Australian diver Matthew Mitcham says
he's comfortable with his sexuality and being one of only a handful
of openly gay professional athletes.
Mitcham came out gay in 2008 ahead of
winning gold at the Olympics in Beijing.
The 24-year-old Mitcham will compete
during the 2012 Olympics to be held in London.
Mitcham told The
Sydney Morning Herald that he doesn't mind the attention over
his sexuality.
“I certainly don't see it as a
burden.”
“I never did, especially with how
much attention the LGBT cause has been getting lately with marriage
equality … and with how few openly gay sports stars there are
around at the moment,” Mitcham said.
“Ideally I would like one day for
sexuality to be as unimportant and uninteresting as hair color or eye
color or even just gender in general. One day it will get to that.”
“But until it is easy for sports
people to come out without fear of persecution or fear of lost
sponsorship income and stuff like that, or fear of being comfortable
in a team environment, I don't mind attention being brought to my
sexuality in the hope that it might make other people feel more
comfortable … in being comfortable enough about who they are in
their sporting environment.”
Last year, Mitcham
was named ambassador to the 2014 Gay Games to take place in
Cleveland, Ohio.