 In August, diver Matthew
Mitcham will become the first openly gay Australian to compete in an Olympic
Games. He spoke with Peter Hackney.
In many ways, Matthew Mitcham is just your regular
20-year-old gay guy.
He lives in inner-city Sydney, he has a boyfriend, he loves
to watch The Simpsons, Futurama and Queer As Folk. His favourite music is by The Presets, Kate
Miller-Heidke and Missy Higgins.
But Matthew Mitcham is not your regular 20-year-old gay guy.
He is a member of Australia’s elite Olympic diving team; and
last month he made headline news around the world.
The reason? Being gay.
A casual remark to a journalist during an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald led to a
flurry of international publicity. The Herald
put Mitcham on its front page. In Britain, national daily newspaper 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”, the newspaper said.
But the person at the centre of it all sees things
differently.
Speaking to MCV during
a break from training at the Sydney Aquatic Centre in Homebush, Matthew Mitcham
is nonplussed by all the fuss.
“It’s not really a big deal,” he says. “It’s not like I’m a
different person. It’s not like I was straight before.”
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In fact, Mitcham doesn’t even agree that he ‘came out’ last
month.
“I came out years ago. All that happened recently was that I
was doing an interview with the Herald
and there was a pretty innocuous question, ‘Who do I live with?’ and I just
said ‘my partner Lachlan’. And the journalist was really excited – she thought
it was absolutely wonderful!”
While Mitcham, who came out to friends and family at age 14
(Mum’s reaction: “Well, duh!”), doesn’t see his sexuality a big deal, he’s not
naïve about his position as Australia’s highest-profile out gay sportsman. He’s
aware that other people do see his
position as “a big deal”, and he’s happy to wear the ‘role model’ mantle for
young gay guys.
“Being in my position, it’s inevitable,” he concedes.
“There’s not really much choice. If someone looks up to you, then you’re a role
model. And I’m happy with that. I just hope I do a good job – I’m not perfect!”
Mitcham certainly bears the markings of a good gay role
model: he’s successful, attractive, and he’s not shy about speaking up on queer
issues. When asked for his view on same-sex marriage, for instance, he has no
compunction slamming Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
“I’m not happy with Kevin Rudd,” he says, bluntly. “Kevin
Rudd’s opinion of marriage as something that’s only between a man and a woman
is quite narrow-minded. During the election campaign he was all about appearing
young and cool, but his views on gay marriage make him look quite
old-fashioned.”
Similarly, Mitcham doesn’t hold back when quizzed about
criticism of his ‘coming out’. When the Herald
story was initially published, this journalist overheard two women on a train
explaining to each other why it was ‘ridiculous’. “Why don’t heterosexuals come
out as straight?” harrumphed one. “They’re just obsessed with their sexuality,”
sneered the other.
I ask Mitcham for his response to this line of thinking.
“That’s a really uneducated, unworldly view,” he replies.
“And you know what? Straight people talk about their sexuality all the time. They
talk about the opposite sex, they talk about their wives, their husbands, their
marriage. Those are all heterosexual discourses, and they do talk about them all the time. So those ladies didn’t think their
comments through very well.”
But of course, gay politics is not Mitcham’s primary focus
right now. He’s under a punishing training schedule ahead of the Beijing
Olympic Games, where he hopes to bring back gold for Australia in the ten-metre
platform and three-metre springboard events.
He’s already won gold this year at the 2008 Diving Grand
Prix in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“All my energy is focused on Beijing right now,” says a
tenacious Mitcham. “I’ve been diving since I was 11, so it’s been nine years of
work leading up to this.”
Regardless of whether he brings back the gold, something
tells me we’ll be hearing a lot more of Matthew Mitcham.
Photos: Myles Formby
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Making a splash
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