Mitcham was trailing China's Zhou Luxin by more than 30 points leading into the final round, but scored a whopping 112.10 on his last dive - a back two and a half somersault with two and a half twists - to pull off an stunning upset.

"It's absolutely surreal. I never thought that this would be possible," Mitcham said after the win.

"I wasn't even sure of my medal chances at all. After I did my last dive and I saw I was in first, I thought, "That's it, it's a silver medal, I am so happy with this' and then I won. I can't believe it, I'm so happy.

"I had some very wise words and some very good advice before coming into the 10m competition, to just enjoy it, have fun and that's what I thought right from the very first dive in the prelims to the very last dive in the final.

"I was definitely stressing it to myself, just enjoy the moment, there is nothing you can do to change what's about to happen, so just enjoy it and it worked."

Mitcham came out of the closet in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year when fighting to bring his partner, Lachlan, with him to the Olympics.

"We can't afford for Lachlan to go at the moment," Mitcham told the Sydney Morning Herald. "But Johnson & Johnson offer grants to go to Beijing and I've nominated Lachlan as the support person I want to go."

Last update: 01-29-2009 18:37