Australia: Matthew Mitcham, Gay Olimpian Diver, Wirtes Autobio & Talks About Success, Addiction

Olympics London 2012: Ten Out Olympians Win Medals

Joe.My.God. reports:

Ten openly gay athletes won medals at the London Olympics. Seven of them took the gold. Cyd Ziegler at SB Nation has the recap:

GOLD: Seimone Augustus [above center], USA, Basketball. The U.S. women’s basketball team was arguably the most dominant team in any sport at these Olympics.
GOLD:Carl Hester, Great Britain, Equestrian. Hester and his two teammates won Great Britain’s first-ever Team Dressage gold. Hester finished fifth overall in the individual competition.
GOLD:Marilyn Agliotti, Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel, Kim Lammers, Maartje Paumen, Netherlands, Field Hockey. The Dutch women beat Argentina, 2-0, in the gold medal match. Paumen and Dirkse van den Heuvel scored the team’s two goals.
GOLD:Megan Rapinoe, USA, Soccer. The Americans beat Japan, 2-1, in the gold medal match. Rapinoe had a key pass in the game. She also had two big goals in the semifinal match. Coach Pia Sundhage is also openly lesbian.
SILVER:Judith Arndt, Germany, Cycling. Arndt was the first out athlete to win a medal in London, taking silver in the road race time trial.
BRONZE:Edward Gal, Netherlands, Equestrian. Gal was on the bronze-medal team for Team Dressage; He finished ninth overall in the individual event.
BRONZE:Lisa Raymond, USA, Tennis. Raymond and partner Mike Bryan won the mixed doubles bronze medal.

Ziegler adds: “If Team Gay was a country, it would have finished 31st overall with seven medals, tied with Mexico, Ethiopia and Georgia. They would have beaten the medal count of such countries as Jamaica, Ireland, Argentina and India. They would have finished 21st overall for most golds (four), tied with Iran, Jamaica, Czech Republic and Korea.”

We All Want Hot Gay Aussie Diver Matthew Mitcham To Win Gold 

If I win gold at #London2012 I will dive off 10m naked to celebrate. RT @heygibbles: Will you do a skinny dip of honour if you get gold?

— Matthew Mitcham (@matthew_mitcham) August 8, 2012

London 2012: Team Gold For Britain’s Only Openly Gay Olympian Carl Hester

Pink News UK reports:

The only openly gay Olympian in Team GB has helped his equestrian team secure gold at the London Olympics.
Carl Hester rode Uthopia in the dressage’s Grand Prix Special at Greenwich Park.
The team, which included Laura Bechtolsheimer and Charlotte Dujardin, celebrated the country’s twentieth gold medal of the games, strengthening the host nation’s place third on the board.
Hester, 45, won a team gold and two individual silver medals at the European Championships in Rotterdam last year but this is his first Olympic medal.
Raised on Sark in the Channel Islands, which has no cars and where horses are therefore one of the main methods of transportation, in 1992, Hester became the youngest British rider to represent the country at the Barcelona Olympics.
He was formerly in a relationship with international dressage rider Spencer Wilton, who in 2009 the media speculated could have been a factor in the breakdown of the marriage between Katie Price and Peter Andre after he was seen with the former glamour model, who is known for her love of horse-riding, until it was revealed Wilton was gay.
Sark’s only post box will be painted gold in Hester’s honour.
Hester told the BBC’s Clare Balding: “I know it’s an old cliché but it’s a culmination of so many years of dreaming about it and it finally happening. Both those girls are cool customers. […] There it is, we finally won it.”
He added: “As with every sport that’s won a gold medal at these Games, it’s shot our sport into a totally different league.
“This is my fourth Olympics and it’s actually a weird feeling for me because three Olympics I’ve gone with no expectations and it’s actually quite easy to ride like that.
“To come to an Olympics where we were expected to get a gold gave me a frightening feeling – and I enjoyed it.
“I am looking forward to it all being over, to get the individual competition out of the way now, but it’s a truly special minute for everyone in British dressage.”
He will return to Greenwich tomorrow to compete in the individual Grand Prix Freestyle.
Hester is Britain’s only openly gay Olympian, but Lee Pearson will compete in equestrian events at the Paralympics while Claire Harvey will represent the country in the women’s sitting volleyball.
There are now 23 confirmed openly gay Olympians competing at London, about 0.16 percent of the total number of athletes.

Gay Olympian Ji Wallace Comes Out As HIV Positive

HIV Plus Mag reports:

An Australian trampoline gymnast and Olympian says he’s ready to reveal to the world that he is not only gay, but that he is HIV positive. 
Ji Wallace told the Star Observer said he was inspired to come out after watching an interview with Greg Louganis, the famed Olympic diver who came out as HIV-positive in 1995, as well as the recent coming out of Anderson Cooper. 
“I have never publicly disclosed this before but felt inspired by [the] interview… and by Anderson Cooper’s ‘coming out’ letter last month describing ‘value in being seen and heard’ in the face of disturbing violence, bullying, persecution and condemnation by peers, colleagues, government officials and worst of all family and friends.
Wallace, who won the silver medal in 2000 for trampoline gymnastics, is currently in London to cheer on his team. 
“Being seen does have value. A voice does have value,” he said in the letter. “I have the support of my boyfriend, my great friends and my loving parents. Many do not and this is, in part, for them.”

Caption This: Threesome’s Are Not Always Fair

Caption This: USA Rowing Athlete & Bronze Olympian Medalist Henrik Rummel’s Victory Boner 

He swears it wasn’t erect. But that ain’t gonna calm things down on the web.

George Michael Confirms Appearance In Olympics Closing Ceremony

Pink News UK reports:

George Michael has confirmed rumours he will appear in the London Olympics closing ceremony on Sunday, suggesting it had been a poorly-kept secret.
Few details of the closing ceremony have so far been revealed. The singer becomes the most high-profile gay figure in the ceremonies so far.
During Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony, a lesbian kiss from the soap opera Brookside featured during a montage for roughly half a second.
He tweeted today: “Spending most of the next week rehearsing like crazy for the Olympic closing ceremony.
“Obviously a bit nervous not having played for nearly a year, but rehearsals sounding great so far!
“Oh, and , secret? It’s been all over the press for weeks, and I think you alll needed to be put out of your misery!”
The Spice Girls are expected to reform for the ceremony while bands One Direction and Muse are due to play alongside. The Who and Take That are also reportedly set to take part.
Blur, New Order, The Specials and the Bombay Bicycle Club are to play at a concert in Hyde Park.

United Kingdom: Tom Daley Gay Hate Tweet Footballer Arrested 

Pink News UK reports:

A footballer in South Wales has been arrested following an anti-gay tweet about Olympic divers Tom Daley and Peter Waterfield.
The message on Daniel Thomas’s Twitter denigrated the diving pair, neither of whom is known to be gay, after they lost out on medals at London Olympics synchronised men’s 10m diving this week.
It said: “If there is any consolation for finishing fourth at least Daley and Waterfield can go and bum each other #teamHIV.”
Daniel Thomas, 28, a semi-professional midfielder with Port Talbot FC denied he had sent the homophobic tweet. According to a club statement at the time, he had been the victim of a “prank”. Both the club and Mr Thomas apologised “unreservedly” for the message.
Mr Thomas was suspended by the club pending an internal investigation.
Police have now issued a statement saying: “South Wales Police has arrested a 28-year-old man from the Port Talbot area in connection with offensive comments made on the social networking site Twitter.
“The man was interviewed at Neath police station and has been released on police bail pending further enquiries.”
Club chairman Andrew Edwards confirmed with the BBC it was Mr Thomas, saying: “He was called in by police and arrested yesterday [Wednesday] and is on conditional bail.
“It will be some time next week so, pending the police investigation, he’s still under suspension.
“We’ve taken legal advice and, when the police inquiry is concluded, we will deal with it from then.”
Earlier this week and regarding another case of Twitter abuse Daley suffered, Simon Reed, the vice-chairman of the Police Federation, the body for rank-and-file police officers, told The Times that they were “having to make it up as they go along” with regard to social media.
Mr Reed said: “There is legislation which concerns causing harassment, alarm or distress. If you are walking down the street and someone shouts abuse the law is there to deal with it, but can we police every incident on the internet when someone upsets someone else? I don’t think we have the resources to do that.
“What is needed is some clear guidance from the CPS or the Attorney General about where the line is drawn.
“We can’t have a free-for-all online but by the same token we cannot involve the police every time something unpleasant is said.”

Olympian Diver Tom Daley Gets Unnecessarily Censored 

Via BuzzFeed.

London 2012: Michelle Obama Gets Picked Up By Lesbian Wrestler Elena Sergey 

The Advocate reports:

On a trip to London supporting the U.S. Olympic team, First Lady Michelle Obama made a new friend in lesbian wrestler Elena Sergey Pirozhkov.
During a “Let’s Move! London” event heralding athleticism and the Olympic games, Olympic wrestler Pirozhkova playfully picked up Obama at the U.S. Olympic Training Facility at the University of East London on Friday.

Pirozhkov, who is out according tothe Washington Blade, will compete in the 63kg/139lb freestyle wrestling tournament on August 8.

London 2012: South African Archer Karen Hultzer Comes Out

Pink News UK reports:

South African archer Karen Hultzer has confirmed for the first time she is a lesbian at the London Olympics.
Ms Hultzer’s public statement takes the number of out gay Olympians to 22, out of over 12,000.
OutSports.com reports that while Ms Hultzer, 46, has not publicly spoken about her sexuality before, her partner had told South African media she was happy to be identified as gay.
Following this, she gave Outsports her first public statement about her sexual orientation yesterday.
She said: “I am an archer, middle aged and a lesbian. I am also cranky before my first cup of coffee. None of these aspects define who I am, they are simply part of me.
“I am fortunate that my sexual identity is not an issue, and I don’t suffer the level of discrimination and violence that black lesbians in South Africa do.
“I look forward to the day when this is a non-issue and as relevant as my eye color or favorite sushi.”
After volleyball player Leigh-Ann Naidoo’s confirmation that she was gay in 2004, Ms Hultzer is the second-ever South African Summer Olympian, and first archer, to come out.
Hultzer was eliminated from the women’s archery by Italian Pia Lionetti yesterday.

Olympians With iPhones: US Gymnast Danell Leyva  

Deadspin reports:

Leyva Has A Habit Of Sending Half-Naked Photos Of Himself To Women [Kinda NSFW]

So says a woman who came to us this afternoon with an offer to “submit some risque photos of Danell Leyva.” The woman asked for nothing in return. She says she had “some in underwear and some nudes” of the 20-year-old Miami native, some of which have already appeared on the internet. The woman says Leyva had “sorta played” her on a promised photo exchange, and that he’s done this to other women, too.
Before long, the woman sent us the images you see above and below, adding this: “Would it be possible to see how it goes with those pics and then decide to send the nude or not?” To which we responded, “Sure.” Oh, right: Here’s where we ought to tell you NBC plans to air Ryan Seacrest’s interview with Leyva sometime tonight. Maybe he’ll ask about these photos.

For Your Entertainment: US Men’s Gymnastics Tribute

London’s Olympic Opening Ceremonies