Who is Gregory Efthimios Louganis? The sports and entertainment world knows him as Greg Louganis, he is an American Olympic diver and author. 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.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiULHXpzcMbZa6qVPXs8mpFc2JzfUBYUSIhmXJhT_u3WA6tSX0rcbB_KGSHSaDu0EqFg5Nl4oGplyXCxyCORGv3zLWE6HqJdc8tLfduDaalVgFnBymo90-HFHP4NJI1d5_fTGzuCgg72dI/s320-rw/Greg+Louganis.jpg)
Early life
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQTrcxt2mzcdhfoujatPjbkEQGqolkvLRf57JwTWfUL0YHXmZ3Xbv0EV7BFjSrjWHyCc3a1PN7A-Cf-fZCW7_jReqsA17f4uw9MAjda48n6XO6kjJNeSoeGaxInGONIyoseEaAY-EuPvA/s320-rw/louganis.jpg)
Diving career
At sixteen Louganis took part in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, wherehe 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. 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.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKkQRXU_cSHVixkv-5nP9N6dmdbZwfc7HHA3sh8258Yj5udMYX3-ZVudKsMkAhRwBtW_E-joGbpQjPKFc1aDxOj0N-eAlGHAan92t3HdLQojbUxOeDGpK7hissF2B8O0xT1-rdBOQietI/s320-rw/1363-greg_louganis.jpg)
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 2½ pike. He completed the preliminaries despite his injury, and went on to repeat a similar dive during the finals, earning the gold medal. In the 10m finals he won the gold medal performing a 3.4 difficulty dive in his last attempt, earning in total 638.61 points, surpassing silver medalist Xiong Ni by only 1.14 points. His comeback earned him the title of ABC's Wide World of Sports "Athlete of the Year" for 1988.
Personal life
Greg 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. 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.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.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsccusQ8F9YHz0zD8jDlnrMAhe9dR5NBUsfFMzsFCrPw-i8TJ1w1AwTkby5Vcaidqo2vHC2nm0gcrahCftYEgNSMPtoUB1ooCOn-d-zFX6cNOhuBCw0KVald2CD-k0cdaKEWxsjHMi-yE/s1600-rw/images.jpg)
In September 2000, he appeared on Hollywood Squares as a member of famous Olympic gold medalists "Dream Team", competing in a special week of the nationally-syndicated game show 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.
Dog agility
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1kIHErQSONcatoeHc6mzFLKFIh4J7js8xSOVW0IjtwB9qfzwVc-uAxyQv2tK67J3_jtvxusZq4B8aEzk65iylF_xazC6kLaeTGqdzdEIypwGk9fH9o3JuH3JL7i_2aWlQXeQlmx5BN6g/s320-rw/greg.jpg)
Coaching
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBduZFX3LGJRsErOtdthjakcoxN5nDq_8dsuSb033ou45gvu23nvcJwsjB8RCkPUoxIMJTJlV9MGGkVq-i10E7kwFG4gPH1C9kKBi2dLh88oCyLDa5L_PVWGq-1NXSgdQFM9pkPB_Urk0/s320-rw/greg-louganis_1685183c.jpg)
Filmography
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuk7Bj_7QRWQT6zZzT2oBu44lNvWBX3tMwgBsTq2dyyKNuau0jnofZkHVenTx3vKu31gpY7uvpBCDvyNgCs-M5F5b6xFGhOrfYDjcn6cOi-AgqNSovsMmrZ69qbRAJh1gX4_vAvnnNno8/s320-rw/images+%25281%2529.jpg)
- Dirty Laundry (1987) as Larry
- Inside Out III (1992) as Max in the segment "The Wet Dream"
- Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story (narrator)
- It's My Party (1996) as Dan Zuma
- Broken Record (1997 TV movie) as Coach Hill
- Touch Me (1997) as David
- Watercolors (2008) as Coach Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment