Matthew Mitcham’s Skin on Canvass, Now Displayed in the Australian Portrait Gallery

Back in the news again is Matthew Mitcham, not because of his diving feats, but because noted Australian artist Ross Watson has stroked the 2008 Olympic Diving Champion’s likeness onto canvass.  Watson, whose paintings place popular male personages into his take on Italian masterpieces, has painted the image of Mitcham into the backdrop of Venetian painter Ricci’s “Fall of Phaeton”.  The painting is now being exhibited in the Australian National Portrait Gallery.

You can see more Watson pieces of Mitcham and others at his homepage www.rosswatson.com and Watson’s photos of Mitcham, which he used to prepare for the painting.  Check for more on this at advocate.com.

Matthew Mitcham Signs With the Aussie Telecommunication Giant, Telstra for a Year-Long Sponsorship

After a long wait, Australian Olympic gold medal winner in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and out gay guy Matthew Mitcham, has received a sponsorship deal. Telstra, the largest telecom company in Australia, has inked a deal with the young diver through the end of the year 2009.

As part of his sponsorship by the big Aussie phone company, Mitcham will appear in advertising, open stores, and keep a weekly blog.

See more about the Mitcham and Telstar deal in Andrew M. Potts’ article in the Sydney Star Observer.

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Check out more posts and photos of Matthew Mitcham: (A), (B), (C),(D), and (E).

New Matthew Mitcham Story Hits the Stands: Olympic Win and Life After the Olympics

It seems like there’s an Aussie invasion, with at least five “down-under” friends at our little dog park most evenings and a new hire at work. That “shrimp on the barbe (or is it “Barbie”?) accent is everywhere.

As you can see (as if you’re actually reading this), there’s set to be another Aussie invasion of sorts as Olympic gold-medal winner, Matthew Mitcham, is featured on the cover of the next of issue of The Advocate. (Thanks to Towleroad for this heads-up.) The article, written by Nicholas Fonseca, gives readers an insight into the young Australian’s story, both growing up as a self-aware gay boy and his current rigorous routine as an dedicated athlete, who still follows a strict training regimen. Says Mitcham, remembering being the subject of taunts as a schoolboy, “We all got it . . . I was just so open . . . . It was like it was no fun to call somebody a homo who really is a homo.” Other great photos of Mitcham by Adam Pretty accompany the article.

The Advocate should be getting lots of extra print runs on this issue. This guy has been popular all over the world since his gold-winning dive in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. No doubt The Advocate will be pulling in more subscriptions from all over the world thanks to just this cover.

There’s a lot more about Mitcham at advocate.com, including a video of Mitcham taken during the interview.

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Check out more posts and photos of Matthew Mitcham: (A), (B), (C),(D), and (E).

Matthew Mitcham–The Dives, The Win, The Honor, The Kiss–The Video That Some of You Have Been Waiting For

Sorry, that vid no longer works; like other stuff on the internet, someone deleted the original source.  Check my vid box for other Mitcham videos.

Check it out in the Vid Box in the right sidebar.

Matthew Mitcham, Olympic Gold Diver Speaks about His Achievement

Matthew Mitcham's Gold-Winning Dive at the Beijing Olympics

With such an emotional victory in his pocket, Matthew Mitcham, the winner of the gold medal in the 10-meter platform dive took a little time later to speak about his win, along with his mother and boyfriend, Lachlan Fletcher, both of whom were in the stands at Beijing’s Olympic Water Cube to watch and cheer him on. (Read about Matthew’s terrific victory further down this page.)

Matthew Mitcham, Out Australian Diver Wins Gold in Beijing

Matthew Mitcham, an out gay diver from Australia, made a big come-back in his last dive in the 10-meter platform dive winning the gold medal to the chagrin of the Chinese who were hoping to make a sweep in diving. He had been in second place going into the sixth and final dive, but he scored an amazing 35 points in that dive, for a total of 112.10,to move past Zhou, the Chinese diver who had been in first going into the last dive. Mitcham, who earlier had missed out on getting into the 3 meter finals because of nerves seemed to calm himself down in a big way, especially for the final gold-winning dive. You can see part of his gold-medal dive here.

Men’s 10m Platform, Final Standings
Gold–Australia — Matthew Mitcham, 537.95 points
Silver–China — Zhou Luxin, 533.15
Bronze–Russia — Gleb Galperin, 525.80

Here’s a great article by Bob Ballard, a BBC reporter covering diving at the Olympics, telling about the moments of the dive itself and what occurred directly afterward.