Favorite Birthday Boy #2 January 29th

Greg Louganis
From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things

 Diver Greg Louganis turns 54 today.

Gregory Efthimios "Greg" Louganis (/luːˈɡeɪnɪs/; born January 29, 1960) is an American Olympic diver and author who won gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games on both the springboard and platform. He is the only male and the second diver in Olympic history to sweep the diving events in consecutive Olympic Games. In 1984, he received the James E. Sullivan Award from the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) as the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States.

 Louganis is of Samoan and Swedish descent. His teenage parents placed him for adoption when he was eight months old and he was raised in California by his adoptive parents, a Greek-American couple. He started taking dance, acrobatics and gymnastics classes at 18 months, after witnessing his sister's classes and attempting to join in. By the age of three he was practicing daily and was competing and giving public performances. For the next few years he regularly competed, and performed at various places including nursing homes and the local naval base. As a child he was diagnosed with asthma and allergies, and to help with the conditions he was encouraged to continue the dance and gymnastics classes. He also took up trampolining, and at the age of nine began diving lessons after the family got a swimming pool. He attended Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, California, Valhalla High School in El Cajon, California, as well as Mission Viejo High School in Mission Viejo, California.

Greg Louganis is openly gay. After he tested positive for HIV in 1988, he recounted his story in a best-selling autobiography Breaking the Surface co-written with Eric Marcus. In the book, Louganis detailed a relationship of domestic abuse and rape as well as teenage depression, and how he began smoking and drinking at a young age The book spent five weeks at number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. In a 1995 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Louganis spoke publicly for the first time about being gay and HIV-positive. His story was recounted in the 1996 Showtime movie Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story with Mario Lopez playing the lead and Louganis narrating.

 He also produced a video diary called Looking to the Light, which picked up where Breaking the Surface left off. In the years since his diagnosis was made public, Louganis has been an outspoken HIV awareness advocate. He has worked frequently with the Human Rights Campaign to defend the civil liberties of the LGBT community and people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.

 In the October/November 2010 issue of ABILITY Magazine, Louganis stated that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is "absurd", "unconstitutional", and a "witch-hunt". He added that "gay men and women have been serving this country for years … [it's] basically encouraging people who are serving our country to lie to each other."

 Louganis announced his engagement to his partner, paralegal Johnny Chaillot, in People magazine in June 2013. The two married on October 12, 2013.

Since November 2010, Louganis has been coaching divers of a wide range of ages and abilities in the SoCal Divers Club in Fullerton, California.  He was a mentor to the US diving team at the London 2012 Olympics.