Sponsorship for gay Aussie athlete wanted

Amazingly, the 20-year-old, bottle-blond charmer was the only out-of-the-closet gay man in Beijing’s 10,000-strong athletes’ village.

Handsome and eloquent, he’s likely to be the country’s only gold-medal winner not to feature in a television commercial or on a packet of breakfast cereal.

It’s the unvarnished truth: Australians are uncomfortable with gay sports stars. So consumer-goods companies are loathe to link their products with them. There are hundreds of professional rugby players, but not a single one of them would admit to being a homosexual. The same goes for cricket.

Mitcham might be just the package to break through. He’s got the body of an Adonis, a perfect smile and he talks naturally rather than in the verbal robotics favored by other stars.

And he has a story to tell. Mitcham battled depression after missing selection for Athens and spent nine months in retirement before getting back on the boards last year. He was embraced as a gay icon on his Beijing success.

What should also count in his favor is that he’s rejected the notion of just being a gay sporting icon.

“I just want to be known as the Australian diver who did really well at the Olympics,” he said. “It’s everybody else who thinks it’s special when homosexuality and elite sports go together.”

What really would be special is for homosexuality, elite sports and sponsorship to go together.

David Flaskas is managing Mitcham and reckons he can make him a “significant earner.” But it has not happened yet. There have been no deals to take Mitcham into households. He’s not on television shows. There isn’t a line of Matt Mitcham swimming togs.

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