Greg Louganis: Medal Sale & New Beginnings

As Greg Louganis, the then world’s best art and tower jumper, on July 19, 1988 on the Olympic stage with his head on the three-meter board, the sports world kept her breath. Especially when he stood up there again in the final day with a sewn wound. What followed is one of the most amazing stories of the Olympic history that make up a large part of his legend: Louganis won gold from the threesome in Seoul, then also from the tower and thus repeated his double triumph from 19984.

Two certificates have now changed the owner. Because Olympic legend Louganis, now 65 years old, auctioned his Olympic silver from 1976 and two of his gold medals and his house in California to start a new life far from home. “I needed the money for it,” he says, without wanting to get pity for it. It was a conscious decision for a restart in Panama. A life that Louganis often thought was over soon. “I would never have thought that I was still alive,” he said in a world conversation a few years ago. “Especially later after the HIV diagnosis.”

But Louganis lives, he’s fine. And he wants to start a new chapter. “What are you ready to leave behind when life continues?” He recently wrote on Facebook. “I am 65 years old and I wonder.

A restart costs money. Money that he does not have without selling what he has. “While many people built up companies and sold them at a profit, I had my medals for which I am grateful,” he says. They brought a total of $ 437,000 and thus exceeded all expectations. Louganis decided on the present and future and left precious metal three times. A look at his biography is enough for understanding.

A triumph that made him known far beyond the limits of his sport

Louganis wrote Olympic history, shaped his sport and is still considered one of the best water jumpers ever. Already at the 1976 games in Montreal he won the silver tower as a 16-year-old, in 1984 in Los Angeles he won gold from the tower and the three-meter board. In Seoul, he dramatically repeated the feat in Seoul. The dramatic days of Seoul fit into the life of a man who can hardly be beaten in tragedy – at that time, in 1988, almost nobody knew that.

On September 19, 1988, he took off in South Korea when qualifying from the three -meter board. Two and a half times Salto, a routine jump. But Louganis hit the board with the back of the head. The wound had to be sewn, it was in pain. The next morning he was back on the board for the final. “But I was afraid,” he said world. But Louganis won. A triumph that made him known far beyond the limits of his sport.

At the time, almost nobody knew that he had been diagnosed shortly before the games to be HIV-positive. It could have cost him the Olympic participation. “There was only fear and no mercy on the topic of AIDS,” he said. And at the time, homosexuality was for many, so Louganis experienced it as a “illness”.

He, who had already felt different as a child as a child, experienced bullying, made his first of several suicide attempts at the age of twelve and was later caught in an abusive relationship, celebrated his farewell to life in the early 90s. “Back then, shortly before the party on my 33rd birthday, I died there, so I thought I was saying goodbye – but without telling the guests,” he says. In the mid-1990s, he made HIV infection and homosexuality public.

While he buried friends, AIDS did not burst out with him. He was able to experience scientific progress and also made his peace with many events in his life. Anyone who meets him meets a friendly, open man who keeps fit with yoga and strength training. A sought -after speaker on the subject of motivation, but also about discrimination and education about HIV and AIDS. In addition, the former dancer worked as a mentor of some US water jumpers and judges at the cliff jumper. Acting, appearances in TV shows, dog training-Louganis lived his life. And he married.

“Now I can find out who Greg Louganis is”

Now he has said goodbye to the USA and is in the process of building up a new life in Panama – with the help of the money he received from the auction of his Olympic medals and the sale of his house. He gave away or donated anything else.

“I know that I consciously chose it,” says Louganis, who “wants to start again with an open heart and open doors”. He says: “I realized that I often seal myself, retreat and make myself small to please others. I think I have not recognized or dared to do what I could achieve.” His new life in Panama will force him to go on a journey of self -discovery.

“Now I can find out who Greg Louganis is. Without distraction and noise from the outside. At least that’s my goal.” Sometimes, he believes, he thinks it. “And my goal is to live it. To discover, let and maintain the human soul through the experiences of life.”