Malaysia is not a powerhouse when it comes to winning Olympic medals. Since the country was first represented at the Olympics in 1956, the SE Asian nation has only won four medals, all in badminton, and has yet to take home a gold medal. While I did not want my blog’s Olympic coverage to be diving-centric, since a pair of Malaysians just picked up a bronze medal at the London World Cup, I thought I’d throw one more diver post up before getting back to athletes who do not appear in skintight outfits. Besides, I knew little about Bryan Nickson Lomas before his recent win but after Googling his picture saw that for many regular readers he’s the version of eye candy I don’t usually include. I thought ya’ll would be pleased.

The 21-year-old national hope for medaling in its second sport together with his new diving partner Huang Qiang earned a spot at the 2012 Olympics with their bronze-medal winning performance at the recent FINA Olympic Test Event. That’s first for the country in both a World Cup medal and Olympic qualification for the men’s 3m synchronized springboard competition. A surprising win, Lomas and Huang had only been diving together for four months.

Huang Qiang, formerly a diver for China, received his Malaysian citizenship last July. He was not supposed to compete in the World Cup, having to first go through a nine-month cooling off period in accordance with FINA’s regulations for those who want to compete for their adopted countries. But the world body changed its rules two months ago and Huang Qiang, upon receiving clearance from the China Aquatics Association, was given the go-ahead. In his prime, Huang Qiang formed an unbeatable partnership with Tian Liang and the Chinese pair were favorites at the 2000 Sydney Olympics before a pre-Games injury forced him to turn to coaching instead.

Native Sarawakian Lomas also qualified for a spot in the men’s 10m platform dive and the 3m springboard individual event in which he will compete against his teammate and old synchronized diving partner Yeoh Ken Nee. Both divers technically finished out of the qualification spots but because many of those competing at the World Cup had already cinched their spots at the Olympics the field was broadened allowing for the Yeoh’s advancement. Lomas had already qualified for his spot at the World Championships. Neither, however, is expected to make it to the semifinals at the Olympics in the individual 3m event.

The 5’ 3” Lomas began his Olympic career at the 2004 Athens Games where he was the youngest, smallest, and lightest participant. Diminutive in size, his accomplishments raised his stature and he was selected as Malaysia’s flagbearer at those games. He only competed in the 10m platform event at the 2004 Olympics and placed 19th. In the same year, Bryan won gold at the world junior championship in Brazil and in 2005 he won a gold medal at the SEA games in Manila. In 2006 he won a silver medal at the Commonwealth games in Australia, and bronze at the World Junior competition in Kuala Lumpur.

After finishing seventh in the 2007 Melbourne World Aquatics Championships, Lomas qualified for the 10m platform for the 2008 Beijing Olympics where he was eliminated in the preliminary round and finished at the 26th spot. Since then Bryan’s diving has steadily improved and he has been racking up an impressive list of medals at championship meets. More importantly, in Indonesia last year he finally breached the 500-point barrier in the 10m individual platform competition. He considers the 10m dive his event.

“It’s important I do well in the preliminaries and semifinals to be able to qualify for the top 12 final as that guarantees me a ticket to the Olympics,” he said during the World Championships competition in Shanghai last July. Of the 3m individual springboard event Lomas added, ““My difficulties are not as competitive as the other top divers as this is not my main event. The coach just told me do my usual performance and I did not push myself too hard today.”

He placed 11th in that event at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships and came in at the 8th spot at the FINA Diving World Cup last month finishing behind divers from China, Russia, Great Britain, the U.S., and Germany. At the London Olympics he will be competing against Australia’s openly gay diver Matthew Mitcham and Britain’s Tom Daley. Bryan won the bronze behind Daley and Mitcham at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and is already used to their competition. The 10m platform discipline is considered China’s weakest event as their divers failed in their bid to clinch it at the last Worlds and the Olympics allowing for hope among the other divers at taking home a medal from the Summer Games.

[‘The XXX Games’ are a series of posts about hot Olympians, gay competitors – both present and past – and general articles about the 2012 London Olympics of interest to gay men. So, yeah, lots of hot male eye candy. Click the XXX Games graphic below for additional news, stories, and pictures.]