All About Sports

Well, the look on his face says it all. My guy Andy Roddick lost in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, to Roger Federer. At least he made it to the semi-finals this year, though, and not surprisingly he managed to remain hot while doing so!

Speaking of athletes, openly gay Olympic Gold Medalist Matthew Mitcham is the subject of the cover story in the next issue of The Advocate, and Towelroad has a preview that includes a shot of the cover:
Wow! If you'll recall, I chose Matthew as my Hottest Athlete of 2008 and this certainly puts him in the running for 2009 as well!

I think it's amazing that Matthew is completely open and honest about being gay in the world of sports, something that certainly puts him in the minority among LGBT athletes.

Meanwhile, another Australian Olympic Gold medalist, Ian Thorpe, has officially denied that he's gay for like the 94th time, or something close to that number. The latest denial was prompted when pictures of him and his roommate of three years, Brazilian swimmer Daniel Mendes, were published, the insinuation being that the two- who also travel together, including spending a month in Brazil with Daniel's family for Christmas- are more than just friends.

Here's part of what Thorpe had to say:

"I have only commented on this issue at this time because I draw a line when innuendo implicates people like my family and my friends.

"I find this kind of inaccurate speculation tiresome and I am annoyed by the hurt it has caused those closest to me."

This irritates me, because he makes it sound like they're being accused of something that's bad rather than of being in love.

It might help, Ian, if you didn't play the old telltale pronoun game. Last summer he told an Australian newspaper that he was dating 'someone special' but that "they don't live in this country." They, not she. Not surprisingly, that caused an increase in speculation about his sexuality, so he later clarified in another interview that it was a she.

If there were more athletes like Matthew Mitcham around, we could pay less attention to the Ian Thorpes of the sporting world. He could frolic on the beach with his long term roommate all he wanted and no one would even care if he was gay or straight, not if there were plenty of other out role models for aspiring LGBT athletes to look up to.