Louganis: Breaks His Silence : Another world-famous athlete discloses he has AIDS

Through his 1994 disclosure that he is homosexual and his sad announcement this week that he has AIDS, Olympic champion Greg Louganis has performed heroic public services.

First, he has helped to undermine the lingering stereotypes about gay people; he has been one of the world’s finest athletes, winning five world championships and fame as the greatest diver in the history of that sport. Second, in the spirit of Magic Johnson, he has helped to educate the public about the dreaded disease and to fight the stigma associated with it.

It was that stifling stigma that inhibited Louganis in 1988 from disclosing his HIV infection when he earned two gold medals in that year’s Olympics in Seoul. In the preliminaries, he hit his head on the diving board, spilling blood into the pool. Later he was stitched up by a doctor who wore no protective gloves. Though perhaps Louganis should have informed the doctor of his prior condition, the doctor did not become infected; and because of chlorine in the pool water there was little or no risk to the other competitors. Since then, Olympic officials have properly required doctors and trainers to avoid direct contact with blood from injured athletes.

There is no reason to bar HIV-positive athletes from sports like diving. It was such a prohibition that Louganis privately feared even as he wowed the world with his performances in Seoul.

At 35, Greg Louganis faces the most severe obstacle in what has been a difficult and sometimes troubled life; he says he attempted suicide three times, had dyslexia, suffered discrimination because of his Samoan ancestry and was abused by his adoptive father. Against all this, he has managed to survive.