Louganis, Gregory E.
Diving
b. Jan. 29, 1960, San Diego, CA
Unquestionably the greatest diver in history, Louganis was virtually unbeatable for nearly a decade. Of Samoan and Swedish ancestry, he was given up for adoption by his teen-aged mother and he had a difficult childhood. Called "nigger" by classmates because of his dark skin and "retarded" because he suffered from dyslexia, he turned to drugs and alcohol in his early teens.
Diving became his outlet because he could practice in solitude. Sammy Lee, twice a gold medalist, coached Louganis for six months in 1976, when the youngster won a silver medal in the Olympic platform event.
Louganis emerged as a premier diver in 1978, winning the world platform championship and the AAU indoor 1-meter and 3-meter titles. He entered the University of Miami in Florida that year but transferred to the University of California-Irvine in 1981.
In 1979, Louganis won gold medals in both the springboard and the platform at the Pan-American games. He was favored to win the double at the 1980 Olympics, but the U. S. boycott of the Russian games forestalled him. Louganis did win both events at the 1982 world championships.
Louganis in 1984 became the first male diver to win both gold medals since 1928, and he was voted the Sullivan Award as the country's amateur athlete of the year. He repeated as a double winner in the 1986 worlds, the 1987 Pan-American Games, and the 1988 Olympics, despite suffering a severe gash in his head after hitting the board on his ninth dive in the Olympic platform event.
The muscular, 5-foot-9, 160-pounder won the incredible total of 45 national championships before retiring in 1989. He was the NCAA 1-meter springboard champion in 1979 and the 3-meter champion in 1979 and 1980. Louganis won the 1-meter, 3-meter, and platform events at the national indoor and outdoor championships for five years in a row, from 1982 through 1986, and he was the springboard and platform champion at the U. S. Olympic Festival six years in a row, 1982 through 1987. He also won the 3-meter springboard and the platform dive at the 1987 outdoor championships, the 1988 national indoor platform, and all three events at the 1988 national outdoor championships.
Before the 1988 Olympics, Louganis had tested positive for AIDs. He considered giving up the sport, but his doctor persuaded him that he should keep on training for the Olympics.
After retiring from serious competition, Louganis appeared in an off-Broadway play, Jeffrey, about gay life in the 1990s. He publicly acknowleged his sexual orientation at the 1994 Gay Games and in an interview with Barbara Walters for the NBC show, 20/20. His autobiography, Breaking the Surface, was published in 1995.
