American Olympic diver, LGBT activist, and author who won gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games on both the springboard and platform. He is the only male and the second diver in Olympic history to sweep the diving events in consecutive Olympic Games. In 1984, he received the James E. Sullivan Award from the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) as the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States.
As a Junior Olympic competitor, Louganis caught the eye of Sammy Lee, two-time Olympic champion, who began coaching him. 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 with the help of coach Ron O’Brien.
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 titles at the world championships in 1982, where he became the first diver in a major international meeting to get a perfect score of 10 from all seven judges. At 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.
At the time of the 1988 accident, Louganis did not disclose to the public that he was HIV positive, a diagnosis he had received six months before the Olympics.His doctor placed him on the antiretroviral drug AZT, which he took every four hours round-the-clock. As expected of the culture at that time, most of his corporate sponsors dropped him as a client when his HIV status was announced in 1995. The exception was swimsuit manufacturer Speedo, which retained him as an endorser of its products until 2007. After his announcement, people in and out of the international diving community began to question Louganis’s decision not to disclose his HIV status at the time of his head injury during the 1988 Seoul Olympics, even though blood in a pool posed no risk. The blood was diluted by thousands of gallons of water, and “chlorine kills HIV”, said John Ward, chief of HIV-AIDS surveillance at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Also, skin is a very effective barrier to HIV. Only a diver with an open wound would face any risk. “If the virus just touches the skin, it is unheard of for it to cause infection: the skin has no receptors to bind HIV”, explained Anthony Fauci.
Louganis was among the first class of inductees into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame on August 2, 2013.
In 2015, Louganis was presented the Bonham Centre Award from The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto, for his contributions to the advancement and education of issues around sexual identification.
World Liberty TV’S Executive Producer Dr, Abbey interviewed Greg Louganis at the Alliance for Positive Change , Gala where Mr Louganis was honored with the change makers award, see more about Greg Louganis in World Liberty TV .
