Matthew Mitcham became the first Aussie man since 1924 to win a diving gold and just the third Aussie ever.

The 20-year-old openly gay diver had quit diving in 2006 due to depression but returned nine months later to the sport. Mitcham's sixth and final effort - a back two-and-a-half somersault with two-and-a-half twists - earned 112.10 points including four perfect 10s on his last dive - the highest-scoring dive in Olympic history, officials said.

After the medal ceremony, Mitcham jumped through the barricades to kiss his mother, Vivien, and partner, Lachlan Fletcher, in the stands.
Mitcham's gold medal propelled him ahead of the Chinese favourite Zhou Luxin by 4.80 points with a total of 537.95 and prevented China from getting a clean sweep of eight Olympic diving gold medals.



Over at the women's camp, openly gay captain Gro Hammerseng led Norway's handball team including openly gay left back Katja Nyberg to a 34-27 victory against Russia, securing the team's first Olympic gold medal. The US Women's Football (soccer) team (lesbian forward Natasha Kai) beat Brazil to win gold. The US Softball team with (openly lesbian catcher and infielder Lauren Lappin and bisexual infielder Vicky Galindo, both of whom came out in an interview with The Advocate) was defeated by Japan 3-1 to win silver.

Mitcham's win has re-ignited the debate about the relevance or newsworthiness of an athlete's sexual orientation.

Former US Judo star Lauren Meece wrote in a column in a gay newspaper: "How very selfish, they say, of those same athletes to work their entire lives sacrificing blood, sweat, and tears to get to these very moments and then fail to mention their homosexuality!" She wrote of the gay community for being "very critical regarding the numbers of athletes closeting themselves at the Olympics."

"In the name of the Olympic spirit and humanity… shut up and let gay athletes focus on the endeavors that they have worked so hard to reach." She wrote her column "No rainbow flags at Beijing Games: Olympics are not the place for gay politics."

Writer and Gay Games medallist in swimming Ryan Heath rebutted her directly in an Australian newspaper saying: "Shutting up is part of the problem. The reason we can't name many gay sports stars isn't because the media are bored with them… It's because there are hardly any coming out stories to report."

"Mitcham's sexuality is news so long as he remains the only openly gay man on the Australian team, and quite possibly, the only one among the nearly 7000 men competing in Beijing." Heath, who trained as a competitive swimmer in his teens, further cited homophobia in sports arenas and sponsorship issues openly gay athletes may face in an opinion piece titled "A win for Australia - and for gay athletes everywhere."