Olympic diving gold medallist, Matthew Mitcham, right with silver medalist Melissa Wu.Photo: Dallas Kilponen The openly gay athlete, who will compete at Chandler next
weekend at the Australian Open Championships, has watched on since the Olympics last August as fellow Australian stars such as the three-time swimming gold medallist Stephanie Rice saw their bank accounts overloaded with endorsement cash. Despite receiving huge media coverage and appearing on the covers of gay magazines in Australia and the United States, Mitcham had been facing the very real prospect of paying for his campaign to the 2012 Olympic Games in London entirely out of his pocket. “It was a huge relief. Anything helps,” Mitcham told brisbanetimes.com.au. “I’ve got a few other things in the works at the moment which should be finalised soon.” One of those is a deal with a charity. “That would be too obvious a thing. I think Australia is a much more progressive place than that,” he said.
“I blame it mostly on the economic crisis.”