A life marked by depression, alcohol and seropositivity, a career full of triumphs: on September 19, 1988, in Seoul, the American first risked his life by banging his head against the trampoline, then he performed in the perfect dip
When he threw himself in the water it was perfect. “Seeing Greg Louganis dived himself was like watching Blyshnikov Danzare,” said his coach. In life, on the other hand, he always fell badly: at nine he began to smoke, twelve was depressed and began to drink, stammered, he was dyslexic, at school they called him a fagot, sometimes delayed, however and always “nigger” for that complexion inherited from his father Samoan who had not known. The adoptive one, born in Boston to a Greek family, had always been “old and angry” to hear his wife. As a boy Greg tried to kill himself three times, and when he put his hands on his mother as he had seen who knows how many times at home he ended up in reformed. Not that he cared greatly, he had never thought of reaching thirty years.