Athletes - Greg Louganis

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	Athletes - Greg Louganis

Gregory Efthimios Louganis is an American diver of Samoan/Swedish descent, adopted by a Greek-American family. He won back-to-back Olympic titles in both the 3 m and 10 m events. He received the James E. Sullivan Award in 1984 as the top amateur athlete in the United States.

History

Greg Louganis was born January 29, 1960 in El Cajon, California. At age 16, he took part in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montréal, where he placed second in the tower event, behind Italian 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 . 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 major 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 mean time had won two world titles in 1982) grabbed his revenge: with record scores and leads over his opponents, Louganis won both the springboard and tower event.

After winning two more world championship titles in 1986, he repeated his 1984 feat in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, although not without trouble. In one of his jumps in the 3 m springboard event (See the following section about this), Louganis hit the diving board with his head, but the resulting injury proved not heavy enough to stop him from winning the gold medal.

His 1988 Olympic incident

During his 1988 Seoul Olympics competition, an accident in one of his dives caused him to hit his head on the board. The impact injured his head, and he was bleeding as he fell into the water. By that time he had been diagnosed with HIV, but hadn't made his diagnosis known to the public. Years later, Louganis revealed that he was concerned about his blood tainting the water. At the time, the scientific community didn't know yet that HIV cannot be transmitted by flow of blood in water.

In the news

In 1994, Louganis publicly announced he was gay and took part in the Gay Games. The following year, in 1995, Louganis also announced he had AIDS, something he had actually known since early 1988. He was dropped by all of his corporate sponsors except Speedo, which has stayed with him to this day.

A 1997 made-for-TV movie and autobiography entitled Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story, starring Mario López, covers the highlights of Louganis' life.

Today he devotes his time to dog breeding, about which he has written a few books, and promotes AIDS awareness in schools. He is also the boyfriend of E! television personality Steve Kmetko.

Athletes - Greg Louganis

History

Olympic Games

His 1988 Olympic incident

In the news

Further reading

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