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Gregory "Greg"
Efthimios Louganis (born January 29, 1960) is an
American Olympic diver and
author. He is best known for winning back-to-back Olympic titles in
both the 3m and 10m diving events. He is openly gay and has tested positive for HIV.
He received the James E. Sullivan Award from
the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) in
1984 as the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United
States.
Early
life
Louganis is of Samoan/Swedish descent. He was raised in
California by his adoptive
parents, a Greek-American couple. He attended
Valhalla High School in El Cajon, California.
Diving
career
At sixteen Louganis took part in the 1976
Summer Olympics in Montreal, where he placed second in the tower
event, behind italian sport
legend Klaus
Dibiasi. Two years later, with Dibiasi retired, Louganis won
his first world title in the same event. In 1978, he accepted a
diving scholarship to the University of Miami where he
studied theater, but in 1981 transferred to the University of California,
Irvine, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.
Louganis was a favorite for two golds in the 1980
Summer Olympics in Moscow, but an American boycott of the
games prevented him from participating. Louganis won two world
diving titles in 1982. In the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, 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: he suffered a concussion after hitting his
head on the springboard during the preliminary rounds while
performing a reverse 2 1/2 pike. He completed the preliminaries
despite his injury, and went on to repeat the dive during the
finals, earning the gold medal. His comeback earned him the title
of ABC's Wide World of
Sports "Athlete of the Year" for 1988.
Personal
life
Louganis is openly gay and tested
positive for HIV in 1988.[1] He
recounted his story in a best-selling book Breaking
the Surface co-written with Eric Marcus. The book spent five weeks at
number one on the New
York Times Best Seller list. His story was also documented in
the 1996 Showtime movie
Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story with Mario Lopez playing the
lead and Louganis narrating.
He also produced a video diary called Looking To the
Light, which picked up where Breaking the Surface
left off. In the years since his diagnosis was made public,
Louganis has been an outspoken HIV awareness advocate.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, he took on a number of roles in
movies, including Touch Me in 1997 and David Oliveras'
debut movie Watercolors in role of Coach
Brown, a swimming instructor in a high school.
In September 2000, he appeared on Hollywood
Squares as a member of famous Olympic gold medalists
"Dream Team", competing in a special week of the
nationally-syndicated game show series, broadcast as a tribute to
the 2000 Summer Games. The episodes marked the first time that all
these champions came together for this kind of television
competition.
Dog
agility
Louganis currently competes actively in dog agility competitions
with his dogs.[2]
He published his book For the Life of Your Dog co-written
with Betty Sicora Siino.
Filmography
Films in which Greg Louganis has appeared:
- Dirty Laundry (1987) as Larry
- Inside Out III (1992) as Max in the segment "The Wet
Dream"
- Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story
(narrator)
- It's My Party (1996) as Dan Zuma
- Broken Record (1997 TV movie) as Coach Hill
- Touch Me (1997) as David
- Watercolors (2008) as Coach
Brown
References
External
links
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