The personality of the four-time Olympic championGreg Luganis causes ambiguous emotions among his colleagues in the sports community, and among ordinary fans. But one thing is for sure, this man leaves no one indifferent. How did the American jumper succeed in achieving such high results in this discipline that modern athletes are still unable to repeat?
The beginning of the way
Greg Luganis, whose biography beganrather sadly, was born in 1960 in the American town of El Cajon, California. At the age of 8 months he was left without parents (they abandoned the baby) and only thanks to his adoptive parents could he have a full-fledged family.
The people who adopted the boy had Greekroots, hence this surname. In Greg's blood flows a completely different blood - Swedish and Samoan. It is difficult to say how the boy's life would have been if his adoptive parents had not supported him in his desire to play sports. One day he came to the pool, and this determined his fate.
Way to the top
Greg Luganis got to the coach, who himselftwice won the Olympic Games in diving. Sammy Lee became the man who laid the foundations of the professional skills of the future famous athlete. The next mentor Greg becomes Ron O "Brian.
В возрасте 16-ти лет юный американский прыгун for the first time represents his country at the Olympics in Montreal (1976). Having won the preliminary round in jumps from a 10-meter tower, he is still inferior in the finals to the famous Italian athlete Klaus Dibiassi. For the Italian, the gold of Montreal was the third in a sports career and soon after the Olympics he ends his career. Now there is no equal to the young Luganis.
1978 brings Greg the first gold medal at the World Championships in Berlin. He is far ahead of his closest rivals, and it becomes clear that this young man is a very serious competitor.
New star
It is not in vain that diving is considered one of the most dangerous sports, because an awkward movement or mistake can lead to serious injury, and sometimes even to the death of an athlete.
During the match between jumpers of the USSR and the USA, which was held in Tbilisi, Greg Luganis, during a jump, hits his head against the tower and an athlete with a broken head is urgently sent to the hospital.
The 1980 Olympics were the main goal of Luganis,After all, he really claimed the highest award. Greg Luganis was very upset after learning that the United States government had decided to boycott the Moscow Olympics. He even wanted to urgently change his citizenship to Greek, since his father was Greek, but he did not manage to get all the necessary documents.
But the Olympics in Los Angeles brings him two gold medals, and he becomes the first jumper who has been doing this since 1928.
Breaking down Barriers - The Story of Greg Luganis
The 1988 Olympics are becoming the most significant inathlete's career. Greg Luganis is injured, performing a jump in 2.5 turns, and smashes his head in the blood against the tower. He knows that he is HIV-infected, but he hides this from the doctor of the US team and from other athletes. The doctor who established this diagnosis was Luganis’s cousin, and he persuaded the athlete not to rush to report his illness, but to do so after the Olympics were over.
Seoul brought the gold medal to the jumper, but along withorder and put it before a difficult choice. Only 7 years after those competitions, Greg Luganis openly declared his unconventional sexual orientation and said that he was already infected when he performed in Suele.
Many athletes who are at those competitionsperformed their jumps after Greg's blood fell into the water; for a long time they could not sleep well for fear of infection. They condemned the athlete for not having told his diagnosis earlier. And to some extent they were right - not one gold of the world is worth human lives.
Life after retirement
The result of the sports career of the American jumperThere were 4 gold Olympic awards, 5 gold medals of the World Championship, 6 Pan American Games championship titles and 47 victories in the US Championships. The list is more than impressive.
But today Greg Luganis, whose photo is oftenAppears on the covers of sports magazines, not idle. Despite his diagnosis and daily struggle for life, he is actively involved in the training of young American jumpers in the water. At the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Greg Luganis went as a consultant to the US team.
His autobiography, which he wrote withErik Marcus was screened in 1997. The athlete himself was able to realize his dream and began to take part in Broadway productions, and even starred in small roles in several sports films.
But this is not all the hobbies of the four-time Olympic champion. In his spare time, Greg Luganis breeds Jack Russell Terriers.
