Matthew Mitcham named "Sports Performer Of The Year"!

unless you are a football player (read Australian football, Rugby League and Rugby Union here in Australia), cricketer or a swimmer, you dont get much recognition after the win and are not hyped in the media.  Hockey (field), canoeing, rowing, cycling and most sports that involve females join diving as sports that struggle for sponsorship.  While sexuality cannot be discounted entirely, personally I think it has more to do with the profile of the sport, gold medal or not.

I am not one to see an anti-gay conspiracy everywhere, but Matthew Mitcham not having a sponsor sure seems strange.

There was supposedly a sponsorship forthcoming from Australian underwear/swimwear company, AussieBum. Don't know what happened with that. 

I'll agree with poster #1, Sue, that there is inequality in how sponsorships are awarded according to sporting event. There's just no reliable way to judge whether the fact that Matthew is gay has hurt (or helped) him in any way without a similar olympic win that had a different outcome to compare it to.

It was a great upset, yet still one gold medal among the hundreds of medals handed out this year, and that in an event that doesn't garner much attention. Would this situation be different if Matthew was American and lumped in with Michael Phelps and Team USA? -- oh yeah, probably.

 

Yeah, it's a tricky call but I'm prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt ... for the moment. I'm pretty sure our (straight) former shooting gold medallist didn't have a sponsorship either and he's won more medals than Matt (at least so far).

That said,the Oarsome Foursome (a team of rowers who won back in '92) were the very public faces of tinned fruit here for years and even Hayley bloody Lewis was sponsored by Lucozade.

I wonder how hard his management team is pushing for this though? At the very least, he should be put on the speaking circuit.

I try not to look a anti-gay conspiracy in everything, but some things seem a little more obvious then the other. I live in Sydney and hear a lot of sports talk by everyone, apparently Mathew Mitchum name doesnt really come up. Yes he's a diver and thats not a sports talked about a lot, but his gold medal wasn't just a regular win.

Why his being gay has not converted into sponsorship, its simple. When Michael helps or anybody else endorses a product, the message is.."You can be like me if you use this product". And of course the corporate sponsors dont want the message to be "Be like Mitchum....a HOMO". Thats why there are no endorsement deals for him.

I guess it's the dream of all athletes is to end up with big endorsement contracts of all kind, especially the coveted Wheaties cover, that is seen throughout the world. 

Sorry to sound so hostile but to even have Mitcham and Phelps in the same catergory, seems strange to me and not to discredit either athlete because Phelps is his own trailblazing story.  That dude is like superman and not the most historically handsome guy you ever want to see but has something so special about him, besides his desire to be a champion.  I always think of Clark Gable, whos ears were enormous and had funny shaped eyes but was tall, dark and brooding, like Phelps.  I would never deny Phelps anything. 

However, it seems that Mr. Mitcham story seems similar to that of the legendary Greg L.   It seems during Greg's shining moments during his Olympic glory, he was truly the golden boy of the games he was in but if you remember he wasn't just gay but he was also HIV + and the scary music plays loudly in the background.  After his big wins at the Olympics the many endorsements and contracts that should have been offered to him just weren't in his cards.  It seems that sponsorship of any kind was something that was never going to happen for him and I know that was a something that truly crushes him because he worked so hard for his medals.  It seems Greg was extremely smart but realistic with his own truth and the fact that we live in a world that is judgmental and very narrow-minded. 

The fact that maybe he would have to use his 15 minutes in the spotlight, to bring light to issues close and dear to his heart.  It seems that Greg had people around him that not only embraced his homosexuality, which was an issue that he was always worried about.  It seems being an out athlete was something that we never heard about but to add the fact that he was living with HIV, was a total other story.  It seems that Greg would team up with many HIV/AIDS advisory groups, to put awareness about health and fitness.  It seems that was one of the smartest things he could have done, instead of waiting around for Nike or any of the huge payout endorsements because eventually all the sponsors that might have been afraid to deal with him or turned their noses up, where now banging down his door.  The fact that he created his own opportunity by just being himself and not going after the huge money endorsement but starting with causes that were near and dear to him worked out.

It seems that the out lady athletes, like tennis legends Martina, Billie and WNBA great Sheryl, would team up with lesbian owned and operated OLIVIA cruises.  Maybe that old saying, about helping your own, makes sense.  Maybe a few big gay owned and operated businesses such as Logo and maybe a few designers such as Tom Ford can reach out to Matthew and offer him some contracts or deals.  I can see him doing some sexy ad campaigns because his body is insane and lets not talk about all the video and tv cameos that he could. 

In my opinion I think Matthew might want to hire a PR person, that is going to take him to the next level.  He already has the winning spirit, now he needs to be on the tip of everyone's tongue because he has that 'IT' factor but he has to step up his game.