Background

Gregory Louganis was born on January 29, 1960, in El Cajon, California, the United States, to unmarried high-school students. Louganis’s birth parents met in Hawaii, but his biological mother moved to California while pregnant and Louganis entered the foster care system at birth. At 9 months, he was adopted by Southern California-based Frances and Peter Louganis, who were unable to have biological children.

Frances, a homemaker, and Peter, the controller of a fishing company, had also adopted a daughter two years before and were always open with their kids about their family history. But the adoption organization had lost Louganis’s files in a fire, and unanswered questions led to troubled times for the young athlete, who started diving at age 9.

Louganis reconnected with his biological father, Fouvale Lutu, in 1984. Through the help of DNA tests and his half-siblings, he found his biological mother in 2017.

Teased and bullied as a child for the dark skin he inherited from his Samoan father and for his learning "differences," he turned to what he could do well: sport. His first love was gymnastics, and by nine years old, he was a "seasoned performer on the local talent show and convalescent-home circuit. As a child, he trained in dancing, tumbling, and acrobatics, skills that would later earn him a reputation as a graceful, effortless diver.

In 1969, Greg's mom took him to diving practice to keep him from breaking his neck doing stunts off his backyard diving board. He wasn't crazy about the sport at first, but his interest grew when he discovered he was quite good at it.

Education

Louganis attended numerous schools, including Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, California; Valhalla High School in El Cajon, California; as well as Mission Viejo High School, in Mission Viejo, California.

In 1978, he entered the University of Miami on a full diving scholarship and studied theater as part of the Bachelor of Fine Arts program. In 1980, in order to dive with coach Ron O'Brien, he transferred to the University of California, Irvine, also on an athletic scholarship.

He graduated in 1983 with a major in drama and a minor in dance. As part of the drama department, Greg was a dance captain and a lead player in the production of Pippin and assistant choreographer for The Gondoliers.

Career

Greg Louganis started competitive diving as a 10-year-old. At the age of 11, Greg entered the national Junior Olympics. During the tough competition, Greg's mom took him outside to find out why he was struggling. He told her he was afraid of letting everyone down. She reassured him, saying that he would always be her son and no matter what, she would always love him. He went back to the pool and moved from twelfth place to tie for second. Those words stayed with him and helped him through every competition in his career.

Five years later, Greg was working with diving legend Dr. Sammy Lee. Dr. Lee helped teach Greg to be a fighter, lessons that would be invaluable later in life. At sixteen years old, Greg qualified for the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, where he won an Olympic silver medal on the 10m platform.

In 1979 he won gold medals in both the springboard and the platform event at the Pan-American Games and was a favorite to win at the 1980 Olympics but was unable to compete because of the United States boycott. At the World Aquatic Championships in 1982, he became the first diver ever to earn a perfect score of 10 from all the judges. The following year Louganis set 3-meter springboard records with a 99-point dive and a 755.49-point total. His platform record of 717.41 points came in 1986.

At the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984, Greg became the third man in the history of the sport to win gold medals in both springboard and platform, the first since Pete Desjardins in 1928.

Between 1984 and the 1988 games in Seoul, South Korea, Louganis had an impressive record of victories and gold medals for both springboard and platform events. To win in platform in Seoul, he had to complete a reverse three-and-a-half somersault in the tuck position, the "dive of death." A Russian diver had died attempting the dive at the World University Games in Edmonton, Canada, after striking his head on the platform. Louganis completed the dive and won the gold, but it was a qualifying dive that left him frozen with fear.

In 1992 Louganis acted in the Off-Broadway production of Jeffrey, playing the role of Darius, a young man dying of AIDS. In 1994 Louganis announced publicly that he was gay and the following year disclosed that he had AIDS. His autobiography, Breaking the Surface, was published in 1995. In February 1995, Greg shocked the world when, courageously, he announced on Barbara Walter's 20/20 and The Oprah Winfrey Show that he is gay and HIV-positive. The interviews were in advance of the release of his autobiography Breaking the Surface (co-written with Eric Marcus), which detailed the struggles he'd faced on his journey to gold medal glory.

When Louganis left competitive diving he was thirty-two. He took dancing, acting, and singing lessons. He acted in regional theater, as the prince in Cinderella and as Tony in The Boyfriend.

Freed from the secrets he'd carried through his life, Greg pursued his other great loves - animals and acting. He began training and showing dogs, co-authoring the book, For the Life of Your Dog, with Betsy Sikora Siino in 1999. He has appeared in eight films, including narrating a dramatization of Breaking the Surface, starring Mario Lopez. He has appeared in numerous television shows and been interviewed countless times.

Since November 2010, Louganis has been coaching divers of a wide range of ages and abilities in the SoCal Divers Club in Fullerton, California. He was a mentor to the American diving team at the London 2012 Olympics and the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics.

Achievements

• 

  Considered the greatest diver in history, Greg Louganis is the only male to win gold medals on both 3-meter springboard and 10-meter platform in consecutive Olympic Games (1984, 1988). In just over a decade he won the highest honors in his events of springboard and platform diving, including gold medals in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games. He was the first diver in history to score a perfect ten for a single dive from all seven judges. This event occurred during the world swimming championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in 1982.
  
  Coming out as a gay athlete in a time when it simply was not done, his 1995 autobiography, Breaking the Surface, spent five weeks at Number One on the New York Times bestseller list and his PGA and Emmy nominated Documentary Back on Board is receiving rave reviews nationwide and can now be seen on HBO.
  
  In June 2013, Louganis was inducted into the California Sports Hall of Fame. He was among the first class of inductees into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame on August 2, 2013.
  
  In 2016 General Mills announced that Greg would receive a Wheaties Box for his achievements, and that development was so significant it warranted a New York Times exclusive. He had the honor of being included in ESPN's 2016 annual Body Issue, and in January 2017, was the first openly gay Grand Marshal of The Rose Parade.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Breaking the Surface

    (Born to a young Samoan father and Northern European mothe...)

    1997

• movie

  • Touch Me

    (The romance that opens Touch Me is clumsy and stiff, but ...)

    1997
  • Sabre Dance

    (After giving a performance to the people of Spain, world-...)

    2015
  • Back on Board: Greg Louganis

    ("Back on Board: Greg Louganis" is an intimate portrait of...)

    2014
  • Dirty Laundry

    (A young man and his girlfriend unwittingly come into poss...)

    1987
  • Breaking The Surface

    (Breaking the Surface is about the tough times Greg Lougan...)

    1997
  • Watercolors

    (After the suicide of his first love, a gifted painter tri...)

    2008
  • D2: The Mighty Ducks

    (Gordon Bombay's new job is to coach the USA Hockey Team.)

    1994

Views

Louganis inspired the world first as a champion diver, and then as an activist for LGBT rights and HIV awareness. Louganis has done volunteer work for PAWS/LA, a group that helps AIDS patients care for their pets. He is a motivational speaker and an agility trainer for his show dogs.

Louganis is on the board of directors to the USA-based chapter of the charitable foundation of Princess Charlene of Monaco.

Quotations: "When you're a kid growing up, and you think you're gay, you know that you're different; you're often teased, and it can really destroy your self-esteem. But sports can be great for building self-esteem."

"In sports, people reach their peak very early. You have to move on. I don't know if I will ever surpass what I did at the Olympics, but I'm still doing the work I always wanted to do."

Personality

For his 33rd birthday in 1993, Louganis held a "final birthday party" for family and friends, as a way to say goodbye; he was in failing health and thought he would die of AIDS soon.

Louganis publicly came out as gay in a pre-taped announcement shown at the opening ceremony of the 1994 Gay Games, having been persuaded to do so by Gay Games organizers. Even before then, he led what has been described as "an openly gay life."

Physical Characteristics: In March 1988, Louganis tested positive for HIV, and his T-cell count level was nearly that of full-blown AIDS. He began taking AZT every four hours, day and night, along with heavy doses of vitamins and gamma globulin infusions. He kept his condition secret and paid for his treatments privately, rather than have his condition become public.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Louganis was my first inspiration. I figured that I'd sort of base my physicality roughly around him, and then it kind of went from there." - Michael Fassbender

Interests

• Writers

  Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

Connections

From 1983 to 1989, Louganis was in a romantic relationship with his manager, R. James "Jim" Babbitt. Louganis has described the relationship as abusive, saying that at one point in 1983, Babbitt raped him at knifepoint. In 1989, Louganis obtained a restraining order against Babbitt.

Louganis announced his engagement to his partner, paralegal Johnny Chaillot, in People magazine, in June 2013. The two were married on October 12, 2013.

Father:

Peter Louganis

Mother:

Frances Louganis

Spouse:

Johnny Chaillot

ex-boyfriend:

R. James "Jim" Babbitt

Louganis entered a six-year relationship with Babbitt. Babbitt was abusive and once raped Louganis at knifepoint. Louganis wrote in his book that “the next day I called Babbitt and told him that I was sorry. I thought that nobody else would have me after what he had done, so I needed him to love me, or I would be alone. We saw each other that day, and he didn't say anything about the rape; no apology, nothing. It was as if it had never happened.”

colleague:

Eric Marcus

References

• Greg Louganis Official Site
• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 189
  2001