Out Spotlight

The winner of five Olympic medals, today's Out Spotlight is the world’s most successful diver and among the most high-profile openly gay athletes. Athlete, author and activist, Today's is Greg Louganis.

Gregory "Greg" Efthimios Louganis was born January 29, 1960, born of Samoan/Swedish descent was raised in California by his adoptive Greek-American parents in the San Diego, CA area. He attended Santana High School in Santee, California, and Valhalla High School in El Cajon, California.

Louganis scored a perfect 10 in the Junior Olympics in 1971, at age 11. 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. 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.

He graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 1983. At the World Championships the following year, Louganis became the first diver to score a perfect 10 at an international meet.

At 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, with record scores, he won gold medals in both the springboard and tower diving events. He was also the first diver to exceed 700 points in the two competitions.

For those achievements 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.

After winning two more world championship titles in 1986, he repeated his 1984 feat in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. But this time with some unexpected difficulties: he suffered a concussion after hitting his head on the springboard during the preliminary rounds while performing a reverse 2½ pike.

Despite suffering a concussion, he continued diving and won two gold medals. He became the first male diver to win double golds in consecutive Olympics.

At the time of the incident he did not disclose to the public that he was HIV positive.

In 1994 he announced he was gay and took part in the 1994 Gay games as a diving announcer as well as putting on a diving exhibition for capacity crowds.

In 1995, Louganis cowrote his autobiography, Breaking the Surface, with the assistance of author Eric Marcus. For years, Louganis' cheerful public persona never hinted at the personal troubles he had to surmount - his HIV diagnosis, coming out as a gay man, domestic violence, substance abuse, dyslexia and surrounding all of this, his depression.

In the book, he disclosed he was HIV positive and had been diagnosed a few months before the Seoul Games. He also disclosed a past relationship of domestic abuse and rape.

As expected at that time, he loss most of his corporate sponsors when they heard the news of his HIV status. The only exception was swimsuit manufacturer Speedo, who retained him as an endorser of their products until 2007.

After his announcement, people in and out of the international diving community began to question his decision not to disclose of his status at the time of his head injury during the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Their concern was that because of the bloody nature of his injury, Louganis placed all of his diving competitors at risk of being exposed to HIV. The United States Olympic Committee expressed great concern about the possibility of HIV exposure.

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.

Louganis 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. He has worked frequently with the Human Rights Campaign to defend the civil liberties of the LGBT community and people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.

He also put his theater training to good use, taking on roles in movies, including in 1993, Louganis starred as a chorus boy who dies of AIDS in the Off Broadway play “Jeffrey.”, the movie Touch Me in 1997 and David Oliveras' debut movie Watercolors in role of Coach Brown, a swimming instructor in a high school.

In the October/November 2010 issue of ABILITY Magazine, Louganis stated that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is "absurd," "unconstitutional," and a "witch-hunt." He added that "gay men and women have been serving this country for years. . . [it's] basically encouraging people who are serving our country to lie to each other."

Earlier this year, he appeared as himself in the second season of IFC's comedy Portlandia.

Currently Louganis competes actively in dog agility competitions with his dogs, Dr. Schivago, Captain Woof Blitzer, and Dobby. Most of his current competitors are named for characters in the Harry Potter series. He has also published the book For the Life of Your Dog co-written with Betty Sicora Siino.

Since November 2010, Louganis has been coaching divers of a wide range of ages and abilities in the SoCal Divers Club in Fullerton, California


“When you're a kid growing up, and you think you're gay, you're often teased. But sports can be great for building self-esteem.”