A PROUD gold medalist

Seanflynn at Daily Kos has pointed out that NBC suppressed the usual biographical detail they so love when a gold medalist (men's 10m dive) turned out to be gay. The Australian media are not so skittish.

Seanflynn reports:

For those of you who watched the Olympics last night, you saw one of the great upsets - Australian Matthew Mitcham winning the gold medal in the men's 10 metre platform. He won on his last dive, defeating the favored Chinese contestant, and preventing the host nation from sweeping all 8 metals in diving.
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Matthew Mitcham is one the first out gay athletes, and probably the highest-profile one, ever to win a gold medal.

Already a major figure in Australia - Olympic swimmers in that country rank with NBA players in the US - his personal story was huge news there this spring (fall in Australia) when he came out.

Read the whole article here and/or click here for the video.

Congratulations Matthew! Much joy to you and Lachlan.
--the BB

What to do about the Olympics?

There has been debate about boycotting the Olympics this year because the venue is Beijing and China's human rights record is abysmal - something highlighted by its occupation of Tibet and the cultural, religious, and political repression of the Tibetans.

The Chinese are currently claiming that the Dalai Lama wants to hurt the Olympics. Al-Jazeera reports:

The newspapers described a series of alleged violent incidents over the past nearly 50 years in an attempt to convince readers that vows by the Dalai Lama of non-violence were "a lie from beginning to end".

The Dalai Lama has called the accusation "baseless", asserting that he supports China's hosting of the summer Games.

As Fox Noise likes to say: we report, you decide. My readers may evaluate the conflicting accounts of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government.

The ancient Olympics were a time when athletes from various Greek city states could gather under the sacred truce of the games and compete in peace. That ideal is part of the modern vision of the Olympics - a time when politics and nationalism can be set aside for friendly competition toward the goals "Citius, Altius, Fortius" - Swifter, Higher, Stronger. The reality, we all know, is not quite so pure as national pride and commercialism are known to play an obvious part in all of it. Still, we want to believe and we love seeing athletes accomplish amazing feats.

No one wants to punish athletes who have spent years of their lives working toward a goal that can only be realized once every four years.

So a movement has begun to attend the Olympics and make a silent but eloquent expression. Wear or carry the color orange. You can check it out here.

I have seen news of this in several places and Pseudopiskie's post reminded me to share it here.

I would love to see Beijing blanketed in orange this summer.
--the BB