My hero

[youngiskander]

I have a new hero. Seriously. Matthew Mitcham is awesome.

Also, bugger NBC for saying nothing to a generation of gay kids about their amazing new role model. Wankers.

Comments

[unrequitedthai]

I think your link is broken or something, dude.

Matthew Mitcham is indeed awesome.

[youngiskander]

Fixz0red - thanks.

[nikotesla]

I wasn't paying close attention to the announcers and the "human interest" parts of the Olympics, but would it have been appropriate to talk about *anyone's* sexual/romantic/social lives? Like, does he have a boyfriend to interview, and they didn't, but they interviewed the straight partners of other swimmers? Or did they edit out stuff that he or his family had said?

I guess that I, were I a producer, would be hesitant to out someone, but if I had an opportunity to say something unusual and positive, I'd have leapt at the opportunity..

(These are actual questions. I had to look the dude up and I don't have any investment in an actual answer. I'm sorry if this comes off as challenging, as it's really not meant to be. I'm afeared of the stupid Internet assholization process.)

[youngiskander]

Every fucking athlete that they interviewed that had an opposite-sex spouse, partner, casual lay or hook-up (or cancer) was reported on. Every single one.

The ONLY out gay man in the entire 2008 Olympics (he came out in May, in the Sydney Morning Herald), whose mother and partner's trips to Beijing were paid for by Johnson & Johnson's sponsorship program, who took the only diving gold not won by the Chinese, who's had a difficult and tumultuous time until realising that happiness in one part of his life spilled over to success in the other... yes, I think that was the kind of inspiring personal story that should have been reported. I think so, very much. Especially how much other heteronormative stuff was reported automatically. "And that's his wife/fiancée/shack-up in the crowd..." hundreds of times.

It's just NBC being douchebags, frankly. They should be ashamed of themselves. When I think what a difference it might have made to my life in 1980 or 1984 to hear about the world-beating, world-record, gold-medal-winning athletic

[phredd]

Yeah, fuck NBC in the eye for this, along with their numerous other sins ("Oh, it's the Three Gorges Dam! Let's talk about busy beavers instead of the millions of people who have had their lives disrupted and displaced!").

Thanks for posting this, it made me smile! I was waiting for a big snog, though, and was mildly disappointed at the lack. Still really cool.