Greg Louganis
Olympic Diver
Gregory Efthimios Louganis was born in El Cajon, California (1960), and is of Samoan and Swedish descent. He was adopted when he was eight months old. Louganis started dancing, acrobatics and gymnastics when he was 18 months old and was competing by age three. Olympian Sammy Lee became one of his diving coaches. In 1981, Louganis graduated from UC Irvine with a major in drama and a minor in dance. Then he became the only man and the second diver in Olympic history to sweep the diving events in consecutive Olympic Games (1984 and 1988), despite a concussion accident in 1988. He also tested positive for HIV in the same year. In 2013, Louganis was inducted into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame and in 2015, he was a torch bearer for the World Games Special Olympics.
(Portrait by Michelle Yuan, SFSU 2016)