because he best exhibited the Olympic
spirit, demonstrated extraordinary courage and contributed greatly to his sport.
Greg Louganis
Greg Louganis was born in 1960. He
had a reading disability
known as dyslexia, which made learning difficult and as a
result he became very shy. He
excelled in dance classes and began gymnastic classes to help his asthma.
Greg Louganis started competing in diving at the age of ten.
At the age of 11 he scored a perfect 10 in the Junior Olympics diving
competition.
In 1976, when he was sixteen, he won his first Olympic medal, a silver,
in platform diving. He didn’t
compete in the 1980 Olympics because of the United States boycott of the games.
In the 1984 games he won gold medals in platform and springboard diving.
Because of his accomplishments he received the James E. Sullivan Memorial
Award, an award given by the AAU given to the outstanding amateur athlete in the
U.S. He was elected into the U.S.
Olympic Hall of Fame in 1985.
In the 1988 Olympics in Seoul,
South Korea, Greg Louganis defended his
springboard and platform titles, against men half his age, and became the first
man to win both titles in successive Olympics.
At these games he won the Maxwell House/United States Olympic Committee
Spirit Award because he best exhibited the Olympic
spirit, demonstrated extraordinary courage and contributed greatly to his sport.
At the Pan Am Games in 1979, 1983 and 1987 he won six gold medals in
diving. Also, he won the world
championship title in platform diving in 1978 and the championship in platform
and springboard in 1982 and 1986.
Greg Louganis retired from diving after the 1988
Olympic Games to pursue
a career in acting.
Greg Louganis is known as one of the greatest divers of all time as well as a special person as well.
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