Latest / Miss Understood with Rachel Uchitel / Greg Louganis, Olympic Diving Champion & LGBTQ Advocate

Transcript

Greg Louganis, Olympic Diving Champion & LGBTQ Advocate · Miss Understood with Rachel Uchitel

• 0:00
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  Speaker 1: That's B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash P-O-D. Start your journey to
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: real conversations in a new language today. We all know
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: the name Greg Louganis, and when you hear that, you
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: think greatest diver of all time. But what many don't
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: know is that he got that title despite a difficult
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: childhood where he was bullied and misunderstood to the point
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: he felt such unhappiness that he thought his only way
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: out might be to end his own life. Diving became
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: his purpose, but as many athletes know, the aftermath of
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: retiring from a sport can bring a multitude of highs
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: and lows. What happens to these athletes during their aftercare?
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: They've dedicated their lives to the sport, then what? Here
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: to discuss his story and how he found purpose in
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: life is the one and only Greg Louganis. And now,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: enjoy the show. So Greg, so happy that you're here.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining me.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: My pleasure.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: So my first question is, what is it like to
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: be Greg Louganis?
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: What is it like to be Greg Louganis? Well, I
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: don't know any different. So, you know, it is what
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: it is. It's interesting that people actually remember who the
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: heck I am, you know, and everybody seems to remember
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: me hitting my head on this, on the diving board
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: in 88. So, and that's an image, but it's interesting
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: because like young kids, little, little kids, they know me
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: from Sharknado. I was in Sharknado 5. And then a
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: little bit older, like in 20s, they know me from Entourage.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: I married Lloyd. And yeah, so I mean, it's really
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: strange how people make associations of who I am. So yeah.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Because you've done so many things to so many different
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: people or generations, you might be seen for different things
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: or known for different things. So Let's go back to
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: your childhood for a second. Where were you born? I
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: know that you were adopted. Tell us all about that.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: I was conceived in Midway, born in San Diego. My
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: mother was 16 when she had me. And so she
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: put me up for adoption. And fortunately, Francis and Peter Louganis,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: they were looking for children that my father, my the
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: father who raised me was Greek. So he had dark hair,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: dark eyes. And so my mother wanted, uh, her children
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: to reflect, you know, my dad. So fortunately they found me. And, um,
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: so I, I spent my first nine months in foster
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: care and, uh, and then I, and then I was
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: adopted and I, uh, My sister is two years older
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: than me. And so she was in dance class because
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: my mother didn't want a klutzy little kid knocking down
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: lamps and all that. And so I was sitting in
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: the waiting room and when I was a year and
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: a half and I couldn't stay in the lines of
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: the coloring books that they gave me. And so that
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: was kind of boring. So I used to sneak, you know,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: crawl under the chairs and sneak into the studio and
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: imitate what the kids were doing in the studio. And
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  Speaker 2: when I was a year and a half, the teacher said, oh,
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  Speaker 2: let him stay. Let's see what we can teach him,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: what he can learn. So I started doing dance and
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: acrobatics when I was a year and a half. First
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: performance on stage was when I was three. And then
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: when I was three, I got a partner and we
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: started doing recitals and performing at convalescent homes because we
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: couldn't compete in talent contests until I turned six. So
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: then we were doing all of these performances, performing in parades, festivals,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: all of that stuff. So once we started competing, Eleanor
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Smith and Greg Louganis, we were winning everything. We won
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: all kinds of stuff. She went into gymnastics and I
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: followed her into gymnastics. And then when I was eight
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: years old, we had a pool built in our backyard
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: with a diving board. And I was trying some of
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: my gymnastics stunts of the diving board at home. And
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: my mother didn't want me to kill myself. So she
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: got me lessons.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my God.
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  Speaker 2: And first day after lessons, the coach said, you know,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: will you join the club team? And I said, well,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: I'll think about it because I was doing dance, jazz
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: and tap, acrobatics, gymnastics, and now I'm adding diving. And
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: so from age eight to 12, I was, was doing
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: all of these different things. And then when I was 12,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: I had OSNI slaughters, which is very common for young, active,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: super physically active children. So I had water on the knee.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: And so my doctor said, well, you should quit the
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: dance acrobatics and gymnastics, but you can continue diving because
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: you don't have the same type of impact. So then
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  Speaker 2: that's where my all of that focus was narrowed to
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  Speaker 2: one discipline. And I was world champion for my age
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  Speaker 2: group at 13. And then three years after that, I
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: was on my first Olympic team.
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  Speaker 1: So do you think you were so good at that
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: because you had so much background in the gymnastics and
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: all the movement from when you were little?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's like Malcolm Gladwell's outliers. It talks
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: about the development. Champions aren't born. They're created. And so
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  Speaker 2: all of those disciplines, the dance, the rhythm and the
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  Speaker 2: timing of dance, and then acrobatics and gymnastics, the aerial
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  Speaker 2: type awareness and skill set, just transferred into diving really well.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: And did you like diving?
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: It was okay. My first love was gymnastics. I mean,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: it was my dream to make the Olympic team in gymnastics.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: But then when I had to quit, then I just,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: I never thought I was good enough in diving.
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  Speaker 1: Why not?
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: I just, I just perceived everybody better than me. You know,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: everybody was better than I was. And so, you know, but,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I kind of tried to do the best
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  Speaker 2: that I could. And my first Olympics was really challenging
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: because at that time, Dr. Samuel Lee coached me for
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: a very short window of time. He was the Olympic
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: gold medalist in men's 10 meter platform in 48 and 52.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: And he coached Bobby Webster to win two golds in 60, 64.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: And I was in 76. I was going up against
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Klaus DiBiase, who's going for his third Olympic gold medal
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: to break his record. So my sole purpose on this
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: planet at that time was to prevent Klaus from winning
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: that gold medal. Wow. And I failed.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: And you were, but you were 16 years old, right?
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So, and you got the silver.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: And I got the silver.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Oh, how devastating.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Well, you know what? The highest rate of suicide amongst
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Olympians is Olympic silver medalists. Really?
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Because they're there to get the gold. And it's so
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: devastating when they don't.
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  Speaker 2: You're so close. If you get the gold, that's kind
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: of expected. But if you're a silver medal, you just
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Not quite there. And if you're a bronze medalist, chances
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: are through the competition, you're just grateful to have something
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  Speaker 2: to bring home.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: So, yeah. So there's a, and also at 16, it
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: was very confusing for me because I couldn't understand why
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: all of these people were celebrating me when I was
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: feeling like a failure. Right.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: So I want to get into that. So going back
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: a little bit into your childhood, you talk about not
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: being happy and having a really difficult time. What was
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: going on?
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  Speaker 2: You know, I went to, I can't remember how old
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: I was. I was probably around 12 and I went
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: to my mom and I said, because I didn't, at
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: that age, I didn't view suicide the way that other
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: people described it. Mm-hmm. You know, I thought that, you know,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: I said, Mom, I can understand how somebody can die
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: of sadness. And that's how I put it to her. So,
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: you know, yeah, I had chronic depression, you know, growing up.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: And you were getting bullied, right, from people?
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: What kind of things did they say to you?
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Well, I was going to a school that was predominantly white, Caucasian,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: and I had darker skin. And so, yeah, I was
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: called a lot of names. And also, I'm sure I
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: was a little soft, effeminate. And so I was called faggot.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: And also, I'm dyslexic. So I didn't know about dyslexia
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: until I was a freshman in college, I was given
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: dyslexia as a vocabulary word and I read it and
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my God, that's me. There was a recognition.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: It's like, oh my God, I'm dyslexic. I'm not all
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: those things that the kids used to say about me.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Because when I started school, I stuttered and I was
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: having a difficult time reading. So I was in speech
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: therapy and remedial reading. So I was set apart from
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: the other kids.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: What was your relationship with your father like?
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Ooh, that was.
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: They think you're done for the day, but they don't
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: know about the drawer. The drawer.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: Just the one square before bed. Or two, you know.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: Nobody's watching. You deserve a treat.
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: With eight flavors to choose from, you can choose the
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: flavor you favor with Cadbury Dairy Milk.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Challenging. Growing up, it was challenging. And I'm so grateful
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: that we were able to come full circle because I
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: took care of him the last six weeks of his life. Wow.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: He died of cancer. I'm so sorry. And that time,
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, that year was just so healing because he
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: was diagnosed with cancer in I think 90. And so
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: when he was diagnosed with cancer, I came out to
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: him about my HIV status. And so then it was
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: kind of a crusade for life and quality of life.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: And we had some really important conversations about what that
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: meant to us. We want the quality of life, not
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: necessarily the quality, the quantity. So yeah, it was a
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: very healing time.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: So you got to make some peace with him.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. That I'm really, really grateful for.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Well, and also when you started to perform and win,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: I assume he was very proud and was there. Was
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: he not?
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, he got, once I started into diving, I,
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: growing up, my assumption was that he didn't take any
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: interest in the dance and acrobatics and gymnastics because it was,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: you know, growing, growing up where I was, that was
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: a sissy sport. And so I thought that my father
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: felt the same way. But when we, when we talked,
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: he said, it was just, where he was in life
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: that he was trying to provide for his family. So
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: he had to spend more hours at his job and
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: because he was trying to do the best that he
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: could to provide. And so I didn't really see that,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: that part. I just knew that he was not there. Right.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: But once, once I started into diving, I think he
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: was on better financial footing. And so he was around.
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: A lot.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: And he got a little too involved in where I
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: did have to ask him when I was 11 years old,
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: I asked him not to take me to not to
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: stay at practice. He could take me to practice, drop
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: me off, but not to stay.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Why did he get involved and try to tell you
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: how to do things or yeah, call you?
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was Yeah, the drives home would be total
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: repetition of everything that coach told me. And you know,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: and it was, yeah, it was, it was pretty intense. Right.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: That's understandable. I think a lot of kids go through that. Um,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: tell me about your relationship with your mother. I know you, um,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: follow sort of a saying that she said, which is
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: make everywhere you go better because you were there. Talk
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: to me about that.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: You know, my mother, she really was incredible. I mean, we, uh,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: We had a rough start. I mean, I spent my
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: 13th birthday in juvenile hall. I was kind of out
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: of control. And so a part of my release out
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: of juvenile hall was to go to school, go to
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: practice and be home and help my mother with chores.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: And so during that time, we really grew and bonded
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: at that time. And I, I realized she was the
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: one person that it didn't matter. You know, it's like,
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: these are choices that you're making. You know, like when
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: people say, oh my God, you made all these sacrifices
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: and you gave up your childhood, you know, to be,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: you know, this Olympian and all of these pursuits, you know,
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: those were choices I made, you know? And so I was,
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: my mother always made it very clear that it was
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: my choice. So I had to stand by my choices
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: that I made.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Right, right. She sounds like an amazing woman. Okay, so
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: let's go back to your first Olympics. You were a sophomore,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: you were 16. What was that like? Tell me about
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: the pressure. How much training goes into actually getting there? Like,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: give me a day in the life.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: Well, okay. So at that time, And my training changed
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: throughout my career because early on it was learning new dives,
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: getting my degree of difficulty up. And so it was
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: a lot of repetition.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: And just sorry, out of curiosity, when you're practicing for dives,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: do you do them all the time in the water
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: or do you start on land and kind of do
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: it like a gymnastics move? Like what does a diver
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: do to practice?
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so you learn portions of the dive. Back when
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: I was learning my dives, we didn't have a lot
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: of the technology that they have now. That came in
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: the middle of my, or yeah, towards the beginning of
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: my career, where you had a trampoline, spotting belt, my
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: coach could hold me up and we execute the dive
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: on a trampoline. before we take it onto the board.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: So we know what we're going to look, you know,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: what we're going to feel, what we're going to see.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: So that changed. And when I, when I first started,
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: it was like, okay, put, put a sweatshirt on or something.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: So if you smack, it doesn't hurt as much. So I,
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: I went through that in learning a lot of my
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: dives early on, but Ron O'Brien, the coach, he was
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: my coach. Ron O'Brien, he coached me. I went to
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: his camp first when I was 15 and he taught
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: me how to spot. So he had me in the belts. Dr. Samuel,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: he didn't know how to pull ropes, you know, to
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: do the harness. He didn't know any of that stuff.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: But Ron O'Brien, he got me in the belts and
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: put me on trampoline. I learned the dives. He taught
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: me how to spot. And that's when my diving career
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: really shot up. Because after that camp, I qualified for
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: the finals in the senior nationals, which qualified me for
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: the Olympic trials in 1976. Got it.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Now, at this point, are you feeling better about yourself
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: because you have a purpose and you see that you're
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: so good at things? Did the kids that once made
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: fun of you start to see that you are somewhat
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: of a hero? Like what was going on in your
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: personal life there?
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: I compartmentalized my life. Hmm. What I did outside of school,
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: I didn't let anybody know.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: Interesting.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: Because I had an experience where I think I was
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: in third grade. I did a modern dance routine with
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: acrobatics to Tears of a Clown. And one of my bullies,
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: he picked a fight and was beating me up. He
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: was pushing my face into the asphalt. And I was
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: thinking to myself, I was thinking, okay, I'm going to
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: show you, I'm going to become the best in the
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: world at something. I don't know what it is, but
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: I'm going to show you. So it was kind of, yeah,
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, I did have that motivation. in 78, and
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: my last world-class competition was the Olympic games in 88.
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: It was kind of a decade of, of dominance. And
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: that is all due to, you know, my, my coach,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Ron O'Brien. I mean, we were an incredible team.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Right. So in between there, you did go to college,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: you got an athletic scholarship, right. And then what did
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: you major in?
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: Drama.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Drama.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: I'm an actor. Yeah. So drama, minor in dance.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: So you really followed that passion throughout your life, it
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: sounds like. Yeah.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's funny because people think that I'm really
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: super competitive because of all of the things that I've done.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: And I'm not. I'm not competitive. For me, it's always
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: about the performance. And that's what Ron O'Brien understood. And
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: so we would play games. He would design these games.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: In order to break 700 on 10 meter platform, I
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: had to average eight and a halves or better on
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: all 10 dives that I executed. So some of our
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: training sessions were we would play the 700 game. And
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: so I would go through my list of dives and
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: it'd be jumping back and forth over that eight and
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: a half mark. And sometimes I was successful, sometimes I wasn't.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: But I did that in practice. before I ever did
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: it at the Olympic games in.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: 88 or 84.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: 84 is when I broke 700 on tenure platform. Right.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: So in 1980, you didn't go to the Olympics because
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: the U S boycotted the Olympics in Moscow, but you
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: were expected to win a gold then. So then you
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: went in 1984, you were probably at your peak of fitness.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: You had been training. How did it feel going into that,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: to that Olympics?
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: You know, I knew, well, I had announced my retirement.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: I was planning on retiring after that Olympic Games. So,
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: you know, I knew, you know, I had to wait
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: eight years. The interesting thing is I didn't feel like
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: I deserved to be competing on the world stage until
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: after the 82 World Championships. This was two years after
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: the Olympic Games in 1980. And I remember it was Guayaquil, Ecuador,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: and Alexander Portanoff was introduced as Olympic gold medalist, 1980.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: And I was introduced as Olympic silver medalist, 1976. And
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: I remember at that competition when we were being introduced,
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: smiling to myself and thinking, you got the gold because
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: I wasn't there. And so I always wanted my performance
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: to speak for itself. I didn't want to have to
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: speak for my performance. And so I was just, And
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: at that competition, I....
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: They think you're done for the day, but they don't
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: know about the drawer. The drawer.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: Just the one square before bed. Or two, you know.
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: Nobody's watching.
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: You deserve a treat. With eight flavors to choose from,
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: you can choose the flavor you favor.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: With Cadbury Dairy Milk.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: I was the last diver and it was the last
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: dive and I looked at the scoreboard to make sure
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: that the dive number was correct and I saw my
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: score flashing. So that meant I didn't have to do
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: my dive. I already won.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: And it was, I think it's still the highest margin
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: that any world championships ever been and won.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: That must have felt incredible.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it did. It did. Because it was making a
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: statement without having to say it, to vocalize, to put
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: into words, and let performance speak for itself.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: So the 1984 Olympics is where you secure your place
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: in history. You won a gold in both the springboard
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: and the platform. From that, did you, you said you
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: were planning on retiring, but obviously you didn't. So did
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: you get some endorsements? Were you planning on being on
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: a Wheaties box? Like what was the goal there?
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: So I got my Olympic gold medals after the 84
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: Olympic games, went to the nationals, the USA diving nationals.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: I broke Cynthia Potter's record for national titles and I
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: was ready to move on. But I was also one
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: of the athlete representatives to push for trust funds to
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: be put into place for athletes. athletes after college, they
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: can do the endorsements, they can do the speaking engagements,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: exhibitions and all that. And that money they can draw
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: on for their training expenses. And so I went to
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: the president of USA Diving at that time. And I said, Phil, what's,
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: you know, what's going on with trust funds? He said, well,
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: the only one that it affects is you. And so
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: we don't have to spend the money on attorneys to
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: get it put into place. And I said, fine, I'm
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: not retiring, do your homework. So my intent was to
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: stay eligible long enough to get the trust funds put
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: into place for the divers that I felt like that
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: was going to be my legacy. Right. And so it
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: took two years to get it done. And I found
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: myself at the World Championships in Madrid and I won.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: And Ron O'Brien came to me and said, well, what
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: are you going to do? You know, he said, it's
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: just two more years to the next Olympics and you
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: won the world championships. I said, yeah, I can hang
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: on for two more years. And had you.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Gotten a big endorsement at that point? No, no.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, there were so many, you know, rumors of
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: my sexuality and all that. And, you know, a lot
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: of people stayed away, you know, from, you know, from that.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: It was, it was really a different time. It really
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: was a different time. So.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Was it known in the public that you were gay
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: or just within your community of divers, swimmers, people doing that?
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: It was speculated. I mean, any of the articles that
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: that was one thing back then, you know, a lot
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: of the sports reporters, they were respected that, you know,
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: I don't talk about my personal life. And so they
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: respected that. But there was, you know, plenty to read
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: between the lines. I was out to friends and family and,
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: you know, people who were close to me. You know,
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: it wasn't an issue. But I did sign with the
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: William Morris Agency right after the 84 Olympic Games. And
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: some of the agents said, you know, just tone down
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: the gay thing. I'm like, okay. So, I mean, and
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: I felt I justified it that everybody's entitled to a
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: personal life. And so that was kind of how I
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: conducted myself.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: So I wanted to ask you, you know, well, obviously
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: the stigma there, you know, was what prevented then a
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: lot of these endorsements. And, but at the time, I mean,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: I even remember as a kid watching you and I was,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: you know, in 1984, I was probably nine, but, you know,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: I remember thinking you were the greatest. And at that age,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: you're not thinking about somebody's sexuality, but, you know, so
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: you affect people in different ways. Um, But so I
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: want to ask you, did you get nervous when you
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: were diving? Did you have any superstitions like that you
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: would do or think before you would get up on
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: the platform?
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: No. It was interesting because Ron O'Brien, he knew like
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: if I, if I was going to hit a dive
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: or not, because everything was just, there's a rhythm, you know,
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: and I had a very distinct rhythm. You know, if I,
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: went too quickly or not soon enough, you know, that can,
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: you know, chances are, you know, you'd probably miss the dive.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: But there's a rhythm. But also, as far as having
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: any superstitions or anything like that, you know, I learned
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: early on that, you know, stuff happens. You know, you
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: may have your lucky chamois and it may get sucked
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: up in the gutter, you know, so you just not
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: to hang on too preciously to those, you know, those
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: little quirks or habits or, you know, superstitions. Right, right.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of us have seen you, seen
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: the videos of you preparing and standing right before you dive.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Are you thinking anything or are you clearing your mind?
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: What are you doing in those seconds before you dive?
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: Well, okay. So if you think about it, a dive
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: takes less than three seconds. So you have less than
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: three seconds. And in that three seconds is your creation.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: And in that creation is total chaos. Because there's no mirrors,
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: there's no wires, there's no, there's nothing. It's a free fall.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: And so every creation is different. You know, you can't
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: re reproduce something that's already passed it'll it'll be different
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: so you have to be open to make all of
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: those adjustments to be as successful as you can be
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: at that moment in time.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: So would you have to prepare and think what you
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: were about to do, or it just came to your
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: body naturally?
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: Well, it would depend. It depends on what the dive was.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: There may be one thing, one point that I'm thinking about,
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: reverse three and a half, relaxing your shoulders. But oftentimes,
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: it's more of a pep talk that you're having with yourself.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: And one of the things when I was ever in
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: a tight situation, you know, I would always remind myself,
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: no matter what happens, my mother's still gonna love me.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: And at the last dive of my competitive career in Seoul, Korea,
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: my reverse three and a half, Shin Lee was leading,
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: going into that dive, I had to hit my last dive,
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: And I had a higher degree of difficulty, so I
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: didn't have to beat him in score. I just had
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: to match him. And I remember thinking to myself, no
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: matter what happens, my mother's still going to love me.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: And then this image came into my head that my
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: mother sitting at home, watching it on TV, because they were,
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: they were home. They weren't at the Olympic games. And
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: then I do this bomb of a dive. The splash
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: goes all the way up to the 10 meter platform
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: when you're not supposed to make a splash. And then
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: my mother bouncing up and down on the couch, clapping, saying, oh,
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: wasn't that a pretty splash? That would be my mom.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: And it just made me laugh. Right. So you learn
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: different techniques to get yourself in that space away from
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: your left brain, which is judgment, and maintain your right brain,
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: which is performance. Yeah.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: So now we're talking about the Olympics in 1988 in Seoul.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Where was your mindset coming in to that Olympics?
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: You know, Ron O'Brien and I were really distracted going
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: into that Olympic Games because one, I was the odds-on
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: favorite going in because I was world champion and previous
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: Olympic champion. And Also six months prior to that Olympic games,
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: I was diagnosed with HIV. And at that time in 88,
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: we thought of HIV as a death sentence.
• 32:28
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: So it's like, if you get diagnosed with HIV in 88,
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: then basically you have two years. Right. Get your prayers
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: in order, you know, if that. So there were all
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: of these things. I remember Ron O'Brien's son-in-law. They've, committed suicide,
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: you know, when we were at the trials and, uh,
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: you know, I mean, there were so many things happening
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: in both of our lives. And so we were really distracted.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: I think when I hit my head on, on the springboard,
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: that was, it was kind of like a wake-up call,
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: you know, to pay attention that nothing's guaranteed, anything can happen. And, um,
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: And he also, he gave me a choice. He said,
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: you know what, after I hit my head on the springboard,
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: you know, I thought I was out of the competition,
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: but then found out that I think I was in
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: fifth place. So I would have made finals, but I
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: did have to do my last two dives. So it
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: really kind of got us to focus. And he told me,
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: he said, you don't have to go back out there.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: You know, you don't have to get back out there.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: You just hit your head on the board. That's very traumatic.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: You know, and I just turned to him kind of
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: a knee jerk reaction and said, I don't want to
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: give up without a fight. Right. And so that's when
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: Ryan White, who was a buddy of mine, he's the
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: young boy in Indiana that contracted HIV through his clotting factor.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: He's a hemophiliac. And he fought for the right for
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: other kids in the same position for education. And he
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: was a fighter. And so he was my inspiration to
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: kind of get back out there and fight for it. Wow. Okay,
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: let's get started.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: Are you first time buyers?
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's our first time.
• 34:32
  Speaker 6: So it's your first time here?
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: No, it's first time buying. Did you say no?
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: For first time buying no wait hold on okay please
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: hold what no no i told.
• 34:47
  Speaker 6: You to hold on you're viewing homes not mortgage advisors
• 34:51
  Speaker 6: so find your nearest branch at ebs.ie to get a
• 34:54
  Speaker 6: dedicated mortgage person throughout your mortgage journey ebs the mortgage people.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that moment for a second. Was it
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: like any other dive? Have you done that dive? How
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: many times have you done that dive before?
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: Oh, God. I don't even know. I mean, probably definitely
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: in the hundreds, maybe in the thousands. Right.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: And how difficult of a dive was it that you
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: were about to do? Well, you know what?
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: Reverse two and a half pike was a really solid
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: dive for me. I mean, it was one of my
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: best dives. And when I was doing my approach, taking
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: off the board, I knew I was going to be
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: close because I stood up a little straight. And so
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: when I came out of the dive, I brought my
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: hands in close to my body so that they wouldn't
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: hit because that's what you're usually worried about is hitting
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: your hand or your arm. And I thought I was
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: well past the board. And then I heard this big
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: hollow thud and I go crashing in the water thinking,
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: what the hell was that? And I go, oh my God,
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: it was my head. And my first emotion, I was
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: embarrassed because I was thinking, oh my God, I hit
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: my head on the diving board in front of the world.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: And I was trying to think, you know, how can
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: I get out of the pool without anybody seeing me?
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, I was just so embarrassed.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: It wasn't painful. It must've been shooting pain or a headache.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: No, no, because it's, you're in the midst of a competition.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: It's a high level competition. So you don't feel anything.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: You have the adrenaline going and all that, you know,
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: it's not.
• 36:46
  Speaker 5: And also there were reports blood in the pool and
• 36:50
  Speaker 5: all that stuff, which is, total crap because when you
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: get a, get a cut like that, you know, especially
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: in that environment, it takes a while before it starts bleeding.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: But at the time there was so much fear and
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: ignorance around AIDS and HIV, and nobody knew you had
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: it besides just your coach, right? Maybe a few other
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: people that were close to you, but what was going
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: through your head? Because at the time, did we know
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: how you could contract it? Did we know how dangerous
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: it was?
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, really the only ones that were in, uh,
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: it's blood to blood contact. So the only ones that
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: were really put in any, uh, you know, concern would
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: be the doctors who were sewing my head up, you know, Dr.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: Ben Rubin and Dr. James Puffer.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Which he did do without using gloves. Did that worry you?
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: They didn't have gloves. You know, this is 88. This
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: is not, you know, that was not, uh, those considerations,
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: you know, it was so far fetched that anything like
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: that might happen that they, you know, didn't have gloves. Yeah. Right.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: When you first heard that you had HIV, did you,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: how did you feel?
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, well, I thought life was over, you know, cause
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: I went in for, I was having an, I had
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: an ear issue. And so I went into the doctor
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: and said, oh, by the way, you know, I'd like
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: to do an HIV test anonymously. And so my cousin,
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: who was my doctor in Florida, you know, he did
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: it and said, oh, you don't have anything to worry about, blah, blah, blah.
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: And so I did it. But then when it came
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: back positive, then my thought was, because I was training
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: in Florida, my home was in California. And so I
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: thought if I was to HIV positive, I'm not going
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: to waste my coach's time and everybody else's time. I'm
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: going to pack up my bags, go back to my home,
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: lock myself in my house and wait to die. Because
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: that's what we thought of HIV at that time. And
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: so when Chris came over and told me that I
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: was HIV positive, I just assumed I would be packing
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: up and going home. And he encouraged me to stay.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: He said, the healthiest thing for you is to stay
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: and train. We don't know how long you've been positive
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: and you've worked so hard to get to where you're at.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: And that's probably the healthiest thing I could do for myself.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: And it was easier to focus on the diving because
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: it gave me something to look forward to. I didn't
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: get obsessed with the diagnosis. Right. Right.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: And I love that he gave you a purpose and
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: a hope sort of. So now take me back to
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: the moment where you just gotten your stitches in and
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: you're getting back on the board because you said you
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: were in fifth or something and you had to do
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: your other dives to qualify. How was your confidence level?
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Were you nervous you were going to hit your head again?
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah. I mean, because I didn't know, you know,
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: people said, how did you get over that? You don't
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: have time to get over that in order to get
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: over something. you need to process and you go through that.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, you understand with trauma, you know,
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: it takes time for that to unfold. I didn't have time.
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: And so I just had to set that aside. Like
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: it never happened. And I remember, you know, I set
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: the fulcrum, they made it, they announced the dive, which
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: is going in the same direction, reverse one and a
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: half with three and a half twists. And I could
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: hear an audible gasp from the audience. And I took
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: a deep breath and patted my chest because I felt
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: like my heart was pounding outside my chest. And then
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: the people in the vicinity who saw that laughed and
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: I started laughing because they were scared for me and
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: I was scared for me. I didn't know what was
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: gonna happen. And so, you know, right before I went,
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: I just thought, you know, this is the Olympic games,
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: you can't hold back. So, And as it turned out,
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: it was the highest scoring dive of that Olympic games.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: And you ended up qualifying, you ended up getting the
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: gold and then you got the gold on the 10
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: meter platform like you were discussing earlier against the Chinese opponent, correct?
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Was keeping that secret exhausting for you?
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: Oh my God, yeah, so exhausting. It was just terrifying.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: It was really hard. And also what was going on
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: At that same time, I was also in an abusive relationship. Right.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: And this is the person that you got it from?
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: No, not necessarily. I mean, a lot of people want
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: to say that because it's easier for them, but chances
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: are we were probably both positive when we got together
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: because my partner, before, and this is before we knew
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: about safe sex and all that stuff, he died of
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: HIV and complications with AIDS. So chances are he was positive,
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: I was positive, and we just didn't know it.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: Right, right. So after the Olympics in 88, you did
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: retire finally from diving, correct?
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: Is that when that happened? So what is it like
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: for a professional athlete who has dedicated the majority of
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: his life to the sport How do you do your
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: second act? How do you find purpose? How do you
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: define who you are? I think that's really hard for all,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: a lot of professional athletes.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. I mean, it really is a difficult transition.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: It is because then you have to kind of embrace
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: a new identity, you know, and embracing that new identity,
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: who is that person? Right.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: So what did you do for a paycheck after that?
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: I did a lot of speaking, did a lot of
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: speaking engagements, personal appearances. That was mostly, you know, a
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: bit of acting here and there. You know, I did
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: Cinderella at Long Beach Civic Light Opera. I did a
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: one-man show in New York. I was in Jeffrey for
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: about six months in New York. I did a lot
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: of different stuff. I mean, it's interesting because I really
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: have climbed a lot of mountains and varied. I remember
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: when I was at the University of Miami, I was
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: doing Equus and Jimmy Puig was our Dr. Dysart. And
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: he came to me and said, Greg, I understand, I
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: know Greg Louganis, the actor, but I understand you dive
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: as well. I was like, well, yeah, I'm kind of
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: on scholarship for that. But, you know, it's just, I
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: always wanted to be accepted in whatever I was doing,
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: whether it was dance or acting, you know, to be
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: embraced on my own merit for whatever activity that was. Right.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: So eventually you decide to write a book and you
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: go on Barbara Walters and Oprah and you announce to
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: the world that you are gay and you are HIV positive, correct? Yeah.
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: At a time when you don't do that kind of shit.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: What made you do it? You didn't have to do it, right?
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: So why did you choose to do that?
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: I felt that it was the next step in my progression,
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: in who I was. Because I felt like I was,
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: with all these secrets, I felt like I was living
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: on an island with barely a phone for communication to
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: the outside world. And so by letting go of those secrets,
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: and I knew I was probably not alone. I think
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: that that was, you know, that was key. You know,
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: if I was suffering like I was, then I'm sure
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: I'm not the only one.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: And how was that received by the public?
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: I had my mother was really terrified for me. I
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: had a lot of friends who were very, very concerned.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: But it was amazing when I was on a book tour.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, thousands of people were showing up. and saying,
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: oh my God, you saved my life. You helped me
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: come out to my friends and family about whatever, you know,
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: your sexual identity, HIV, leave an abusive relationship, you know,
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: all of these kind of things that people can....
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: They think you're done for the day, but they don't
• 45:57
  Speaker 4: know about the drawer.
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: The drawer. Just the one square before bed. Or two,
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: you know. Nobody's watching. You deserve a treat.
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: With eight flavors to choose from, you can choose the
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: flavor you favor with Cadbury Dairy Milk.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: Connected with. Right.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: And you became sort of the spokesman for what you
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: had gone through and your you know, trauma or, you know,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: the shame or the grief that basically everyone feels. Um,
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: and you, you were able to sort of get it
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: out of you and that gave hope to other people
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: to do the same.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I mean, it really was incredible. I mean, the, uh,
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: the book tour was so emotional. Uh, Eric Marcus, my coauthor, uh,
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: You know, we would be in tears, you know, and
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: joyful tears.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's got to feel good touching people like that.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: Knowing that you made a difference for someone else, that
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: your pain happened to be able to make someone feel
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: connected and make a difference. So you then went on
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: to do some advocacy, right, for HIV and LGBTQ. Talk
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: to me about that.
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I mean, it's coming out is a process.
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: You know, first person you have to come out to
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: is yourself, you know, and you can be coming out
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: about an illness. You can be coming out about who
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: you're dating or, you know, it's a process in accepting
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: and embracing who you are.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: And just like everyone else, you've definitely had some highs
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: and lows and you talk about it, you know, in
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: your book. What was it like to live in the nothing,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: to live in the low for some of the time
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: as you talk about?
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, some of the lows are pretty, yeah.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've had really high highs and really low lows.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: How do you get through the low lows? I always
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: remind myself, whatever's going on is temporary.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this too shall pass.
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. And the thing is, you also have to
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: be willing to let go of the good stuff too.
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: You know, it's just like, you can't hang on to, oh,
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: I'm an Olympic champion. I'm a world record holder. You know,
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: if you hold onto that too tightly and then it goes,
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: you know, then somebody breaks your record, you know, you,
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: You know, you aren't happy trying to hold on to
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: something that you are no longer.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: Right. That you were.
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: That you were. Right.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: So what advice would you give to people that are
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: sort of stuck in their first act? Because I know
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: it's so hard to move to your second act, to
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: find your purpose, to find what makes you happy after
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: you've hit this, major high and you feel like that
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: was who you were and you'll be nothing else without that.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: Talk to people about what it's like to move on
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: from that and reinvent yourself.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: Well, it's funny because oftentimes what happens is, especially like
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: if you're an Olympic champion, you do this, then people
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: start defining you. they start saying, oh, you are this,
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: so you have to be that. And so they choose
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: your path. And as people pleasers, oftentimes we go for
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: that ride for a while. And so then when somebody asks, well,
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: what do you want? What does Greg Louganis want? I mean,
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: I had to take two weeks and meditate over that.
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: It's like, what, you know, What is it that really
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: drives me, that sparks that interest, that sparks that flame?
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: And what do you come up with? And the thing
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: that came up for me was dogs and health and wellness.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: I had two concussions in my diving career. I've had
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: issues with that. you know, trying to be, go in
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: a more natural approach to issues of mental health and
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: as well as physical health.
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: How I'm doing, you know, trying to maneuver through the
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: world in a positive, healthy way.
• 50:55
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: So you also picked up, you mentored in the diving community.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: which sounds amazing and right up your alley, obviously. And
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: then you talk about training and showing dogs. You're still
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: doing that, right? Is that one of the things you continue?
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: Well, so I was working with the athletes in preparation
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: for London. And it was so funny because when I
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: first started working with them, the U.S. has been pretty
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: dominant in the sport of diving. And then after my retirement,
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: then we got one medal in 2000, which was Laura Wilkinson.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: We got zero medals in 04 and they added synchronized diving.
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: So we had four more shots at medals and we
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: got nothing. 2008, we got nothing. And then when I
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: started working with the kids, I said, okay, what's your
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: ultimate diving goal? And they'd say, make the Olympic team.
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: And then I'd say, and then what? And they look
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: at each other, it's like, make the Olympic team. And
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: I said, well, don't you want to get on the podium?
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: Don't you want to win? You know, none of them
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: had that in their training process. You have to train
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: for that stuff. Right. It's not just going to happen. Yeah,
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: so once I started working with them, changing their mindset,
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: they got four medals in 2012, three medals in 2016.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: Wow, so you made a difference. And you're still doing
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: the dog stuff, right?
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, still doing the dog stuff. And actually, I love
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: the dog stuff because they're so pure. Yeah, they're not
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: going to hold grudges. they're not gonna you know second
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: guess you know they're just really truly honest but.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: You do training or you do agility what exactly do
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: you do with them i see you on your instagram
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: it looks great well.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: I um i train i mean uh you know i
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: i compete in dog agility with.
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: Your own dog or with others yeah.
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: I i have trained other dogs i and run other
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: people's dogs for them um And, uh, but I have
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: G who's my Hungarian Pumi. He's got a lot of
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: talent and have hopes for world team for him. And
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: then Pax, uh, Pax is a Perinian shepherd. Oh, wow.
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: And she does agility too. It's just that she, it's not, uh,
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: she'll do it because daddy wants her to. Right.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: So can any dog do it if they're trained? Like,
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: can I train my Pomeranian or my rescue pit bull
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: to be doing agility or they have to be born
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: with it?
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: No, no, you can train. Yeah. Because physically, you know,
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: they may be limited, you know, to how fast they
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: can go and what they're capable of doing. But given
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: the right education, you know, any dog, almost any dog,
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm actually surprised at some of the dogs
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: that I see videos of, you know, the Mastiff doing agility.
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: There was a Great Dane in Arizona that used to
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: do competitive agility and he was really good.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: With those long legs? Yeah.
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, he'd actually have to crawl through the tunnel
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: to get through. It was just like, it was pretty amazing.
• 54:43
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: That must've been great to watch.
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: So, and you're going to continue to do that. Yeah.
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: Forward.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: That makes you happy. Obviously I can tell.
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I've got a, I just did a workshop
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: yesterday with a international judge slash competitor. And yeah, it
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: was fascinating. It was, it was, it was great because
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: I was away from dog agility for about 10 years
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: and now I'm coming back and so much has changed. Right.
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: So there's a lot of new stuff I have to learn.
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: Right. It's always changing. So what is going on in
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: your life now? What, what do people have to look
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: forward to with, with you and seeing you?
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: Well, we're still working on that podcast. Um, but also I'm, uh,
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: taking it upon myself to, uh, there was talk about
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: a biopic and I'm digging in myself, you know, to write,
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: to start writing the script. So, um, Yeah. So I,
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: you know, cause I, it just struck me. I was
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: just at the Olympian and Paralympian reunion a few weeks back.
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: And I, I was just somehow reminded, it just came
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: to me that, you know, if you don't, if you
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: don't write your own story, you're allowing other people to
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: write it for you. Right. And, and it, it doesn't
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: always reflect who you are. And I really want something
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: that to reflect who I am.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: And who would you say you think you are?
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: Well, there's a lot of things that I've done that
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: a lot of people are not aware of because other
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: people have taken credit for it. And also just not
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: being one to toot my own horn. Which is really
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: weird because we're in a society now where it's like, oh,
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: you've got to stand up for yourself and speak up
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: and tell everybody what... And they're bragging about all the
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: things they've done. The way that I was raised is
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: let my performance speak for itself, do, and it will
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: be returned to you. Right. So, yeah. So it's a
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: very different mentality. Yeah.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: And I love what you... just said, because that's actually
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: why I started this podcast and named it Misunderstood, is
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: because there are people like you, like me, like so many,
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: that their lives have sort of been narrated for them
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: by the media, by the public that feeds on what
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: the media says, and they just know about one thing.
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: Most people probably just know that you're the greatest Olympic
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: diver ever or the greatest diver in history.
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: But they don't know all the parts to you because
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: there's so much more than that. And as a person,
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: you know, you feel and we feel like, you know,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: you want to share who you are, not just that
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: one bit, because that was something you did once. But
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: there's so much more to you that makes you just
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: as great as that. So that's literally why I started
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: this podcast and wanted you on specifically, because I think
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: that's a huge, huge message for people. and important for
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: people to know.
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. And, you know, just because somebody speaks,
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: you know, they, they're a public speaker, uh, or if
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: they're actors, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are extroverts.
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: You know, it's, it's assumed that they're extroverts and they're
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: looking to gain attention or whatever, attention seeking or whatever.
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: You know, and that is not true for many of us.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 58:38
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: I just have a few more questions before we go.
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: What is the biggest misconception of HIV and AIDS today,
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: do you think?
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure, you know, because I can't speak for everybody.
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: I think that, you know, I think there's still some
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: stigma surrounding it. But I, you know, I don't know
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: what that is. You know, I don't understand it because
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: there's so much good information that's out there, of how
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: you get HIV, but also how you don't get HIV. Also,
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: for those that recently seroconvert, that it can potentially be manageable.
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: And so to be mindful, if you're undetectable, then you're untransmittable.
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I think that it's changed so much since
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: when you were diagnosed, since I was little. The fear
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: really has gone away. It's no longer seen as just
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: a gay disease. Anyone can get it. But it's not
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: seen as necessarily a death sentence at all. It's manageable.
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: You can live a long, healthy life and have no
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: signs of it eventually, correct?
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: So you've been very helpful in the LGBTQ community spreading awareness.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you your thoughts on politicians like DeSantis,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: what they've done in Florida, the don't say gay rule.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: Should children be able to learn about sexuality in school?
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: If that happened when you were younger, would that have
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: helped you feel better about what you were going through?
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: Oh, sure. I mean, it's important that we give you know,
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: as much accurate information out there. I mean, it's, you're
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: not going to catch it. And so, and also, I mean,
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: I had a conversation with a neuroscientist who, leading researcher for,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: about sexual identity, gender identity, you know, all of that.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: And he explained, you know, what his findings were. And
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: it's like, yeah, you know, when they say that you're
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: born gay, you are. And he has research to, you know,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: to prove that. And so having those understandings, knocking down,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: you know, when you have new thoughts, you know, your
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: beliefs are a thought that you continue to think. if
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: there's a flaw in those thoughts, then you have to
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: change your beliefs. So it's trying to get people to
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: change beliefs, which is really challenging to do because people
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: want to hold on to beliefs like they're, you know,
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: like they're true, but you get more facts and understand
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 2: that it's, you know, maybe those facts aren't correct. Right, right.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: There's a bill being considered that would give doctors and
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: insurance companies the right to deny care to the LGBTQ
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: plus community. How do you feel about that?
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: Oh, gosh. I mean, it's so silly, you know, that
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: we are, you know, you need to look at a
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: whole person. Being LGBTQAI, you know, whatever letter that is
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: that I am, it does not define who I am.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: There's a whole human being behind each individual. And each individual,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, all we want to do is be, you know, loved,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: you know, and everybody is, you know, that that is
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: a human right. Right.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: Regarding sports, there have been protests around races featuring trans women.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: Should biological men that become women be able to compete
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: in sports, in your opinion?
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: In my opinion, I have a different perspective because of
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: an incident that happened. In 88, I was diagnosed with HIV.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: They put me on AZT right away because they wanted
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: to treat me very aggressively. One of the side effects
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: from AZT or HIV, low testosterone. And early on in
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: my training, you know, hitting the gym, you know, breaking
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: everything down before it builds up. I was literally crawling
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: from my bed to the bathroom to pour myself the
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 2: hottest bath. to sink into for 20 minutes before I
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: could even touch my toes. I just thought I was over-training,
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: but I didn't have my testosterone tested, but I'm sure
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: that that's what it was. I was low testosterone. And
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: so I don't believe that once somebody goes onto hormone therapy,
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: then it's the advantage that All these people are trying
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: to make it out to be that you go through this,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: you know, testosterone wash and your puberty and all that. Granted,
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: you can't take away the training that you've already done.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: Once you go on to hormone therapy, there's not a
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: whole lot of advantage. So I think in time, people
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: will see that, you know, and understand that I just
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: hope Because the IOC basically lied about the whole testosterone thing.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: So we thought that it was based in research, but
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: we've learned that it's not based in research. It was
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: just a jab in the dark at a number. And
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: so they lied to us. Now we have to embrace
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: that information and not hold so firmly to our previous belief. Right.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: You've had such a tremendous career as an athlete and
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: an advocate. What stands out to you as your biggest accomplishment?
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: Definitely my biggest accomplishment to date definitely was my book,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: Breaking the Surface, because that was so impactful at a
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: time when it was needed. Yeah. And so that was,
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: you know, that was really incredibly powerful. Yeah.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: Great book. I did read it. How do you want
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: to be remembered?
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: If I'm remembered as a diver, I hope they think
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: of me as being strong and graceful. And as a
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: human being, that I made a difference.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: What can we expect to see you in the near future?
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: Your podcast, is that coming out soon?
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: Podcast, hopefully it's coming out soon. Where do people find you? Yeah,
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 2: you can find me, all my social is at Greg
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: Louganis and greglouganis.com. It's my website.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: And do you read your DMs? Do you answer people's responses? Like,
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: do you care what people are writing to you?
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes I get on there and I, you know,
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: peruse and say, yeah. I mean, and especially, oh my God,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: I just got an email from somebody thanking me for
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 2: responding to a stranger in Houston. about, it was about
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: the medication, you know, the HIV medications and all that,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: one of the side effects and all that. And I
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: answered them, which I, it's random, you know, sometimes I
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 2: get to it, sometimes I don't, but it was really,
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: really sweet. So yes, I do. I don't read everything, but,
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: you know, there's chances are, depending on, you know, what's
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: going on, how I connect with it and all, then
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: I respond sometimes.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: Good. All right. So people listening, you can write him
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: on Instagram and you may get a response. So Greg,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: you have reinvented yourself time and time again. I think
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: you're a true hero. You definitely have changed people's lives
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: and I can't wait to see what you do next.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: I look forward to the podcast. I look forward to
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: any movie that comes out, whatever it is, I will
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: be watching. So thank you for joining me.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to our podcast, Misunderstood
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: with Rachel Yucatel. Please be sure to subscribe to the
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: show and give us a five-star rating and review if
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: you like what you hear. You can support the show
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: by joining our Patreon at patreon.com. Do you have ideas
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: for the show or guests that you want us to
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: reach out to? Please email us at infomisunderstoodpodcast at gmail.com.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, and I can't wait to see
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: you next time.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 4: They think you're done for the day, but they don't
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 4: know about the drawer. The drawer. Just the one square
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 4: before bed. Or two, you know. Nobody's watching.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: You deserve a treat.
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 4: With eight flavours to choose from, you can choose the
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 4: flavour you favour with Cadbury Dairy Milk.