Australian gay Olympic diving star Matthew Mitcham knows when you are in the lead up to a big event, you need to choose your friends carefully.

So it is not surprising he chose a statue of the largest bird native to Australia, the emu, to give him some support.

Sharing the picture on his Twitter, it shows the 10-metres platform gold medalist posing on the bird in the East London Olympics village. He said: ‘We pretty much have the coolest decorations in the whole village. #London2012’

Mitcham also denied crashing the gay dating app Grindr in East London.

Reports released on Sunday (22 July) said the crash coincided with the flood of tourists travelling to the British capital, and many pointed to the openly gay and not so openly gay Olympic athletes.

In response to a Twitter fan, he said: ‘Wish I could take the credit but I don’t have it :P.’

Mitcham, the only non-Chinese to win gold at Beijing 2008, also posted a picture of himself on top of the Olympic rings in London.

At a news conference, the 24-year-old said: ‘In the lead up to these Games, and all the struggles that I’ve been going through with the physical side of things and all that, I had pretty much decided this was going to be my last Olympic Games.

‘But as soon as I got there that all went out of the window.’

Mitcham added: ‘I never want to miss another Olympic Games again.’