At this year's Olympic Games, an important thing happened to the gay community: One of its own won a gold medal. But Australian diver Matthew Mitcham, the only out gay male athlete in Beijing, didn't just win gold in men’s platform diving — he also snagged the highest score ever received by a male Olympic diver, and kept the Chinese from sweeping the event.

But if you were watching any of NBC's coverage of the event — like gymnastics, track, and swimming, diving is a huge ratings draw for broadcasters — you wouldn't have heard a single thing about Mitcham's remarkable win. Yes, the commentariat mentioned his score, his home country, and his age. But they didn't mention that other seminal trait: That Mitcham was gay, and out — even when his boyfriend was there in the stands, cheering him on.

For a sporting event that's more obsessed with telling athletes' personal stories than even the NFL, many saw NBC's ignoring Mitcham's sexuality as more than a forgetful omission, but as an intentional move to keep sexual politics out of their coverage, even though the network had no trouble, say, covering the loved ones of hetero athletes.

Now NBC's Olympics frontman Bob Costas is answering calls for an explanation. And doing a pretty sorry job.

To his credit, Costas does acknowledge that telling Mitcham's personal story of triumph — not only is he gay, but there are also elements of depression, anxiety, and Mitcham initially dropping out of the games that makes this a blockbuster tale custom-made for TV — would've probably been a worthwhile effort.

AfterElton.com: Since Matthew Mitcham was the only out gay male athlete at the games, and it was historic for an openly gay athlete to win such a high profile Olympic event, do you think it would have made a good story or been worth mentioning that fact?

Bob Costas: Yes, I do. I was not focused on it. It wasn’t like I was sitting there thinking, “Gee, I have a chance to get this in.” It was just something that wasn’t on my radar screen to be perfectly honest. But had it been, I would have thought it was a worthwhile thing to mention.

But then there's the little matter of NBC, and Costas, knowing full well that Mitcham was openly gay, and still choosing not to cover it.

AE: Did you know that he was out, or that he had come out recently, or that he was an openly gay athlete?

BC: I guess I did, in looking over the profiles of many Olympic athletes in the high-profile sports. But it just wasn’t something that I was focusing on while hosting. Because a lot of times what the host does is he’ll comment on the last thing seen before it comes back to the studio. Kind of capture the whole overview. The case is that more often than not, you’re not commenting on every specific individual athlete or medal winner. That’s more done at the venue than by the host. So it just wasn’t something that was in the front of my mind.

Had it been and had the circumstance arisen so it would have played in a way that made sense, and it wouldn’t have been going around six corners to get to it – I would have done it.

Not good enough. Why? Because there weren't "six corners" to get around:

AE: The commentators mentioned that Mitcham had overcome some personal issues, so clearly they knew or should have known he was an out gay athlete [the fact that he was an openly gay athlete did appear on the NBC website]. Is there a timidity about mentioning it, not just because there may be concern about audience reaction, but because they may feel that it’s an invasion of his privacy even though he had already come out?

BC: That is possible. Although the other thing is they may feel – and this is a reasonable consideration – that going from one dive to the next, and one event to the next, and you’re analyzing the dives and what the standings are, that those circumstances don’t allow for the proper tone and context to treat this properly.

And here's where we lose all confidence in Costas:

AE: Do you see from a gay perspective how enormously powerful this would have been for the gay community to have one of their members acknowledged in that way in that moment? And although certainly this wasn’t what this was all about for Mitcham, it was a part of it, because he had given these interviews prior to the games.

BC: Yeah. I agree with you on all of that. And it certainly seems to me like a worthy topic. I just don’t want to appear as if I’m criticizing any of my colleagues.

Sorry Bob, but if your colleagues — who were manning NBC's diving coverage of while you were in the studio — screwed this up, they deserved to be called out. And, yes, criticized. You, as the face of NBC Sports, owe viewers more. If Tom Brokaw can say Keith Olbermann has "gone too far" in his liberal leanings, then you can certainly say the folks mic'd up and broadcasting diving coverage missed a huge story.

But it's too late now. The Olympics are over. Mitcham has returned to Australia. And NBC is far too invested in Michael Phelps to give airtime to another chiseled guy in a Speedo.

[AfterElton]