hopefully the post-victory pressure will not trigger any of the depression that led to him originally walking away from the sport. But judging by his efforts so far, Mitcham seems more than capable of dealing with the additional scrutiny, and balancing being a role model with being a true champion.

Mitcham has delivered a powerful ‘F.U.’ to a system that keeps elite athletes in the closet and prevents them from achieving their best. For that we’re grateful.

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