Australian Olympic gold medal diver
Matthew Mitcham has defended Olympic gold medal swimmer Stephanie
Rice from accusations of homophobia.
The 22-year-old, openly gay Mitcham told
The Australian that Rice was not homophobic for tweeting “Suck
on that faggots” after the Australian rugby union team pulled a
come-from-behind victory.
Rice later apologized, saying she “did
not mean to cause offense,” and made her comment “in the
excitement of the moment.”
“I did not mean to cause offense, and
I apologize,” Rice said in a statement. “I have deleted it from
the site.”
“I know she's not homophobic because
we are good friends,” Mitcham said. “It was just an extremely
poor choice of words.”
“Some people when they use that
language don't realize they are causing offense,” he added. “But
it is an issue for a lot of gay people, who get quite upset about it
because they have spent so long trying to change people's mentality
about these things.”
At least one Australian gay sports
figure disagreed. Former rugby league star Ian Roberts called Rice
an “idiot.”