Greg Louganis

Infobox diver
divername= Greg Louganis

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fullname= Gregory Efthimios Louganis
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country= USA
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birthdate= birth date and age|1960|01|28
birthplace= El Cajon, California
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height= height|ft=5|in=9
event= 1m, 3m, 10m
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retired= yes
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Gregory ("Greg") Efthimios Louganis (born January 29, 1960 in El Cajon, California) is an American diver who is best known for winning back-to-back Olympic titles in both the 3m and 10m diving events. 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. Louganis is of Samoan/Swedish descent and was raised in California by his adoptive parents, a Greek-American couple.

At age 16, Louganis 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 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.

Olympic Games

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.

Post-diving and writing career

Louganis posed nude for "Playgirl" magazine in 1987. In 1994, Louganis announced that he is gay. [cite news
last =Mandell
first =Nina
title =Catching up with Greg Louganis
work =Sports Illustrated
date =2008-08-02
url =http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olympics/2008/07/01/louganis.cuw/index.html
accessdate = 2008-08-08] He took part in the 1994 Gay Games as diving announcer and performed an exhibition of several dives to a standing room only crowd of nearly 3,000 spectators.

In 1995, Louganis's autobiography co-written with Eric Marcus, titled "Breaking the Surface", was published. Louganis revealed that the man with whom he was living had repeatedly abused and raped him and that Louganis was HIV-positive. The announcement caused some controversy because of the belief, as expressed by then-United States Olympic Committee executive director Harvey Schiller, [cite news
last =Sandomir
first =Richard
title =Agonizing Over Disclosure of AIDS
work =New York Times
date =1995-02-06
url =http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE1DD123CF935A15751C0A963958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
accessdate = 2007-10-28] that he should have disclosed his HIV status during the 1988 Olympic games because his diving board injury resulted in minor bleeding. Louganis had agonized over whether to disclose his status but was later advised by AIDS expert Dr. Anthony Fauci that the injury posed no danger of infection to fellow competitors. [cite book
last =Louganis
first =Greg
coauthors =Eric Marcus
title =Breaking the Surface
publisher =Random House
date =1995
location =New York
pages =7
isbn = 0679437037]

Following the announcement of his HIV status, Louganis was dropped by most of his corporate sponsors, with the exception of the aquatics gear manufacturer Speedo, which continued to sponsor him as of 2007.Fact|date=August 2008

A 1997 made-for-television movie, "Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story", based on the book, starred Mario López as Louganis.

In 1999, Louganis's second book, "For the Life of Your Dog" (co-authored by Betsy Sikora Siino) was published.

Since retiring from competitive diving, Louganis has done some acting, most notably appearing in an off-Broadway production of the Paul Rudnick play "Jeffrey". As a hobby, he competes at the top level of dog agility with his Jack Russell Terriers. [cite journal |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors=Tracy Sklenar and Daniel McSwiney |year=2007 |month=November |title=On Course With Greg Louganis |journal=Clean Run |volume=13 |issue=11 |pages=16–17 |id= |url=http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/cleanrun/1107/index.php?startpage=18&drml=g08012261288B&drmp=4d5b4801 |accessdate= 2008-01-22 |quote= ] He amicably ended a seven-year romantic relationship with former E! television personality Steve Kmetko in 2006.

References

External links

* [http://www.louganis.com Greg Louganis official web site]
* [http://www.olympic.org/uk/athletes/profiles/bio_uk.asp?PAR_I_ID=28977 Greg Louganis biography at U.S. Olympic Committee official web site]
* [http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Conference2007_Louganis Greg Louganis to keynote DBSA 2007 National Conference]
* [http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/lo/greg-louganis-1.html Greg Louganis] - [http://www.sports-reference.com/ Sports Reference]