Celebrity Publicity - Greg Louganis and the Northwest Marine Trade Association

Shortly after his astounding Olympic gold medal sweep in 1988, Greg agreed to be the featured guest at the Seattle Boat Show, signing autographs and talking to local children about how to face adversity. 

We didn't know at the time just how much adversity Greg was facing.  His own later biography chronicled that he suffered a signficant amount of emotional and physical abuse from his father and later from his partner.  At the time, Greg was in the process of coming to terms with his past and healing for his future.  He was a pleasure to work with and to place on local TV news and talk shows.  I wrote and sent out this biography.

Headline - Greg Louganis - Biography

Body - He's been called the "Fred Astaire of diving", and there are more "firsts", "bests" and "onlys" associated with his name than any diver in history.

Greg Louganis is a two-time Olympic gold medalist (1984 and 1988); a silver medalist (1976); the only man in history to earn over seven hundred points in a single Olympic diving event; the winner of forty seven national titles, six world championships, six Pan American Games gold medals and twelve Olympic Festival gold medals.  He's also the only person ever to score seven perfect tens for one dive in national and world competition.

Born and raised in San Diego CA, Louganis began diving at the age of eight, and won a place on the U.S. Olympic team at sixteen.  The pursuit of diving didn't hamper his pursuit of an education.  He graduated from the University of California in 1983 with a major in drama, a minor in dance and a 3.25 GPA.

Louganis seemed to approach competition without fear or indecision.  In 1983, he was poised to perform at the World University Games in Edmonton, Alberta, when he watched a Soviet competitor dive to his death, executing a reverse three and one half turn.  One year later, Louganis performed the same dive as his tenth and final dive at the 1984 Olympic Games.  The dive won him the gold medal, and contributed to a record final score of 710.91 points.

The spirit of this Olympic hero was nurtured through adversity.  Louganis has triumphed over a difficult childhood, subjected to racial prejudice against his Samoan heritage and hampered by speech and learning difficulties.  He has gone on to prove that those who choose to change their own lives can go on to change the world.