Born On This Day... January 29th- Olympic Champion Gregory Efthimios Louganis

 It takes real tenacity to keep having a crush on someone for 34 years, but here I am, still dreamy over Louganis, who continues to be devastatingly handsome as he turns 51 years old .He spends his mornings in a spin class, followed by 90 minutes of yoga. He takes daily naps. His afternoons are devoted to his true passion, training dogs in obedience & agility. Louganis lives in Malibu with 2 Jack Russell terriers, & a border collie.

The Husband & I caught Oprah last week on what was actually advertised as her “gayest show ever'. Oprah & Gayle’s Yosemite camping adventure was darn gay, but not as gay as 25 years of clips from shows on LGBTXYZ issues. This special show about her 25 years of supporting the gay community brought back some of her most memorable guests, including the Olympic gold medalist diver Greg Louganis who came out as an HIV+ gay man way back in 1995.

Louganis is the greatest diver in US history . He broke onto the Olympic scene when he won a silver medal at the age of 16 in the Montreal games of 1976. He went on to win 2 back to back double Olympic gold medals & multiple world championships.

We watched in horror as it happened & it was shocking because Louganis was true diving perfection. We love watching Olympic sports & the Husband had just said- "I just love to watch Louganis. He just pierces the water like a dart.” Louganis’s greatest moments came, ironically, after his worst dive. Seeking another gold medal in the Seoul Olympics of 1988, Louganis attempted a very difficult reverse 2 1/2 pike dive in the preliminary round. During the dive, he struck his head on the board, & suffered a large laceration on his head. Amazingly, despite his concussion, he finished the preliminary round & repeated the dive in the finals, receiving record-setting scores on the way to another gold medal. The performance earned him the ABC Sports’ Athlete of the Year in 1988. . Louganis described the embarrassment & fear that he felt after the aborted dive. "I knew I had a responsibility to tell the doctor about my HIV status as he sewed my head up."


In 1994 Louganis announced to the world that he was gay. In Breaking The Surface, published in the year 1995, detailed a relationship of domestic abuse & rape. His partner threatened to blackmail him if he tried to leave. "I boxed myself into the relationship with my feelings about my HIV status. I thought, `who will touch me?' But I knew that to survive, I had to get out. It was a big step for me to build the self-esteem I needed to have the confidence to leave." It was in that book that he disclosed to the world that he was HIV positive, having been diagnosed a few months before the Seoul Games. Most of his corporate sponsors dropped him as a client when they heard the news of his HIV status. Swimsuit manufacturer Speedo was the only exception & retained him as an endorser of their swimwear until 2007.

Louganis tours the country speaking about issues that affected him throughout his life: HIV, chronic depression, learning disabilities & diversity (he is Samoan & Nordic). Louganis also travels around with other athletes including Peggy Fleming, Bruce Jenner & Jackie Joyner-Kersee as they discuss living with long term illnesses. Louganis says he wants to be remembered as more than an athlete. “I want to be remembered as a strong& graceful diver, but as a person, I want to be remembered as someone who made a difference.”

Let The Games Begin

It is a little zany that for 2 weeks every 4 years, I get all involved in & excited about sports that I never care about any other time. We call it The Winter Olympic Games, & I suddenly develop a passion for Luge & male Speed Skater’s thighs.

The Husband DVR-ed the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics last night, & although I have not watched all of it yet, the sections that I saw were astounding. I was not sure that anything could top the Beijing Games opener, but I thought the section with a very cute boy- Ècole nationale de cirque student Thomas Saulgrain doing the best flying I have ever seen, was breathtaking. Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now (not the original, but the older, deeper voiced  & older Joni with the London Philharmonic) was the perfect soundtrack for the prairie tribute with young Thomas walking, running, then soaring through fields of gold. He continued with beautiful cartwheels, spins & rolls in the air, over a hologram prairie.


On the floor of the stadium, a landscape of ice virtually broke apart & turned the floor of BC Place into an ocean in which Orcas & salmon swam across to amazing effect. The section combined 2-D reality with 3-D effects to make for a most technologically impressive moment. I thought Canadian born Donald Sutherland’s voice was an inspired choice for the narration.

The real highlight was native k.d. lang, who captivated the arena singing Canadian Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah barefooted, as the audience lit up the stadium. Another openly gay presence was my long time favorite, punk fiddler Ashley MacIsaac (known for wearing nothing under his kilt in concert).


If I could choose to live anywhere in the world, I would pick Vancouver, British Columbia. This city has always astounded me with it’s beauty & it’s international cosmopolitan vibe. The Husband & I have been there many times, in all 4 seasons & I can tell you, Vancouver is all that. The beautiful Canadian Coast Range comes right down into the city. Seattle is beautiful also & has spectacular mountain views, but the Cascades & the Olympics are an hour away from the city. In Vancouver you can actually see the lights of the night skiiers on Grouse Montain from downtown.

I love the vertical glass skyline of the core city. We once stayed in a garden cottage, part of a B&B- Oh, Canada House (the home that the country’s nation anthem was composed in) & there we were in this charming cottage with a fireplace, & we were surrounded by glass skyscrapers on all 4 sides. Discombobulating & thrilling. Another visit found us having cocktails on a top floor revolving restaurant when the entire city experienced a black-out, & we watched as each section of the city turned dark one by one.


Of all our Vancouver visits & adventures, the most meaningful & special was getting married on our 25th anniversary as a couple, on a lovely rooftop with a view of the city as a backdrop. We had each written our own vows & had not disclosed them to each other. At the ceremony, attended by our best men- Ken & Eiric (together as a couple 25 years now), we spoke our vows & we had both chosen to cite the same song lyrics as the basis of our short speeches- My First, My Last, My Everything by Barry White. There was not a dry eye at that wedding. The only thing that could have made that day more perfect would have been to have Joni Mitchell & k.d. lang as our vocalists accompanied by Ashley McIssac on fiddle & to have had a dazzeling acrobat twirling overhead. But, it was a very simple event & not an Olympic Opening Ceremony.