When Australian diver Matthew Mitcham
competes in the semi-final of the men's 10m platform event at the Beijing
Olympics on Saturday, he will not only have the support of a sports- mad
country behind him, he will also have the support of a large part of the gay
community.
20-year-old Mitcham, who advanced to the semi-finals with the second-highest
points total, is one of 11 athletes competing at the Olympics who has publicly
stated that he is gay.
Co-founder of the gay sports website outsports.com, Jim Buzinski, who names the
11 athletes in an article published on the website, said that the Australian is
be an inspiration for many gays.
"We do not expect that his participation at the Olympics, even if he does
well, will cause a tidal wave of other gay athletes outing themselves.
"Each athlete has his or her own set of unique circumstances, be they
family, team, or sports. It might be easier for some to come out and more
difficult for others.
"We know of many other gay athletes, who have not come out and openly said
that they are gay. Some of them have said so to team- mates or friends, but
their sexual orientation is not yet out in the public domain.
"And we respect their right to privacy."
Surprisingly, the list of 11 athletes consist of just one man: Matthew Mitcham
(Australia, diving), and one bi-sexual: Vicky Galindo (US, softball).
The other nine athletes are all women: Judith Arndt (Germany, cycling), Imke
Duplitzer (Germany, fencing), Gro Hammerseng and Katja Nyberg (Norway, handball and a lesbian couple), Natasha Kai (US, soccer), Lauren Lappin (US, softball), Victoria "Vickan" Svensson (Sweden, soccer), Rennae Stubbs (Australia, tennis) and Linda Bresonik (Germany, soccer).
Hammerseng and Nyberg will be playing in the gold medal match in handball with Norway, while Kai picked up gold as the US defeated Brazil 1-0 in the women's football final. Bresonik won a bronze with her team, while Galindo and Lappin won silver with the US softball team.
Buzinski believes that one of the reasons why there are so many women who have
openly stated that they are lesbians is because culture seems to be more
tolerant of gay female athletes.
"Society thinks that many women who play certain types of sport are
lesbians anyway. It is like a default setting.
"Woman are also in a supportive environment. It is more accepted there and
they make no big thing of it.
"Or maybe, they are just braver," he says.
In the absence of more brave gay men, it is left for Mitcham to carry the torch
for gay male Olympians in Beijing.
If he wins a medal, he will, of course, not be the first gay Olympian to win a
medal.
There have been several others, like double gold medallist Camilla Andersen
(Denmark, handball), Gigi Fernandez, who won two gold medals for the US in
tennis, American cyclist Robert Dover who won four bronze medals and Sheryl
Swoopes, who won three gold medals in women's basketball.
Possibly the most famous gay Olympian was diver Greg Louganis, who won four
gold medals and a silver, but only came out once he had retired from the sport.
He later also announced that he was HIV positive.
But even then, controversy followed him as he was criticised for a decision to
continue competing after banging his head during a dive at the 1988 Olympics
and bleeding into the pool. He said that he had been advised by a doctor that
there was no danger to any other divers as a result of his blood. He therefore
decided to continue in the competition and picked up another gold.
Mitcham though, does not want to be compared with Louganis. "We're both
gay divers. But that's about the only similarity - two things we share out of
thousands of millions of qualities and character traits," he told
Australian media before the start of the Olympics.
"I just want to be known as the Australian diver who did really well at
the Olympics. It's everybody else who thinks it's special when homosexuality
and elite sport go together," he said, according to dpa.