Australia’s Mitcham Wins Platform Diving Gold
August 24, 2008 by Sandy Mitchell
Filed under Sports Rumors
It looked like the Chinese were going to go eight for eight Gold Medals in the Olympic diving competitions…at least until the last of five dives in the mens 10m platform event. China’s Zhou Luxin was leading by 30 points going in to the last round. However, Luxin buckled a little to the enormous pressure he had to be feeling and flubbed the entry on his last dive. Australia’s Matthew Mitcham, in second place going into the final dive, completed a near-flawless dive and won the event, shocking the near 18,000, mostly Chinese spectators.
Zhou Luxin earned the Silver Medal and Russia’s Gleb Galperin was awarded the Bronze Medal. David Boudia and Thomas Finchum of the United States finished 10th and 12th respectively. Fourteen-year-old Thomas Daley of Great Britain finished a very respectable 7th place. He’ll be one to watch in London in 2012.
If the straight media do not report that Matt is openly gay, most teen and young gays will never find out about what a great role model Matt is for them. Many gay kids desperately need positive role models, especially athletes.
Many gay kids have parents who monitor their Internet site usage, so the kids are afraid to go to a gay Web site because they don’t want their parents to suspect that they are gay. These kids are also afraid to pick up a gay publication in a bookstore or newsstand, especially in small towns and conservative communities. I know; I was a gay kid growing up in a small town. Parents in the US generally are not happy, and are often very angry, to hear that their child is gay. Some gay kids are thrown out of the house or disowned by their parents.
Gay youth often fear going to school because they are harassed, ostracized, or even beaten if the bullies find out that they are gay. If straight media don’t tell their readers about a hero like Mitcham, how are these young gay kids going to know that there are gay role models out there, like Matt Mitcham? How will the bullies find out that some gays are actually top athletes?