Back On Board: Greg Louganis

[Tara Ariano]

A documentary profiling the four-time Olympic gold-medal winning diver and one of America's first openly gay athletes. The film chronicles his successes, the discrimination he has faced, his struggles for financial security and his return to the sport.

 

Premieres Tuesday, August 4, at 10 PM ET.

[Primetimer]

How director Cheryl Furjanic resisted a Speedos And Foreclosure subhed, Sarah D. Bunting simply doesn't know.

Read the story

[Knuckles]

I can remember in 1988 being so excited at watching Louganis in the diving competition. He was thrilling to watch; his diving was perfection. Of course, he was gorgeously handsome too, which was a plus. I can't remember if I heard much about his being HIV positive, but I was a preteen then, so it might have gone over my head.

It was wonderful to see him again. Older now, but still just a beautiful man, and a very soulful one. As for his hateful teammates, does anyone remember them?

The scenes of him as a mentor were moving...hard to believe the US Olympic Committee did not make use of his advice and talents before 2012. This was an unexpected pleasure.

[Valny]

Ok, you got me... I'm going to check this out. I had seen a little preview of it and thought yeah maybe. His FOUR dogs are in it too you say? Dogs= Weak spot. Reel me in already. :)

Edited August 5, 2015 by Valny

[StatMom]

His diving form is such a beautiful work of art. That last dive, I was tensed up, thinking he might not straighten before entry. Of course, he did, while rocking that Speedo at 50-something. This dude better keep being nice to him.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

And what kind of a famous original bad-ass do you have to be to get stitches in your noggin and go back and dive again? AND WIN? I didn't remember that part. I thought he'd DQed because of the injury.

[attica]

God, I remember watching, terrified he would dq. And then waiting to see if he'd get stitched in time. And then terrified to see the next dive. Augh; it was just. too. much. OBA indeed.

[CaughtOnTape]

To this day, watching him hit his head on that board in 88 is the single most terrifying thing I have ever seen on Live TV.  I was 12 years old and I IMMEDIATELY started crying.  It scared the hell out of me.

[AnnieGirl]

I remember reading Greg's book when it came out (<--and him :). He's always had such an aura of sadness about him. I'm so happy the world has changed so much in his lifetime. It's wonderful to see him happy.

Edited August 8, 2015 by AnnieGirl

[Hanahope]

I also don't recall if there was much known about AIDS transmission at that time, other than by sex.  It does appear that neither Greg nor his coach even thought it was a concern, so I don't fault them for trying to salvage the competition.

 

I remember watching the dive where he hit his head.  Back then, I had no idea why he was overlooked for a Wheaties box, other than Mary Lou was "cuter" being a petite girl, and even looking back, I'm still surprised he didn't get a box for his accomplishments, rumors or not.  Its a shame the problems he endured after the Olympics and its so good of him to try and help the next generation not fall to some of the same scams he did. I'm glad he found happiness in his life.

[SPLAIN]

I like Greg Louganis, but I think that he and his coach took a lot of risk in their pursuit of the gold medal. When he hit that diving board and bled in the pool, they didn't know if all the other athletes would get AIDS or not. At that time, AIDS was a death sentence. They should have been screaming, "He has AIDS, you need to clean the pool." They didn't. They would have let all the other athletes die in order to keep the whole thing quiet. They were very lucky at the way it all turned out. They were willing to kill a lot of people in order to keep their secret.

Except it was known by then, 1988, that HIV/AIDs was not transmittable via chlorinated pool water. There was no risk. The only risk was the mass hysteria that would have ensued by those who were ignorant and passing on false information, which was the norm at the time. I don't recall what talk show it was - Oprah? Phil Donahue? Not sure, but someone who had HIV was denied entry into the city's public pool because of the hysteria and the untruths being passed around that people could acquire the HIV infection in a public pool.

Edited September 5, 2015 by SPLAIN