Happy Birthday, Greg Louganis

Today Olympic medalist Greg Louganis turns 48 years old. I honestly would have guessed, just from where Greg's crowning achievements fit into my personal timeline, that he would have been older than 48 ... but I guess that's what happens when you start winning Olympic medals at age 16 like he did.

Greg began competing as a diver at age 10 and won his first Olympic medal (a silver) in 1976. In 1988 he became the first man to win double gold medals in two consecutive Olympics and he has held 47 National Championship titles.

Louganis is known for his life outside the pool as much as in. In 1987 (a year before his record-breaking win) he posed for Playgirl magazine, and in 1994 came out as gay and competed in the Gay Games.

A year later Louganis published Breaking the Surface, a memoir in which he revealed that he was HIV-positive, the news of which caused (needless) controversy regarding an in-competition injury he suffered a decade earlier. The book was #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for 5 weeks and was made into a telefilm in 1996 starring Mario Lopez.

Now retired from competition, Louganis represents a breakthrough in terms of gay visibility and HIV visibility, being a gay man and a person with HIV who was an internationally celebrated champion athlete. In a time where images of successful gay men and people living with HIV were scarce, Louganis became an inspiration to many.

Happy Birthday, Greg!