Matthew Mitcham is Diving for More Gold

In spite of the difficulties he faced, Matthew Mitcham came out of the closet before diving his way to gold stardom at the Beijing Olympics. Now that its over, the gold medalist is looking to cash in on more gold.

Mitcham, along with his partner, Lachlan Fletcher is due to return to Syndey this weekend after a six-week European vacation.  Among is first order of business will be meeting with David Flaskas, his new manager, and the man who helped turn Ian Thorpe into a multimillionaire.

While the swimmer’s like Stephanie Rice and Michael Phelps have landed multi-million dollar endorsement contracts, Mitcham has yet to secure a major deal, amongst a great deal of speculation that his sexuality has held him back.

Flaskas however says he is securely confident his new client will be a “significant earner”, but wouldn’t directly answer questions on whether Mitcham would be a millionaire in a year.

Mitcham appeared on the cover of the latest issue of the gay magazine, DNA, but still has notgiven any post-olympic interviews.

NBC’s True Homophobic Colors Shine Through

It was disappointing to see NBC not mention anything about Matthew Mitcham’s sexuality. The biggest reason for me is a journalistic reason: It’s a big story. The only openly gay male athlete in Beijing pulled off one of the great upsets at the Olympics in a spectacular fashion. If he had had cancer, or if his parents had been killed in a car crash when he was 2, or if he had just proposed to his girlfriend, they would have mentioned it. But they never showed him hugging his boyfriend, never mentioned it. They referred to “personal problems,” but I’m afraid they decided Matthew’s sexuality was off limits. A real shame.

Read more at outsports.com.

Go Down Under the Water with Matthew Mitcham

When Matthew Mitcham arrived at the Sydney Aquatic Centre on a cold June day wrapped in a heavy coat and jeans (it’s winter Down Under), it didn’t seem possible that he’d strip down to a pair of Speedos and willingly dive into water again and again. The Olympic Games were two months away, and the 20-year-old diver with a pierced tongue was (and still is) dead-set on beating his rivals and winning the gold.

He did just that May 11 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at the AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix, one of the major annual meets put on by FINA, the international governing body for swimming, diving, and water polo. There, at an outdoor pool in windy conditions, Mitcham won the 10-meter platform, his specialty, defeating both 2004 Olympic gold medalist Hu Jia of China and fellow Australian and 2004 silver medalist Matthew Helm. Mitcham, currently ranked third in the world, also beat world number 1 Sascha Klein of Germany.

Click here to watch Matthew Mitcham dive

Or get the rest of this story from the advocate.com.