The revelation that Australian diver Matthew Mitcham was addicted to crystal meth, disclosed in his autobiography released this week, has shocked many, but that’s only one ordeal that he has overcome in his 24-years.

Raised by a single mother in Brisbane, Mitcham didn’t meet his father until he was an adult. His mother Vivienne struggled financially and they lived for six months without electricity when Mitcham was six-years-old.

Gay Australian Olympic diver Matthew Mitcham reveals in his new autobiography Twists and Turns that he battled an addiction to crystal meth after winning the gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

In the book, to be released on Monday (20 November), Mitcham writes about how he went from the heights of Olympic glory to suffering from anxiety, depression and panic attacks.

Gay Australian Olympic diver Matthew Mitcham has revealed the cover of his new autobiography.

Titled ‘Twists and Turns’, the book will cover his life as an Olympic champion and as one of the most high profile gay athletes.

An excerpt from the book says: ‘People kept remarking on how they were surprised that a gold medal and fame hadn’t changed me.

‘I always responded, ‘Why would I change? Being me is the easiest person to be.’

‘I was lying. It wasn’t.’

Openly gay diver Matthew Mitcham is clearly not letting his failure to repeat as Olympic champion get him down.

The 2008 Olympic champion in the 10 meter platform has left the London Games behind him and taken Italy by storm with his unique brand of musicianship.

Alternately playing the ukulele from a hotel window in Rome and riding a Segway around the city, Mitcham performs a glorious mash-up of Roam and Rome Wasn't Built in a Day.

After narrowly missing out on a place in the diving final yesterday (11 August), it looked like it would be the last time we would see gay Australian athlete Matthew Mitcham at the Olympics.

Not a chance, as the 24-year-old is now considering reinventing himself as a springboard diver, primarily to reduce the impact on his battered body.

Nearly half, 43%, of openly gay athletes have won a medal at the London Olympic Games.

In comparison to the United States, only 18% of 530 American athletes have graced the podium so far.

Out of the 23 openly gay athletes, comprising of 20 women and three men, 10 of them have won a medal solo or in a group.

If they were Team LGBT, they would have won four gold medals, one silver, and two bronze between them.

This means they would be number 19 in the official rankings, beating countries like Spain, Brazil, and Canada.

Gay diver Matthew Mitcham came just shy of going through into the Olympic final on the 10m diving platform today (11 August).

The Australian, who won gold in Beijing four years ago, could be seen in tears after realizing he had faltered his final dive in the semi-finals.

With only 12 places up for grabs, Mitcham came 13th with 482.40 points.

Instead Chinese world champion Qiu Bo came top once again, with British favorite Tom Daley coming fourth with 521.1 points.

Gay diver Matthew Mitcham has qualified to go to the semi-finals after preliminary heats on the 10m diving platform at the London Olympics.

With 32 divers and six rounds, divers across the world came to the British capital to compete for 18 spots in one of the final competitions of the games.

The previous Olympic champion at Beijing four years ago, the Australian scored an impressive 456.2 points and finished in ninth place.

British favorite Tom Daley had a shaky fifth dive, and finished with 448.45 points in 15th place.

No doubt 2008 Olympic gold medalist Matthew Mitcham already had plenty of fans rooting for him to duplicate his efforts from the Beijing Games.

Now they have even more incentive.

The openly gay athlete recently tweeted to his 27,000-plus followers: 'If I win gold at #London2012, I will dive off 10m naked to celebrate.'

Australian Olympian Matthew Mitcham has taken to YouTube with his ukulele again, keeping his 27,000 Twitter followers happy while he kills time before his big dive on Friday (10 August).

Just when we thought we couldn’t love him any more after his rendition of Beyoncé’s Single Ladies last week, he charms us again with a poignant interpretation of the theme from his favorite TV show - Family Guy.

Four years ago, gay Australian Matthew Mitcham shocked the world when he won gold on the 10m diving platform in the Beijing Olympics.

Receiving the highest score for a single dive in Olympic history at the time, Mitcham not only dispelled myths about gay men in sport but set the bar higher for every other athlete.

The Chinese were heavily favored in the 2008 event, and Mitcham was behind Zhou Luxin by about 35 points going into the final dive.

But then Mitcham hit a score of 112.10 on his sixth and final dive to win by just over three points.

Out and proud Australian diver Matthew Mitcham has been relaxing during the Olympics by playing some creative interpretations of Beyoncé songs on his ukulele.

Mitcham released a clip on his official YouTube channel of him playing a folk version of Beyoncé’s Single Ladies, in response to a request on Twitter.

The clip was posted on Wednesday (1 August) and already has nearly 20,000 views and nearly 700 likes.