Mitcham fever hit its peak during the Beijing Olympic Games’ 10m platform event. There, Matthew knocked down what was then considered the undefeatable Chinese diving team and in the process earned the highest-scoring dive in Olympic history with a perfectly executed 112.10-point back two and a half somersault with two and a half twists. Up until the last dive of the competition, China’s Zhou Luxin had a 30 point lead, but Matthew smashed it spectacularly, beating his impressive 533.15 score with his own 537.95… all at the age of 20. A few months later he won the 2008 Diving Grand Prix, and was voted Australia Sportsman of the year for 2008 by his peers and fellow countrymen.
Because of the treatment that they get in their own countries, of the 11,028 athletes competing in the Beijing Olympics, only 11 were out and proud gays. The odds are that that left approximately 1,091 just as deserving gay athletes out in their cold closets.
Mark Tewksbury
"When you compete, you need to focus on your strength, but when you're in the closet, what you focus on is fear and vulnerability."
"The fear of rejection is the ultimate overriding factor that makes it really difficult to make yourself stand out in any way, and certainly in a way that might not be seen so positively by your teammates."
Amongst other things, Mark is known for doing something not many other athletes can do — breaking his own world records. In fact at the Canadian Winter Nationals in Winnipeg he did it twice in two days… and without a high-tech body suit. By the time Tewksbury retired in 1992 he owned the 100m short-course backstroke and had earned six world records in the event plus one short-course world record in the 200m backstroke. Aside from medaling for Canada in the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Mark also achieved good showings in the Pan Pacific Games from 1987 through 1991.
Mark has earned several Canadian Athlete of the Year awards, including the prestigious Lou March Trophy, the Lionel Conacher Award, and the Norton H. Crow Award. He has also been inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and the Olympic Hall of Fame, was named Canada’s Male Athlete of the Year, and is in the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
In 1996, Mark was an integral part of the International Olympic Committee that selected the site of the 2004 Summer Olympics, but became embroiled in a conflict over the treatment of Olympic Athletes and perceived corruption in the organization. In 1998 Mark disclosed his homosexuality and several months later resigned his position at the IOC, deciding instead to concentrate on his role in bringing the celebrated Gay Games/Out Games to Montreal, an event that he hosted in 2006.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jet Gardner
In the next volume, I plan to cover more College athletes and women... stay tuned
2 - Cindy
Great article Jet. I read a sports related article about gender bias today.
Caster Semenya 'treated like a leper' claims head of South African athletics
Caster Semenya and the Idiocy of Sex Testing
"The idea that an 18-year-old who has just experienced the greatest athletic victory of her life is being subjecting [sic] to this very public humiliation is shameful to say the least.
Her own coach Michael Seme contributed to the disgrace when he said, 'We understand that people will ask questions because she looks like a man. It's a natural reaction and it's only human to be curious. People probably have the right to ask such questions if they are in doubt. But I can give you the telephone numbers of her roommates in Berlin. They have already seen her naked in the showers and she has nothing to hide.' "
3 - Jet Gardner
Thanks Cindy, I appreciate your comment. I was expecting a lot of "What's the big deal" comments, but you've brought up an important aspect of the subject.
thanks
4 - Jet Gardner
The true test of when these kinds of articles become unecessary will come when a straight man can summon the courage to convincingly tell his best friend that he's gay, just to see what'll happen and be as unafraid of the consequences as if he'd just said he was left-handed.
You know, not so long ago in our culture it was considered evil by religious nuts in this very country to BE left-handed.
Parents would actually train left-handed kids to use their right hand or be punished for it causing all kinds of psychological problems.
Being right-handed, I've sometimes experimented trying to write with my left hand and found it insanely difficult... but not impossible. I'm sure with a lot of practice I could master left-handed writing, but my right hand will still automatically reach for that pencil when I need to jot something down no matter how practiced I become.
Many gay men have mastered having sex with women, and many have been declared "cured" by the fundamentalist nuts... but I promise you, he has to stop reaching for a man with that other hand every day.
5 - Cindy
Good analogy. Isn't it amazing that the nuts (religious, but there are enough other types) always think they know what's right for other people. Things haven't changed. The nuts* are still here. They're in the majority. They just focus on different things than left-handedness.
*It comes from being raised in a lunatic asylum, designed and implemented by others raised in the same asylum.
6 - Jet Gardner
Indeed...
7 - Robert M. Barga
Jet, my generation is caring less and less about articles like this, which means that we are finally accepting people for, well, people
8 - Jet Gardner
Oh, then you've passed the test in #4?
9 - Jet Gardner
My generation? I better go get some sassparelly for my lumbego!
10 - Robert M. Barga
LOL, if one of my friends told me that he was gay, then he is gay. That is it
One of my good friends actually did that recently, granted, i expected it, but it didn't phase me for a second
11 - Cindy
Great news about Dumbledore, Jet. I didn't know about that.
12 - Jet Gardner
You just never know Cindy, you just never know... :)
13 - Jet Gardner
Cindi, did you notice the r-rated photo of Billy Bean on my own blogs version of this article?
14 - Cindy
No Jet. But, I figured out what you meant by 'actors'. (you know, the guys with the unusual....ahem...)
I didn't think a person with my experience could be naive about such a thing. (and I recall asking you if they were a club! lol)
But, I was just sitting here thinking that I now have a new admiration for J.K. Rowling. I was thinking, she has enough money now to be secure (unlike before she wrote the books)...and with all the howling about witchcraft from the religious fundies, she goes and announces that Dumbledore is gay. When I think about that, I have to imagine her laughing over the PR nightmare she's just created. She has some power and she just used it, not for money, but for good. I just like that so much. It's very uplifting.
lol, I just realized you must have asked me that, about Billy Bean, for a reason. So, what was it?
15 - Jet Gardner
Because BB is a HUNK and I probably couldn't publish that photo here
16 - Jet Gardner
You are aware that I published the Dumbledore article here nearly two years ago right?
Click here
17 - Cindy
Jet,
You know, I can't find this article on your blog. But I did find that skating picture of BB. I am certain he is adorable. Even more so because you like him. :-)
18 - Cindy
LOL, 2 years ago? Nope, I am afraid I am a dunce (not for the last time, I'm sure.)
What a crazy world. I am amazed that people waste all their precious time on this crap. Then they'll all be dust, having spent their life fighting Tinky Wink.
19 - barga
I actually think that she made a mistake in talking about Dumbies preference. He was a character beyond humanity, in that regard, and so it kinda took away from him
20 - Jet Gardner
Sorry Cindi, It's listed as "Famous Gay Athletes to be proud of Vol. II" in the table of contents.
A lot of athletes when they first come out are offered tons of money to pose nude. I understand that in France there's a calendar put out every year where straight and gay athletes compete to get into it as a prestige thing, and Australia (as in the case of Ian Roberts) in Vol. I it was no big deal.
If the U.S. keeps getting more and more puritanical we'll all being wearing burkas soon.
21 - Jet Gardner
You're right, Dumbledore's sex preference should be as important as if he's left or right handed.
How many people can be convinced of that?
As for "your" generation being more liberal concerning gays, I don't see a whole lot of gay rights legislation going through.
Black civil rights took a century to go from slaves to equal rights and probably twice that long for a lot of southerners who fly rebel flags on their porches to accept it. Gays probably will have to wait twice that long.
You can tell a person's black by looking at them, not so with gays, so we're evil.
"You fear what you don't understand...
...you kill what you fear."
22 - roger nowosielski
That's ignorance for you.
23 - Jet Gardner
Excuse my ignorance.... what is?
24 - barga
Jet,
I don't support gay rights legislation as I think it violates the 14th - targets an arbtrary group. Granted, I think that you are already covered under the 14th as well, so it is all good
You know, your logic is exactly why blacks don't support gay rights. This girl in class argued once that the 14th shouldn't cover gays cause you guys haven't struggled enough. I followed up with "it shouldn't cover blacks, because, as a Jew, I don't think you have struggled enough". She didn't get it
My generation supports gay rights, for the most part, but the same way we accept all rights, inherent, and with no need for laws
25 - Jordan Richardson
blacks don't support gay rights.
WTF?
My generation supports gay rights
Except the "blacks," right?