Hmm. I guess you wouldn't know that from watching the NBC coverage of the Olympics when Mitcham (pictured) came from practically nowhere to snatch a gold medal from the Chinese divers. Hmm. Major upset win, first men's diving gold for Australia since 1924 (1924!), China denied a clean sweep of gold in diving, the highest individual dive score ever awarded during an Olympic competition and -- hmm -- not one shot of Mitcham's significant other, not one mention that he is gay (and proudly out), nothing.What does NBC say? “We don’t discuss an athlete’s sexual orientation” unless, of course, they are straight when they show the wife or husband, the kids, the parents, the cousins, the grandparents and the neighbor who lived next to them in 1972. Isn't being "straight" a sexual orientation? Hmm.
Well, here is a little shot at giving Mitcham (and his significant other) the attention they both deserve.
A report about the win will be found here.
A report about the snub will be found here.
NBC's apology will be found here.
Mitcham's official site is here.
3 comments:
Very interesting! They didn't make a big deal out of it in the Australian media during the Olympics, but I remember there being an article in the first week about the lack of openly gay Olympians. The article noted that there was only one "out" guy in the whole athlete's village, but I don't remember it specifying his country. During the diving competition - which was obviously highlighted a lot here since we had two guys who were doing pretty well - it wasn't ever mentioned. It was only after his amazing win that I noticed them hugging his partner, and I was like, "OOOHHHH! THAT'S HIM!" His partner was actually mentioned in all of the stories I read here afterwards, which was nice.
Kris! Thanks for letting me know the Australian media was much more open about this than the American media. We always hate how the American media seems to think the only athletes of interest to Americans are Americans. Gee, how many countries participated in the Olympics OTHER than America? (202.) How many countries OTHER than America won medals? (86.) That makes a lot of athletes who, it seems, hold no interest for Americans. Now that's sad.
Well, it helps a lot that he won gold and that he's cute. Somehow the Australian media are a lot more interested and supportive of the athletes who win big and look nice on TV. :)
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