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 Matthew Mitcham
Mitcham, 20, was trailing hot favourite, China’s Zhou Luxin, by more than 30 points going into the last dive in the Men’s 10m platform event.
But Mitcham nailed the two and a half somersault with two and a half twists - his favourite dive - to score perfect tens from four judges to win by a bare 4.8 points. He scored a record 112.10 points out of a possible 115, leaving commentators and most of the predominantly Chinese crowd amazed.
Matthew told ABC radio news that he “felt a wreck inside” as he prepared for the final dive.
“I told myself to just enjoy it, to just have fun.”
He said he’d started crying in the water when he realized he was at least assured of a silver medal.
He had drawn strength from what he called his “terrible” performance in the 3m spring board event earlier in the week.
Matthew left diving in 2006 but he said the prospect of the Olympic Games brought him back to the sport.
“Words,” he said, “could not describe the moment” he won gold.
He made world headlines earlier this year (see blaze 191) when he mentioned in passing to Sydney Morning Herald journalist Jessica Halloran that he lived with his partner, Lachlan Fletcher.
The Herald put him on its front page. In Britain, the national daily, The Independent, carried an article under the headline ‘Gay diver breaks Australian sporting taboo’.
Respected British daily, The Guardian, rarely interested in Antipodean affairs, chimed in with an opinion piece asserting that while “Australia is an enlightened place these days, Australian sport, on the other hand, is not.” Mitcham had committed “a brave act indeed by coming out,” it said.
Matthew was nonplussed by all the fuss, saying “It’s not really a big deal. It’s not like I’m a different person. It’s not like I was straight before. So nothing really has changed. I came out years ago.”
But Jessica Halloran “thought it was absolutely wonderful!”
She was in Beijing to follow Matthew’s progress, and reported “he kissed him [Fletcher] briefly in the stands and gave him his Olympic bouquet. Later, outside the glowing blue Water Cube, Matthew Mitcham and his partner … firmly embraced, both shedding tears.”
Halloran reported Fletcher “was his rock when Mitcham retired in his late teenage years suffering anxiety and depression… supported his fight back into the sport and now to win Olympic gold.”
Matthew Mitcham is the first Australian male diver to score gold at the Olympics since 1924.
He knew he’d performed a great final dive, waving and bowing to the crowd, thanking them for their support, as he left the pool.
Then the tears started. And they continued as the realization hit that he had won not silver, but possibly gold. And so he had.
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