On
World AIDS Day, Greg Louganis, the greatest jumper in history, is one of the greatest
activists
On
World AIDS Day, athletes who contracted HIV, such as Magic Jonhson. The most visible
face, or tennis player Arthur Ashe, flood the minds. Surely none with a history
as powerful and Hollywood as the jumper Louganis (California,1960), double Olympic
champion in Los Angeles 84 and Seoul 88 on platform and on a 3m springboard,
who from 1982 until his retirement in 1989 had no rival and created school, as
recalled by the technician of the Royal Spanish Swimming Federation Donald Miranda:
“His aesthetic was unique. It was the example of the ten”.
That
aura of Nadia Comaneci, the first gymnast to achieve that score at the Montreal
Games in 1976, where Louganis, at the age of 16, already hung a silver on
platform, accompanied him during his tormented life away from a trampoline. It is
paradoxical that the American felt more secure on the heights, about to throw himself
head at 50 km/h into the pool, a courage that defines his history, than in
other places a priori safer.
A
few days after seeing the light, Louganis had to live the first difficulty. His
parents were 15. He was from Samoa and she was of Nordic descent, a genuine
mestizo. Without the ability to give him a training and take care of him, the
Louganis family, made up of Peter and Frances, adopted him. If the mother was
protective and help, the father barely took interest in his son until he
understood that he had innate sports skills, as Louganis explains in his
biography Breaking the Surface.
As
a child, Louganis had problems at school. He was dyslexic, so he didn´t read
fluid, which led him endure the bullying of his companions. He found refuge in
gymnastics, also loved dancing and applied what he learned on his parents’
house trampoline. Which led hi to specialize in trampoline jumps, where in age
category he already achieved tens. And he arrived at his first Games in
Montreal, where he hung a silver. The beginning of a success that is defined
with four other Olympic golds and five world golds.
In
between, Louganis fought everything and everyone. Admired on top of the
trampoline, life was only injured when he stepped on the mainland. Fellow and
public people laughed at him for his dawn at a time when one was leaving the closet,
while his manager and boyfriend Jim Babbitt abused him (he even threatened him
with a knife) and in 1987 contracted HIV. Louganis took the test before the
Seoul Games and also tested positive.