lengthy Q&A with The Guardian, just a couple of weeks ahead of the Paris Olympics. He’s going to attend a portion of the Games, where he’ll watch an expected total of nearly 200 out athletes competing for gold. Subscribe to our newsletter for a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.It’s safe to say Louganis, who’s now 64, never thought he would experience this moment.
“If you were diagnosed HIV positive then, you had maybe two years to live. That was my thought,” he said. “I knew that my career was essentially over and I didn’t know what the future held for me.”A post shared by Greg Louganis (@greglouganis)Adopted at nine months, Louganis has been resilient since he came out of the womb.
His childhood was difficult: Louganis struggled academically and socially. His saving graces were gymnastics and acrobatics, two activities commonly associated with gay men. As a result, Louganis was taunted for his perceived sexuality throughout his childhood.
He tried to escape through diving, though his father pushed him to the brink. Louganis was berated and abused when he didn’t fulfill expectations. “Whenever I was diving I felt that, in order for me to be deserving of love, I had to win.
That was the feeling with my dad, for sure. That love was conditional,” he said. When Louganis competed in his first Olympics at 16 years old, he won a silver medal… and felt like he let everybody down.
He says it took him decades before he could hold the medal with pride. “It was the height of public shaming standing on that podium with that silver medal in front of the world,” he added. If the U.S.
participated in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Louganis believes he would’ve competed, and walked away afterwards. But the political boycott meant he had to wait. Competing in front of his hometown LA crowd in 1984, he won gold… twice.
hiv
ATHLETICS
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Love
Diving
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Greg Louganis
Paris Olympics