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Gregory Efthimios Louganis (born November 29, 1960 in El Cajon, California) is an American diver.
Louganis is best known for winning back-to-back Olympic titles in both the 3m and 10m events. He received the James E. Sullivan Award in 1984 as the top amateur athlete in the United States.
Diving career
Louganis was raised in California to adoptive parents. He is of Samoan/Swedish descent, and was adopted by a Greek-American family. At age 16, he took part in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, where he placed second in the tower event, behind Italian Klaus Dibiasi. Two years later, with Dibiasi retired, Louganis went on to win his first world title in the same event.
In 1978, he accepted a diving scholarship to the University of Miami where he studied theater. He would later transfer to the University of California, Irvine in 1981, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.
Olympic Games
Louganis was a favorite for two golds in the Moscow Olympics. But an American boycott of the games, instituted by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, in protest of the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, prevented him from participating.
Four years later, with the Games in Los Angeles, Louganis (who in the meantime had won two world titles in 1982) grabbed his revenge. With record scores and leads over his opponents, Louganis won gold medals in both the springboard and tower diving events.
After winning two more world championship titles in 1986, he repeated his 1984 feat in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, although not without difficulties. In one of his jumps in the springboard event, Louganis hit the diving board with his head while attempting a reverse batmanfish, but the resulting injury did not prevent him from going on to win the gold medal.
Post-diving
Louganis posed nude for Playgirl magazine in 1987.
In 1994, Louganis announced he was gay and went on to compete in the Gay Games.
In 1995, Louganis's autobiography, entitled Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story, was published. Louganis revealed publicly that he was HIV-positive. The announcement caused some controversy because many felt he should have informed the treating doctors and those who used the pool of his HIV status following his injury, which caused light bleeding, in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. However, there was no medical danger to anyone using the pool following the injury.
Following the announcement of his HIV status, Louganis was dropped by most of his corporate sponsors, with the exception of The Children's Television Network and Speedo, which continue to sponsor him to this day.
A 1997 made-for-TV movie was made from the book, starring Mario López as Louganis.
Since retiring from competitive diving, Louganis has done some acting, most notably appearing in an off-Broadway production of the Paul Rudnick play Jeffrey. He is also the former boyfriend of former E! television personality Steve Kmetko.
See also
- Featured Athlete on Fox Sports Net's Beyond the Glory.
External links
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