Man Candy Day: Matthew Mitcham

[reviews_and_ramblings]

I'm not a big fan of sports in general, but I like to watch Olympic Games (I even worked in the past on a project for 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin). But we must be true with us, most of the time we women look Olympics he real reason is to see beautiful men, and swimmers and divers are among the most beautiful, since they have all in display! And then, when I read a story like the one of Matthew Mitcham, and he seems so cute and young, I can't help to choose him as my Man Candy!















Matthew Mitcham (born 2 March, 1988 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) is an Australian diver. He is the 2008 Olympic champion in the 10m platform, having received the highest single-dive score in Olympic history. He is the first Australian male to win an Olympic gold medal in diving since Dick Eve at the 1924 Summer Olympics, and was the only openly gay male medal winner at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Mitcham represented Australia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 10-metre platform and the 3-metre springboard events. He placed 16th on the 3m springboard and did not qualify for the final. He qualified in second position for the semi-final and final of the 10m platform event. After experiencing mixed success in his first five dives in the final, Mitcham entered the final round of dives in second place, 34 points behind Chinese diver Zhou Luxin. After Zhou performed his worst dive of the final and scored 74.80, Mitcham still needed to score 107.30, a very high score on the platform, to win the gold. However, his near-perfect final dive drew four perfect 10 scores from judges and achieved a score of 112.10, the highest single-dive score in Olympic history. He finished with an overall score of 537.95 to defeat Zhou, who finished with an overall score of 533.15, to win Australia's second diving medal of the Games. His win prevented China from claiming a clean-sweep of all diving gold medals at the Olympic Games. He is the first Australian male to win an Olympic gold medal in diving since Dick Eve in 1924.



“ It's absolutely surreal. I never thought that this would be possible, I wasn't even sure of my medal chances at all. After I did my last dive and I saw I was in first, I thought, "That's it, it's a silver medal, I am so happy with this" and then I won. I can't believe it, I'm so happy.”

Mitcham was born in Brisbane but lives and trains in Sydney. He publicly came out as gay in 2008 to the Sydney Morning Herald when they were profiling Olympic hopefuls. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he was also featured on the cover of the international gay publication The Advocate in 2008 and 2009.

Mitcham said he hoped he could find a way to bring his partner, Lachlan, to support him Beijing -- though he couldn't afford it on his own. Mitcham's partner, Lachlan Fletcher, attended the 2008 Summer Olympic Games as a spectator. His trip was sponsored by a grant from Johnson & Johnson's Athlete Family Support Program.



Mitcham gained media coverage as the first Australian to compete at the Olympic Games as openly gay at the time of his competition, though this was inaccurate, as Mathew Helm, who competed in the same event, was also out before the Olympics began. Other notable gay Australian Olympians include Ji Wallace, who competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal in the inaugural trampoline event; however, he came out after the Games.

Prior to his 10m platform win, Mitcham was reported to be one of only eleven openly gay athletes competing in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, out of 11,028 athletes from 204 countries.


 
@Matthew Mitcham
@Wikipedia
@The Advocate – Adam Pretty
@The Advocate - Adam Pretty (Behind the Scene)

Comments

[marquesate.livejournal.com]

Lucky, lucky Lachlan. ;-) What a beautiful man and beautiful grin.

[luscious-words.livejournal.com]

He is very lovely! :)

One of my favorite Olympians is another Aussie - Ian Thorpe. It's that diving/swimming thing you mentioned. ;)

[haydenthorne.net (from livejournal.com)]

I watched the diving competition all the way to the end. Mitchell was just adorable through the whole thing. All the other divers looked so grim before and after their dives, and he was hamming it up for the camera, laughing and waving and jumping. Too cute.

The men's diving competition was a nail-biter up until the last moment. I was so thrilled to see him win. He deserved the gold medal.

[yana-ambf.livejournal.com]

They are the cutest little couple! I am so happy for them and Matthew's success. It's really sad that, because of his courage to come out, he has suffered financially. He is scraping by on relatively meager earnings when someone of his stature should be rolling in dough and fighting off endorsements with a stick. In his case, he chose principle over profit, and I really respect him for that decision, and his partner and family for being so supportive.

[snowmore.livejournal.com]

I kicked myself when I realized I missed his competition. I had read about Matthew before the games and wanted to see him perform. I love to watch diving and I was so happy to see an athlete of his caliber show the world who he is!

Great choice for Man Candy Day, Elisa!

[kennsea.livejournal.com]

He is such an inspiration - and he just won Sports Person of the Year here. Sadly, with all his achievements and accolades, he is still without major sponsorship - which you can't help but think is one of the dark sides of coming out while still in your sport?

[lab-jazz.livejournal.com]

Aussie Man Candy...you are truely amazing!!!!
I'm Aussie but don't follow sport so he's completely new to me :)