Matthew Mitcham opens up about trying to suppress his sexuality
with BBC Sport, Matthew Mitcham, 32, opens up about the long road to accepting himself as a gay man, and the awful toll it took on his performance and his body. As he began to realize his attraction to men as a teenager, Mitcham tried desperately to deny his feelings.“I was so scared of it that I would actually tie a rubber band around my wrist and every time I had a gay thought I would snap it, to try and associate pain and suffering with the gay thought.