Matthew John MitchamOAM (born 2 March 1988) is an Australian retired diver and trampolinist. As a diver, he was the 2008 Olympic champion in the 10m platform, and he is the 2nd highest single-dive score in Olympic history (at the time it was the highest scoring dive ever). This made him the first openly gay athlete to win an Olympic gold medal.[1][2][3] He is also the first Australian male to win an Olympic gold medal in diving since Dick Eve at the 1924 Summer Olympics.[4]
Mitcham originally competed as a trampoline gymnast. He was spotted by Wang Tong Xiang, who is a coach at the Australian Institute of Sport Diving Program, while at the Chandler Aquatic Centre in Brisbane's suburbs, and Mitcham continued with both diving and trampolining for several years.
As a trampolinist, Mitcham represented Australia at the World Junior Championships in 1999 and 2001, winning the double mini-tramp event. He also competed at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in 2003, finishing sixth.
From 2002 through 2004, Mitcham was a national junior champion in diving, winning the events in which he competed. Mitcham competed at the 2002 World Junior Diving Championships, where he placed 11th in the 1 metre (3ft 3in) springboard, 5th in the 3m and 16th in the 10m platform. In 2004, he won the silver medals in the 1m, 3m synchronised, and 10m platform events at the World Junior Championships. At the 2004 Junior Nationals, he won the 1m, 3m, and 10m and 3m synchro titles. At the 2004 Olympic Trials, he placed 3rd on the 3m and 10m individual events, 2nd on the 3m and 10m synchro events, and did not qualify for the Olympic team. In 2005, Mitcham won his first senior national title. He competed at the Australian Olympic Youth Festival, where he won the silver medal in the 1m with a score of 508.35, and won the 3m, 10m and 3m synchro (with Scott Robertson) titles with scores of 565, 555.8, and 316.23 respectively. At the 2005 World Aquatics Championships in Montreal, he placed 12th on the 10m platform with a score of 560.73.
In 2006, Mitcham competed in the German Grand Prix event, placing 16th on the 3m and 6th on the 10m, and at the US Grand Prix at Fort Lauderdale, placing 8th on the 3m springboard. At the Canada Cup he placed 26th on the 3m and won the bronze medal on the 10m platform. He represented Australia at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, where he competed in the 1m, 3m, and 10m events. He placed 4th in the 3m and the 3m synchro with Robertson, and 5th on the 1m and 10m events.
Taking a break from the sport in 2006, he returned in 2007 and started to train under current coach Chava Sobrino at the New South Wales Institute of Sport. In 2008 Mitcham won the 1m, 3m and 10m individual events at the Australian Nationals. Later that year he won the 2008 Diving Grand Prix event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.[5]
2008 Summer Olympics
Mitcham at the 2009 Mardi Gras, Sydney
Mitcham represented Australia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in the 10m platform and the 3m springboard events. He placed 16th on the 3m springboard and did not qualify for the final. He qualified in second position for the semi-final and final of the 10m platform event. After experiencing mixed success in his first five dives in the final, Mitcham entered the final round of dives in second place, 34 points behind Chinese diver Zhou Lüxin.[6] After Zhou performed his worst dive of the final and scored 74.80, Mitcham still needed to score 107.30, a very high score on the platform, to win the gold.[6] However, his near-perfect final dive drew four perfect 10 scores from judges and achieved a score of 112.10, the highest single-dive score in Olympic history at the time.[7] He finished with an overall score of 537.95 to defeat Zhou, who finished with an overall score of 533.15, to win Australia's second diving medal of the Games. His win prevented China from claiming a clean-sweep of all diving gold medals at the Olympic Games.[8] He is the first Australian male to win an Olympic gold medal in diving since Dick Eve in 1924.[4]
It's absolutely surreal. I never thought that this would be possible, I wasn't even sure of my medal chances at all. After I did my last dive and I saw I was in first, I thought, "That's it, it's a silver medal, I am so happy with this" and then I won. I can't believe it, I'm so happy.
At the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Mitcham won four silver medals, partnering fellow Australian diver Ethan Warren to come runner-up in the synchronized events in both the 3 and 10-metre. In the 1 metre springboard final he lost to Canadian Alexandre Despatie. In his specialist event, the 10-metre platform, he again lost to Tom Daley.
As outlined in his 2012 autobiography, Mitcham commenced use of recreational methamphetamine in 2011, becoming addicted to the substance and subsequently recovering with the assistance of Narcotics Anonymous. Mitcham is quoted as saying "I had still failed to achieve my childhood dream of becoming the best in the world at something," and so had turned to drug use. Australian Olympic Committee officials, in November 2012, stated that they had been unaware of the drug use (which occurred prior to the London 2012 Summer Olympics), but welcomed Mitcham's recovery.[10]
In December 2011, Mitcham returned from an abdominals injury to win the Australian 10-metre platform with 480.05 points putting his Olympic dreams back on track. Not only did Mitcham achieve this accolade, he was also named Male Diver of the Year 2012.
Mitcham placed 13th in the semifinals of the 10m event at the 2012 Summer Olympics, narrowly missing the mark to qualify for the finals.
In November 2012, he published an autobiography entitled Twists and Turns.[11]
In 2013, Mitcham became a judge on the Australian diving show Celebrity Splash!, alongside Greg Louganis and Alisa Camplin. The show's ratings were low by the end of the season, and it was cut short.[14]
Mitcham announced his retirement from diving at the beginning of 2016 to focus on his showbiz career.[15]
Mitcham was a celebrity contestant on the fifteenth season of Dancing with the Stars, which premiered on 19 July 2015.[16] He and his professional dance partner Masha Belash finished in second place.
Matthew Mitcham - Dancing with the Stars (season 15)
↑ Matthew also received a score of 8 from guest judge Bruno Tonioli.
↑ Matthew also received a score of 8 from guest judge Bruno Tonioli.
↑ Matthew also received a score of 9 from guest judge Bruno Tonioli.
↑ Matthew received three bonus points for winning this dance-off.
Sponsorships
Despite his diving achievements, Mitcham struggled to attract corporate sponsorship. In The Advocate, an editor said, "What's a guy to do when he's got the gold, the fame, the man - but no big-time endorsements?"[full citation needed] In 2009, Mitcham secured financial support from the Australian telecommunications provider Telstra.[17]
In March 2010, Mitcham was announced as the new face of Funky Trunks and has appeared on advertising campaigns across Australia, Europe and the United States.[18][19][20] He is also a spokesman and "swimwear ambassador" for the brand.[21]
Other appearances
In 2009, Matthew Mitcham was the Chief of Parade of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras[22] after being declared the 2008 Australian Sports Performer of the Year. In February and March 2010, Mitcham appeared in the second season of Rexona Greatest Athlete Australia reality television series in which 8 of Australia's most popular sports athletes compete in 8 episodes in various challenges to win the "best athlete" award. He also announced taking part in the Cologne 2010 Gay Games in Germany. He was seen promoting the Games.[23] The event featured 35 sports, as well as community and cultural events. He competed in an episode of Australian game show Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation, representing 'Gen Y' with comedian Josh Thomas. He appeared in an episode of Celebrity Come Dine With Me Australia with entertainer Maria Venuti, presenter Sophie Falkiner and X Factor Presenter Luke Jacobz who battled it out to win $2000 for their charity. In March 2015, he starred in 'Are You Ready For Freddie', a tribute video to Freddie Mercury organised by the Sydney Mardi Gras.[24] The video went viral, reaching more than 1.3 million views.[25]
Mitcham publicly came out as gay in 2008 to the Sydney Morning Herald when they were profiling Olympic hopefuls.[27][28] During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he was also featured on the cover of the international gay publication The Advocate[29] in August 2008 and March 2009, as well as the cover of Australian gay publication DNA. Mitcham's then-boyfriend, Lachlan Fletcher, attended the 2008 Summer Olympics as a spectator. His trip was sponsored by a grant from Johnson & Johnson's Athlete Family Support Program.[27]
Mitcham gained media coverage in Australia as reporters thought he was the first Australian to compete at the Olympic Games as an openly gay man at the time of his competition. However, Craig Rogerson, the Australian diver, had publicly announced he was gay before the 1996 Summer Olympics,[30] as had Mathew Helm, the Australian diver who won the silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the men's 10m platform.[31][32] Other notable gay Australian Olympians include Ji Wallace, who competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal in the inaugural trampoline event; however, he came out after the Games, as well as Daniel Kowalski[33] and Ian Thorpe.[34]
Mitcham has said when asked to comment on his coming out: "I don’t see sexuality as influencing my beliefs or opinions or perceptions of anybody, whether they’re gay, straight, bi, trans, experimental, I don’t care. I see it as a very uninfluential factor in people." Mitcham has said that after the Beijing Olympics, he received many letters from gay teenagers, "and that was really nice, really humbling".[36]
In 2009 and 2010, Mitcham was selected by readers of samesame.com.au as one of the 25 most influential gay Australians.[37]
On 3 June 2019, he announced his engagement to his British boyfriend Luke Rutherford.[38][39] The couple married in February 2020.[40]
Émilie-Joane Heymans is a Canadian diver. She was born in Brussels, Belgium and raised in Greenfield Park, a suburb of Montreal. Heymans has won four Olympic medals, two bronze and two silver. She was the first female diver to win medals in four consecutive Olympic games and the first Canadian to win medals in four consecutive Olympics. Heymans also is a one time world champion and has won four Pan American championships as well as one Commonwealth Games championship. In addition she has won multiple medals in all three of these competitions.
Alexandre Despatie is a Canadian diver and broadcaster from Laval, Quebec. He was the world champion at the 1 and 3 m springboards from 2005 to 2007 and is the first, and so far only, diver to have been world champion in all three individual categories. He is also a 37-time Canadian senior diving champion and nine-time junior champion, and the most decorated male diver in Canadian history, winning two Olympic silver medals and reaching eight podiums at the world championships, including three gold medals. He was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Loudy Wiggins is a former Australian diver. She was born in Haifa, Israel, to Palestinian parents and moved to Australia when she was 3 years old.
Xiong Ni is a Chinese diver who won his first Olympic medal at the age of 14 at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea. He also competed at the Olympics in 1992, 1996 and 2000.
Thomas Robert Daley is a British diver and television personality. Specialising in multiple events, he is an Olympic gold medallist in the men's synchronised 10-metre platform event at the 2020 Olympics and double world champion in the FINA 10-metre platform event, winning in 2009 at the age of fifteen, and again in 2017. He is an Olympic bronze medallist in the 2012 platform event, the 2016 synchronised event, and the 2020 platform event, making him the first British diver to win four Olympic medals. Daley also competes in team events, winning the inaugural mixed team World title in 2015. He is a one-time Olympic champion, 3-time World Champion, a 2-time junior World Champion, a 5-time European champion and 4-time Commonwealth champion.
Noemi Batki is a Hungarian-born Italian former diver. She was a member of the Italian National Diving Team at four Olympic Games and was a member of the sports section of the Italian Army, Centro Sportivo Esercito, and Triestina Nuoto.
Scott Robertson is a former Australian Springboard and Platform diver.
Men's 10 metre platform competition at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics was held from August 22 to August 23, at the Beijing National Aquatics Center. It was an individual diving competition, with dives performed from an inflexible platform, unlike the springboard used for three metre diving, ten metres above the surface of the water.
Jack David Laugher is a British diver competing for Great Britain and England. A specialist on springboard, he competes in individual springboard events, and in synchronised events with Chris Mears, Daniel Goodfellow and Anthony Harding. Laugher and Mears became Britain's first diving Olympic champions by winning a gold medal in the men's synchronised 3m springboard event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, an achievement many had expected double world 10m champion Tom Daley would achieve first. A week later, Laugher won a silver in the men's individual 3m springboard at the same Games, becoming the first British diver to win multiple Olympic diving medals at the same Games.
Qiu Bo is a Chinese diver. He won the silver medal in the 10 metre platform event at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He is a four-time world champion at the World Aquatics Championships, winning the gold medal three times in the 10m platform event, consecutively in 2011, 2013 and 2015, and winning the gold medal in the synchronized 10m event in 2011.
Donald Douglas Wagstaff, MBE is an Australian former diver who competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics, in the 1972 Summer Olympics, and in the 1976 Summer Olympics. He also participated in four Commonwealth Games events, from the 1966 Games in Kingston up to the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton.
Jaele Patrick is an Australian diver specialising in the women's three-metre springboard event. Starting as a gymnast at age four, she switched to diving when she was fifteen years old and attended Texas A&M on a diving scholarship. She placed 11th at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Brittany Broben is an Australian former diver. She won a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics in the 10 m platform diving event with a score of 366.50, behind Chen Ruolin of China
Ethan Warren is an Australian diver.
Ilya Leonidovich Zakharov is a Russian diver and politician. He is the 2012 Olympics gold medalist in 3 metre Springboard.
Christopher James Mears is a British diver and DJ/Producer from Burghfield Common, near Reading, Berkshire. He competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the synchronised 3m springboard event with Jack Laugher and won gold, the first Olympic gold medal for Britain in diving.
Daniel Goodfellow is a British diver, two-time Commonwealth champion and Olympic bronze medalist. He first represented Great Britain as a senior at the 2013 European Diving Championships in the 10 m platform event and the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in the same event. Goodfellow won a bronze medal in the Men's 10m Synchronised Platform event with his diving partner Tom Daley at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He has also won a gold with Daley in the same event at the Commonwealth Games, and a silver at the European Championships. In 2022 he won his first major title as a solo diver, winning gold in the men's 3 metre springboard at the 2022 Commonwealth Games
Matthew Lewis Dixon is an English diver who represents Great Britain and specialises in the 10 metre platform event. He won a silver medal at the European Championships in the 10 m synchro platform with Noah Williams as well as two silvers at the Commonwealth Games.
Matthew Lee is a British diver and Olympic gold medallist. Adept in both individual and synchronised diving, and across both 3-metre springboard and platform, Lee won the gold medal in 10-metre platform at the 2015 European Games, the mixed 10-metre synchronised platform at the 2017 European Diving Championships and has twice been European junior champion on the 3-metre springboard. At world level, Lee won the silver medal in the mixed 10-metre synchronised platform event at the 2017 World Championships, and at the 2019 World Championships, Lee and Tom Daley won bronze in the 10 m synchro event, as well as gold in July 2021 at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Noah Oliver Williams is an English diver who represents Great Britain and specialises in the 10 metre platform event. He has won silver medals in the 10 metre synchro platform with Matthew Dixon at the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games.
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