Nine Seconds With Matthew Mitcham

Photo Of The Day - Matthew Mitcham

Australian Olympic gold medalist diver Matthew Mitcham dressed as an abs-tastic unicorn for a local Lady Gaga concert. The Advocate reports that he was too shy to use his name to try and get backstage to meet her, even though winning the gold and meeting Gaga have been his "only two wishes in life." That outfit doesn't really scream "shy" does it?

Gold Medal Finally Paying Off For Australian Diver Matthew Mitcham

Openly gay Australian Olympic diving gold medalist Matthew Mitcham has finally landed his first big endorsement deal.

While it's not in Stephanie Rice's league, Mitcham's year-long contract with Telstra is a "relief'' for the diver, who has stuggled to attract corporate interest, despite his final dive receiving the highest single-dive score in Olympic history. He blames the current economic crisis, rather than his sexuality, for the sponsorship drought, but is grateful that Telstra has backed him: "Hopefully, this will have a snowball effect. If I can get the opportunity where I would be able to train without having to worry about paying the bills, that would be the ultimate goal.'' Mitcham said without it, it would be hard to train for the London Games.

Telstra is Australia's largest phone service provider.

Out Lesbians Take Six Medals In Beijing

In addition to the stunning upset victory of out gay diver Matthew Mitcham, six of the thirteen out lesbians at the Beijing Olympics won medals, including girlfriends Gro Hammerseng and Katja Nyberg, who took Norway's handball team to the gold. Go to 365gay.com for a great photo recap of lesbionic fabulousity.

Over at OutSports, there's this fascinating factoid:

Statistically speaking, out athletes have been, as a group, disproportionately successful at these Olympic Games. The 11 openly GLBT athletes Outsports has followed over the past two weeks raked in 4 golds, 2 silvers and 1 bronze medal. In other words, 64% of out athletes won a medal; a third of all out athletes won a gold medal. The medalists are:

Gold: Matthew Mitcham, Australia (Diving, 10m platform); Natasha Kai, USA (Soccer); Gro Hammerseng & Katya Nyberg, Norway (Handball)

Silver: Lauren Lappin and bi athlete Vicky Galindo, USA (Softball)

Bronze: Linda Bresonik, Germany (Soccer)

UNRELATED NON-GAY HOTNESS: Y'all can swoon over those faux-thug gymnast boys all you want, for my money the hottest man at the Olympics was American volleyball team captain Lloy Ball, who yesterday took his team and his 36 year-old scuff-daddyness all the way to the gold medal.

Golden Gay: Matthew Mitcham, Australia's Out Olympic Diver Wins Gold

In what is being hailed as one of the most tremendous upsets of the Beijing Olympics, openly gay Australian diver Matthew Mitcham won a gold medal today after his string of perfect 10's recorded the highest scoring dive in Olympic history.

Mitcham's pulled off a stunning final dive in the 10 metre platform, scoring an incredible four perfect 10s, to steal the gold off favourite Chinese diver Luxin Zhou. Mitcham finished with 537.95 points. It was a massive upset defeating the premiere and form Chinese divers Liang Huo and Luxin Zhou in front fierce home crowd.

Mitcham, 20, battled depression, retired in his teenage years after physical and emotional burn-out, then just nine months later resumed his sport in 2007. Last night his triumphant return to the sport was crowned with gold. His coach Chava Sobrino, who encouraged Mitcham back into the sport, elatedly embraced diver and Mitcham broke down in tears.

It was late 2006 that Mitcham lost passion for diving and suffering depression he quit. During his hiatus from the sport last year to make money he plunged from a tower 14 metres high into a pool of water for crowds at the Royal Easter Show in Sydney. That job reignited his passion for the sport.

One person who has been by his side for the entire tumultuous and now brilliant journey is his partner, Lachlan, he was in the crowd last night courtesy of a Johnson & Johnson Olympic sponsorship. Mitcham is one of only a few "out" gay athletes in Beijing and the first Australian to openly declare his homosexuality going into an Olympics.

Mitcham, age 20, is now expected to be a star of Australia's 2012 team in London.UPDATE: Here's a clip of Mitcham being interviewed with his mother after his win as his boyfriend stands next him. Very nice to see the two boys hugging each other in front of the international sports press.

IOC Inquiry For Chinese Gymnasts

The International Olympic Committee is finally looking into the ages of the Chinese female gymnasts.

The IOC did not give details on what new information prompted it to act now, three days after the gymnastics competition ended. "With some questions still remaining, we asked the federation to take a closer look," Davies said.

The Chinese women won six medals, including the team gold and He's gold on uneven bars. Media reports include a Nov. 3 story by the Chinese government's news agency, Xinhua, that suggest He is only 14. Asked earlier this week about her age again after winning the uneven bars title, beating American Nastia Liukin in a tiebreak, she said:

"I was born in 1992, and I'm 16 years old now," He said. "The FIG has proved that. If I'm under 16, I couldn't have been competing here." Earlier this month, the AP found registration lists previously posted on the Web site of the General Administration of Sport of China that showed both He and Yang were too young to compete. He was born Jan. 1, 1994, according to the 2005, 2006 and 2007 registration lists. Yang was born Aug. 26, 1993, according to the 2004, 2005 and 2006 registration lists. In the 2007 registration list, however, her birthday has changed to Aug. 26, 1992.

"We played fair at this Olympic Games," Liukin's father and coach, Valeri, said after they arrived back in the United States. "... If somebody cheated, shame on them."

A Chinese bronze medalist admitted recently that she was only 14 at the Sydney games, thereby cheating the rightful winner of her medal.

Morning View - Chinese Consulate

Protests continue daily at the Chinese Consulate on the West Side Highway at 42th Street, where at night the Free Tibet crowd has been projecting a giant Tibetan flag and other images onto the bare face of the building. After the protesters posted a video of their projection of the Olympic rings turning into handcuffs, the International Olympic Committee lodged a protest to YouTube and the video was pulled. You can still see the clip on Vimeo. I don't know where the law stands on projecting unwanted images onto somebody's building, but I imagine it's not kosher.

I took this pic from Pier 84, where tonight their Sunset Thursdays event continues. I haven't been yet, but they bill it as an "Ibiza-style" party with DJs playing Balearic-ish trance music. Bottles of Grey Goose are only $150, which is totally, like, 75% off Meatpacking District prices! Free to get in and Free Tibet.

"I Am Not Michael Phelps!"

Via Gawker, a totally not Micheal Phelps but equally goofy tall guy gets mobbed by Chinese who can't tell the difference. Steve Parry is a BBC commentator who won bronze swimming in the Athens Olympics. He's very cute about the confusion.

China Ties U.S. In Total Medals

For the first time since 1936, the total Olympic medal count winner may not be the United States or Russia.From the Dallas Morning News:

The last time the U.S. failed to win the overall medal count was 1992, when the Unified Team earned 112 to America's 108. That also was the last year in which the U.S. lost the gold medal race, 45-37 to the Unified Team.

As recently as the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, China won only five gold medals. But four years ago in Athens the Chinese finished second in the gold count with 32, four fewer than the U.S.

Now the Chinese have all but clinched the gold-medal race, and they have a chance to become the first nation other than the U.S. or Russia (which also has competed as the Soviet Union and the Unified Team) to win the overall medal count since Germany in 1936.

Olympic Scandal: Chinese Gold Medal Gymnast Underage

Chinese gold medals won in women's gymnastics are coming under question as proof has emerged that star competitor He Kexin is only 14 years old. In 1997 the minimum age for competing was raised to 16.

Just nine months before the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government's news agency, Xinhua, reported that gymnast He Kexin was 13, which would have made her ineligible to be on the team that won a gold medal this week.

In its report Nov. 3, Xinhua identified He as one of "10 big new stars" who made a splash at China's Cities Games. It gave her age as 13 and reported that she beat Yang Yilin on the uneven bars at those games. In the final, "this little girl" pulled off a difficult release move on the bars known as the Li Na, named for another Chinese gymnast, Xinhua said in the report, which appeared on one of its Web sites, www.hb.xinhuanet.com

The Associated Press found the Xinhua report on the site Thursday morning and saved a copy of the page. Later that afternoon, the Web site was still working but the page was no longer accessible. Sports editors at the state-run news agency would not comment for publication.

If the age reported by Xinhua was correct, that would have meant He was too young to be on the Chinese team that beat the United States on Wednesday and clinched China's first women's team Olympic gold in gymnastics. He is also a favorite for gold in Monday's uneven bars final.Yang was also on Wednesday's winning team. Questions have also been raised about her age and that of a third team member, Jiang Yuyuan.

Another suspected underage gymnast, Yang Yilin, won the bronze medal today in the women's individual all-around. Americans Nastia Liuken and Shawn Johnson took gold and silver, respectively.

Go to Huffington Post for an exhaustive listing of documentation proving the cheating.

Bigger Than Batman

The "Some Of My Best Friends" Defense

Spanish basketballer Jose Calderon responds to yesterday's "Asian eyes" controversy:

Spanish basketball player Jose Calderon rejected international media accusations on Wednesday that slit-eyed gestures by his team at the Beijing Olympics were racist and said he had great respect for Asian people. Published pictures show the world champions dressed in Olympic kit standing on a basketball court marked with a Chinese dragon. All the players are pulling the skin back at the side of their eyes.

"I want to say that we have a great respect for the Orient and their peoples. Some of my best friends in Toronto are of Chinese origin," Calderon, who plays for Canada's Toronto Raptors team, said in a message posted on his website. "Whoever interprets something else from the photos has taken it completely the wrong way," said Calderon.

Spanish newspapers also hit back at suggestions the pictures were racist, saying the team had donated money to charities helping the poor in Africa. "To try and convert an affectionate gesture of a model group of sportsmen and women into racism is repugnant," said Jose Luis Martinez, columnist for the Marca sports newspaper in which the pictures first appeared.

Racism has blighted Spanish sport in the past. Some spectators targeted Britain's black Formula One motor racing driver Lewis Hamilton in Barcelona in February and racist chants directed at black soccer players have been a persistent problem.

From Calderon's site:From a commenter at Gawker: "He had me at 'oriental.'"

NBC Plays "Ab Fab"

NBC has a rather homoerotic game running on its Olympics page in which readers are invited to guess which abs belong to which Olympic swimmer. Go to "Ab Fab: Guess The Swimmer" and see what you think.

Racism From Spain's Olympic Team

Surprising racism from Spain's Olympic basketball team:

Spain's Olympic basketball teams have risked upsetting their Chinese hosts by posing for a pre-Games advert making slit-eyed gestures. The advert for a courier company, which is an official sponsor of the Spanish Basketball Federation, occupied a full page in the sports daily Marca, the country's best-selling newspaper.

The advert features two large photographs, one of the men's basketball team, above, and one of the women's team. Both squads pose in full Olympic kit on a basketball court decorated with a picture of a Chinese dragon. Every single player appears pulling back the skin on either side of their eyes. The advert carries the symbol of the sport's governing body.

Playing for Spain is Los Angeles Lakers star player Pau Gasol. No apologies yet from anybody involved, but you can bet that Gasol will be in a world of shit when he gets back to LA. Where they happen to have just a few Asians.

Enough With The Floor Mics, Already

Nice photo that the New York Times provides us of the gold medal winning Chinese men's gymnastics team, eh? Being stereotypical gays, we rushed back from dinner last night to catch the finals, but found ourselves mostly grumbling about NBC's insistence on making us listen to the American team's inane "we are gymnasts, but we are totally not gay" sports patter to each other on the competition floor. "Yeah, bro! Right on, dude! That's what I'm talkin' about! You tha' man, son!" Backslap, high-five, hip-hop hug. Turn off the microphone and show us the scoreboard every now and then.

The Greatest Thing In the History Of Everything

I've watched the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics three times now and I still cannot get over how fantastic it was. Despite all of my issues with the Chinese government, I must admit that the first 90 minutes of the show is quite simply the most amazing thing I have ever seen on any screen. But aside from the stunning technology on display, one comes away with a very simple message, depicted over and over again by thousands of precisely synchronized young men. That message: "Do not fuck with China." And when the mass of adorable children handed the Chinese flag over to a group of goose-stepping soldiers? Intimidating, and not a little bit, terrifying.

The Boston Globe has some gorgeous photos here.

ADDENDUM: You totally have to feel sorry for Vancouver. There's no way the next Olympics can come close to what the Chinese did.

Thirteen Month Old Baby, Broke The Lookin' Glass

Eight is considered a lucky and "auspicious" number in China and that's why the Olympics will begin on 08/08/08 at 8:08:08PM local time. Just so you know. "When you believe in things you don't understand, then you suffer..."

Beijing Restaurants: Dogs Are 86'd, May We Suggest The Whale Penis?

China has taken dog off the menu at the official Olympic eateries and is asking local restaurants to do the same.

Those who hope to taste dog meat when they visit Beijing for this summer’s Olympics may be disappointed. The Beijing Catering Trade Association has ordered all 112 designated Olympic restaurants to take dog off the menu, and has strongly advised other establishments to stop serving it until September. Waiters have been urged to “patiently” suggest alternative dishes to customers who ask for dog. It’s all part of a wider campaign to avoid offending foreigners during the Games.

Summer is considered off-season for dogs anyway. For realz. As the linked story points out, dogs may be man's best friend, but pigs too are smart, friendly, and affectionate. Not to mention delicious. I think I might taste dog meat, once, just so I could say I'd done it. Not sure about that. Would probably give me nightmares. Which I never have about bacon.

Gender Testing For Female Olympians

Some female athletes at the Beijing Olympics will undergo controversial gender tests to ensure that they are genetically women.

Organizers of the Beijing Olympics have set up a sex-determination laboratory to evaluate “suspect” female athletes, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Sunday. The lab is similar to ones set up at previous Olympics in Sydney and Athens, and will draw on the resources of the Peking Union Medical College Hospital to evaluate an athlete’s external appearance, hormones and genes.

Some medical ethicists have said the practice is too intrusive. “Real people are going to be hurt by this,” said Alice Dreger, an associate professor in medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern University. Real Olympic athletes who have spent their whole life waiting for this moment.”

Although only athletes whose gender has been questioned will be tested in Beijing, the lab is a relic of an earlier Olympic era, when every female athlete was required to submit to a sex-verification test before competing in the Games. The tests emerged in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union and other Communist countries were suspected of entering male athletes in women’s events to gain an edge. At first, women were asked to parade nude before a panel of doctors to verify their sex. At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, officials switched to a chromosomal test.

Some scientists are blasting the testing as unfair, saying that gender is not always a "cut and dried" issue. Some people who appear physically female have a Y chromosome while some people who look like men may not. Only one case of deliberate gender cheating has even been proven in Olympic competition - a 1936 German high-jumper who 20 years later revealed that the Nazis had forced him to compete as a woman.

The Bearjing 2008 Olympics

The U.S. Olympic Committee wrote to the Seattle-area Northwest Bears Club to protest their calling this year's camp-out the "Kamp Kodiak 2008 Olympic Village" on grounds of trademark infringement. (They also didn't like the name "Big Ass Bear Olympics with Dr. Bob.") Brendan McDonald, the event's organizer, responded with this bit of hilarity:

It is with bewilderment and amusement that we received your letter asking our friendly local club to refrain from using the term "Olympic" for our annual camping trip at the Miller River Campground Aug. 7-11. I am the chief organizer of this event, and consider myself fairly representative of the Northwest Bears and Northwesterners in general. Let me give a little background on myself, and perhaps you will see the inherent paradox.

I was born on a small logging town on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State at Olympic Memorial Hospital. My family and I enjoyed spending vacations at Olympic National Park, where our favorite spot was the Olympic Hot Springs. I was able to finish high school one year early due to credits earned through Olympic Community College in Bremerton. I then attended college in Olympia, the capital of Washington State since 1889, where I belonged to a club that spent weekends hiking in the Olympic Mountains. I earned my way through college by working at the Olympic Boat Center, knowing more about boats than cars due to my upbringing in this Olympic environment. Upon graduation, I moved to the community of Bellingham, where I lived on Olympic Drive, until I moved near Seattle, where I enjoy having guests stay at its premier hotel, the Olympic Four Seasons.

Please do not interpret my remarks as disrespectful. I am certain that you are simply a working person like ourselves. Basically, we are just a group of easy-going software engineers, loggers, aerospace workers, cancer researchers, and baristas trying to put salmon and cappuccino on the table just like anyone else. But I hope that you will appreciate that we consider anything "Olympic" to be our birthright, our heritage, and part of our local culture, and that we balk at anyone who suggests that we have no inherent right to this term.

That having been said, we also understand that you have the law on your side. Remove the name "Olympic" from our website? Done. The Olympic Torch? The rings? Even Dr. Bob's Big Ass Bear Olympics? Done, done, and done. We are 100% clean, and now you can check us off of your hit list.

Best regards to the Committee,
Brendan McDonald

P.S. The Northwest Bears would like you to know that we are breathing a collective sigh of relief that the Miller River Campground is in the Cascade Mountains, and not the Olympics.

The Olympics wrote back to say "thanks, file closed." Well done, Brendan.

(Via - Slog's David Schmader)