DIVING: Australian diving sensation Matthew Mitcham says he's proud but sad to have been the only openly gay athlete at the Beijing Olympics.

Mitcham was universally acclaimed for producing the highest-scoring dive in Olympic history to snatch gold in the men's 10-metre platform at the Water Cube.

His stunning feat denied China an eight-gold sweep of the diving. But the 20-year-old will be remembered equally for courageously "coming out" about his homosexuality before the Games, a decision he acknowledged as vital in his stunning gold medal display.

"I don't think it personally contributed to how well I did because it wasn't something I was fretting about beforehand," Mitcham said after returning from a month's holiday in Europe.

"It's always just me, I'm comfortable with myself. At least it (coming out meant it) wasn't a surprise to everybody else.

"And I am glad that I did it before I went away, than afterwards because there have been a few coming out after the Olympic Games and I just wanted to be a bit different."

Mitcham admitted his one-in-10,000 situation in Beijing - which even prompted a public apology from the NBC for their gay snub of the champion diver - came as a major surprise to him.

"I was actually very surprised that I was the only `out' male at the Olympic Games," he said. "It's a little bit sad because, statistically, there should be a lot more.

"But, you know what, it's each to one's own and I'm not going to pressure anybody to come out of the closet because it's their own choice.

"But I'm proud to be there and proud to be that one that lots of other people can look up to."

NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel was forced to issue an apology for his reporting team not mentioning on air that Mitcham was gay and had a partner in the Beijing crowd.

"We regret that we missed the opportunity to tell Matthew Mitcham's story," Zenkel said after the Games.

"We apologise for this unintentional omission."

There was certainly no omission from DNA Magazine, Australia's best-selling magazine for gay men which featured Mitcham on the cover following his Olympic heroics.

"That was cool," he said. "They always have the most gorgeous men on the front cover of DNA. To be on there, not because I'm gorgeous but because I'm a very good diver, but yeah that was nice."

While he wasn't desperate to cash in on his newfound celebrity, Mitcham was hopeful his success would free him of the "massive financial stress" that so burdened him in the two years leading up to the Beijing Olympics.

So depressed and burnt out three years ago that he actually quit diving before having a change of heart, Mitcham now has his sights set on adding a second gold at the 2012 Olympics in London.

He believes even the greatest dive in Games history can be bettered.

"There's room for improvement," Mitcham said. "It wasn't perfect."

"We've got a few we've been working on that we tried to get into this Olympics but time didn't quite permit it.

"There are two dives that exist that are higher degree of difficultly than I do now. Only one person does one, and only one person does the other one, so those are the next two on the list."

Darren Walton
AAP