Greg Louganis Talks Adversity, Coming Out and His Compelling Documentary BACK ON BOARD

Olympic gold medal winner Greg Louganis – widely considered the greatest diver of all time – reflects on overcoming the HIV-positive stigma and other adversities during his storied career, and gives a preview of a compelling new documentary on his life, Back on Board.

Despite leaving the diving world for decades after being on top of the sport, Greg says everybody still remembers him for the time he hit his head on the springboard during a dive at the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul.

“It was such an impactful image that there was some type of visceral response. And generally when you have some sort of visceral response to an image like that, it kind of burns in your memory. So that’s what everybody remembers – 20 plus years after people are still asking, ‘How’s your head?’”

He notes that despite all the publicity surrounding his injury, the public was unaware of a lot of other issues he was facing at the time. “That whole Olympic experience was so emotionally charged. Six months prior to the Olympic Games I was diagnosed with HIV, and knew I was going into a country where I wouldn’t be welcome in, had they known my HIV status at that moment in time.”

Greg said he wanted to be very public about his HIV status to protect others from possible infection, at a time of uncertainty about many aspects of the disease. “It was really a struggle for me. I didn’t think I’d see 30, I really didn’t because we thought of it as a death sentence – but here I am at 54,” he said.

When asked whether his decision to publicly come out was prompted by a perceived responsibility to do so, or just for himself, he said he first had to personally be okay with who he was. “It was really an entire evolution. That whole process of coming out – whether it’s your sexual orientation, whether it’s HIV, whatever it is – you have to be accepting of yourself first, and then you can share who you are.”

He revealed that keeping his own secret was familiar to him because he had been conditioned to live that way in his own family. “I grew up in a household full of secrets. My dad was an alcoholic, so we had those issues – it was a household full of secrets. As my mom would tell my sister and myself, don’t tell dad. And then my dad saying, don’t tell mom.”

He first felt comfortable after going away to college at the University of Miami, where he first got involved in theater. “It was the theater department, so of course I found other gay people, so it’s okay.”

He says the only way he knew to truly introduce himself to the world was by writing the book Breaking the Surface, in which he wrote very honestly about everything – including things he wasn’t very proud of. He indicated that he couldn’t have had the same impact by just making an announcement or giving one interview to a reporter. “I didn’t want to be that Rock Hudson, I didn’t want to be him. I wanted to share who I was.

“I thought I was sharing my weaknesses – being raped at knifepoint, and then I stayed in the relationship for six more years. You know, it’s not real masculine, it’s not real Olympic, to admit that you were overpowered and raped.”

Greg says although he was surprised and disappointed when he wasn’t chosen for the official U.S. delegation to attend the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia, he did get to visit the country as honorary host of the LGBT Russian Open Games.“I was able to have that experience,” he explains. But he also revealed that Open Games in Moscow did not proceed without incident, as was the case in Sochi, which he describes as clearly “propaganda for Russian Putin.”

He said after the Olympics and after his trip to Moscow, he met with a gay friend who was in Sochi, and said he felt safe there, went to a gay bars, entertainment, etc. “That was propaganda for Putin.”

Greg said a whole different “underground” experience was necessary in Moscow, where members of the LGBT delegation to the Open Games were refused rooms at the hotels that had been booked, and a bomb threat prevented the opening ceremonies.

“Every single event was tampered with – the only event that wasn’t tampered with was I did make the announcement that I was going to table tennis and participate… and they didn’t mess with that one,” he said.

Watch the video for Greg’s entire interview and to see a sneak peak of this new documentary Back on Board.