Matthew Mitcham in

Olympic champion Matthew Mitcham is featured in GQ Australia, where the diver talks about being out and life at home with his partner and "housewife," Lachlan.

Mitcham, who won the GQ Sportsman of the Year Award in 2008, was preparing for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi when he sat for the interview. In an extensive chat, the magazine asked, among other things, whether being gay had ever made life harder for him.

"Only when I wasn't totally honest and open about it to myself or to other people," he said. "When you hide that kind of thing, other people can sense you're uncomfortable. They can see that as a weakness and use it as a target to bully you. That was the case when I was quite young and only just realising I was gay. Society teaches you that gay is not as good as straight, you grow up with those ideas in your head, and you punish yourself. You try and deny it, or wait it out, or change it. But it wasn't until I was totally honest about it all that it wasn't a problem. I wish I could tell everyone that and that they could just do it, to get rid of this shit, this anguish that comes with it. But that would be irresponsible of me because there are external factors for people -- their family, their religion, the laws of their country."

Read more here.