Unapologetically is a Yahoo Life series in which people get the chance to share how they live their best life — out loud and in color, without fear or regret — looking back at the past with a smile and embracing the future with excited anticipation.
Starting when he was just 10 years old, Olympic champion Greg Louganis trained to be the greatest diver in the world. What he ultimately became, according to many, is the greatest diver of all-time.
Over two decades later, Louganis, the 62-year-old gay man and longterm HIV survivor, is still widely considered to be the ultimate G.O.A.T. in the diving category. These days, however, he defines his life not by his legendary career — which includes one silver and four gold Olympic medals — but by the joy he finds in the smallest things.
“You have to have the grace to forgive yourself and accept where you’re at [in life],” he says now. “Often, I’ll give myself little challenges and say, ‘Oh, I used to be able to dot dot, dot, fill in the blank.’ I used to be able to ride a unicycle, I used to be able to trapeze, and I’ll challenge myself. ‘Okay, can I still do that?’ and I’ll make it a game.”
The first man to sweep the diving events in consecutive Olympic Games (at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and the 1988 Seoul Games, respectively), Louganis credits his “brush it off and move on” attitude towards life to the rigorous physical and mental training he’s practiced from such an early age.
That mindset has carried him through many challenges — from receiving a positive HIV diagnosis six months before the 1988 Olympics to leaving an abusive relationship and recovering from a drug and alcohol addiction — and eventually becoming a staunch advocate for LGBTQ rights and a vocal ally to those seeking treatment for addiction.
Now in his 60s, a decade he never thought he’d live to see given that HIV was “considered a death sentence” at the time of his diagnosis, he’s entering the latest chapter with mindfulness, patience and, above all, intention.
“If there’s something that’s really important to you, you need to make time to do a little of that every day,” he says. “My yoga practice is really important to me, you know, doing handstands. If I take a number of days off, I definitely notice a difference; it’s a little bit more challenging. Working with the dogs a little bit every day, you know, you just have to make time for what’s important to you.”
Just as important is for people to know that he, too, is doing the work.
“I don’t want to pay lip service. There are many people who say, ‘Do this, do this, do this.’ Well, are they doing all those things in their life? A lot of them are not,” he says. “That is something that’s really important to me, to be congruent with what you’re saying.”
Indeed, Louganis rarely fails to show up as anything other than himself, even when the world is watching.
Such was the case the years after the 1988 Seoul Games, when he hit and cut his head on the springboard during a dive and bled into the pool. Louganis had learned he was HIV-positive just before that, and was tortured over whether or not he should disclose his status after the accident. He opted not to say anything. Then, when he came out publicly as HIV-positive in 1995 — just a year after he came out as gay in a pre-taped announcement shown at the 1994 Olympics opening ceremonies — it not only forced conversations about AIDS, but prompted people around the world to second-guess his decision to not disclose his HIV status at the time of the Games (although experts have since said there would have been no fear of transmission through the chlorinated water).
Of his initial decision to test for HIV, he recalls, “My thought was, if I was HIV-positive, then I would pack my bags, because I was training in Florida, come back to Southern California and lock myself in my house and wait to die, because that’s the way that we thought of HIV/AIDS at that time.”
But, he adds, “[My doctor] said that the healthiest thing for me would be to continue training. It was a lot more positive to focus on making the Olympic team than ruminating about [being] HIV-positive and what that meant.” (Today, there’s a global consensus that it’s possible for a person’s viral load, or amount of HIV in the body, to become so low that it’s undetectable — as well as not transmittable — with routine medications. It’s known as U=U, or “undetectable equals untransmittable.”)
After receiving his diagnosis, Louganis was immediately placed on the “very aggressive” AZT, the first drug on the market to treat HIV. But, as he recalls, the “side effects were so miserable” that eventually he just couldn’t take it anymore. He later found a doctor, also HIV-positive, who understood his plight and helped him through it.
“We were diagnosed around the same time,” he says of his doctor. “We went through a lot of the same studies and had a lot of the same experiences, so [he was] somebody that I could really talk to, and that really made a difference in feeling more in control of my life.”
Before finding that solid ground, Louganis, when he turned 33, threw what he referred to as his “last birthday” for his family and friends, assuming that HIV would prevent him from seeing his 34th year. Now, 30 years later, he is undetectable, with a full life still ahead of him — and the goal of using his own story to inspire others to get through their own traumas.
“No matter what’s happening, it’s going to change,” he says of life — a lesson he credits learning through sobriety. “Everything in life is changing. So, if it’s good, it’s gonna change. You can’t hang on to it … You need to let it go.”
Wellness, parenting, body image and more: Get to know the who behind the hoo with Yahoo Life’s newsletter. Sign up here.
Ukraine's latest suspected mass burial site is in a shell-damaged and abandoned industrial chicken farm, on a hill near the Russian border strewn with the debris of battle.
Typhoon Noru barrelled into Vietnam's central coast early Wednesday, the national forecaster said, bringing powerful winds and heavy rain as hundreds of thousands of people took refuge in shelters.
Participants aged 15-35 who experience major life transitions, from educational progression, entry into the workforce to starting a family will be the study's focus.
The Indian rupee sank to a new record low on Monday, following the pound's tumble and fears over more aggressive monetary tightening, with traders saying the Reserve Bank of India likely sold dollars to contain the decline. The rupee hit a record low of 81.5525 per dollar, down from 80.99 in the previous session.
The line began forming early on Tuesday, with thousands of Japanese people waiting to offer flowers and prayers for slain former premier Shinzo Abe, even as others marched nearby in protest.
NASA's DART spaceship on Monday struck the asteroid Dimorphos in a historic test of humanity's ability to prevent a cosmic object from devastating life on Earth.
The funeral is slated to start at 2pm on Tuesday at the Nippon Budokan in central Tokyo
Leonard Glenn Francis pleads guilty of running elaborate bribery scheme involving US officials
Canada will suspend Covid-19 border restrictions in October, the country's public health agency said Monday.
China and Russia face possible action by the UN's top rights body following historic draft resolutions against the two powerful permanent members of the Security Council.
The assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe has renewed scrutiny of the Unification Church in Japan, with accusations being made that the sect cultivates political connections and pressures members to donate.
Swedish defence products company Saab will set up a facility to manufacture its Carl-Gustaf M4 weapons system in India, a top executive said on Tuesday, as the company looks to ramp up production. The facility will begin production in 2024, Senior Vice President Gorgen Johansson told reporters at a news conference. Johansson declined to provide detail on the investment that the company is likely to make in the facility.
Giant Paimon's Global Endless Journey will kick off with the Paimon inflatable drifting through the River Thames from 2 to 4 October. Here's when she'll be in Singapore.
In most of its habitats, the heavily trafficked pangolin's biggest threat comes from humans. But in Taiwan, the scaly mammals brave a different danger: a surging feral dog population.
Governments around the world must scale up climate action "or face further legal action", an open letter from campaign groups warned Tuesday, as battles over policies to cut emissions and protect the environment are increasingly fought in the courts.
Five of them received jail terms of 10 to 26 days, while three were given 12 to 24 months' probation for the offences related to e-vaporisers and their components.
India captain Rohit Sharma acknowledges bowling in the death overs remains a concern for them but backed Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel to regain their mojo ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia next month. Even a 2-1 series victory against 20-overs world champions Australia could not gloss over India's struggles to contain the runs in the final overs which also hurt their Asia Cup campaign earlier this month. Bhuvneshwar, known for his clever bowling particularly in the final overs, has looked a shadow of himself in recent times though remains part of the World Cup squad.
A fundamentally flawed study claiming that scientific evidence of a climate crisis is lacking should be withdrawn from the peer-reviewed journal in which it was published, top climate scientists have told AFP.
Thousands of Japanese offered flowers and prayers on Tuesday in honour of assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe ahead of a controversial state funeral attended by hundreds of foreign dignitaries.
Nepali police have sought help from Interpol to locate the country's fugitive suspended national cricket captain, they said Tuesday.
