Greg Louganis

Personal information
Full name	Gregory Efthimios Louganis
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Sport
Country	United States
Event(s)	1m, 3m, 10m
College team	University of Miami and University of California, Irvine
Retired	yes
Medal record Olympic Games 1976 Montreal 10m Platform 1984 Los Angeles 3m Springboard 1984 Los Angeles 10m Platform 1988 Seoul 3m Springboard 1988 Seoul 10m Platform World Championships 1978 Berlin 10m Platform 1982 Guayaquil 3m Springboard 1982 Guayaquil 10m Platform 1986 Madrid 3m Springboard 1986 Madrid 10m Platform Pan American Games 1979 San Juan 3m Springboard 1979 San Juan 10m Platform 1983 Caracas 3m Springboard 1983 Caracas 10m Platform 1987 Indianapolis 3m Springboard 1987 Indianapolis 10m Platform Summer Universiade 1983 Edmonton 3m Springboard 1983 Edmonton 10m Platform

Gregory ("Greg") Efthimios Louganis (born January 29, 1960 in El Cajon, California) is an American Olympic diver of Samoan/Swedish descent. He was raised in California by his adoptive parents, a Greek-American couple. He is best known for winning back-to-back Olympic titles in both the 3m and 10m diving events. He is openly gay and has tested positive for HIV.

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.

At sixteen 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.

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.

Louganis is openly gay and tested positive for HIV in 1988.^[1]. He recounted his story in a best-selling book "Breaking the Surface" co-written with Eric Marcus. The book spent five weeks at number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. There was also the movie entitled "Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story" which premiered in Showtime in 1996, with Mario Lopez. Greg Louganis himself was narrator in the movie.

He 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.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, he took on a number of roles in movies, including Touch Me in 1997 and David OLiveras debut movie Watercolors in role of Coach Brown, a swimming instructor in a high school. Films in which Greg Louganis has appeared:

• 1987: Dirty Laundry as Larry
• 1992: Inside Out III as Max in the segment "The Wet Dream"
• 1996: It's My Party as Dan Zuma
• 1997: Broken Record (TV) as Coach Hill
• 1997: Touch Me as David
• 2008: Watercolors as Coach Brown

In September 2000, he took part with 11 other famous Olympic gold medalists in a "Dream Team" entitled "Hollywood Squares", competing in a special week of the hit nationally-syndicated game series, broadcast as a tribute to the 2000 Summer Games. The episodes marked the first time that all these champions came together for this kind of television competition.

Greg currently competes actively in dog agility competitions with his dogs.^[2]. He published his book "For the Life of Your Dog" co-written with Betty Sicora Siino.

• Greg Louganis official web site
• Greg Louganis Official Bio
• Greg Louganis biography at U.S. Olympic Committee official web site
• Greg Louganis to keynote DBSA 2007 National Conference
• Greg Louganis -
• Sports Reference
• Greg Louganis profile at NNDB