- Greg Louganis doing what he did better than anyone.
This Thursday, October 9, the 19th Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival kicks off at the Egyptian with a gala screening of Back on Board, the new documentary about the pioneering LGBT athlete Greg Louganis, whose hard work and talent made him an Olympic diving legend before an HIV diagnosis sent him down a complicated new path. The resulting film is a sweet, complicated, fearlessly personal portrait of a one-of-a-kind American. In advance of Louganis’s appearance at Thursday’s screening, I chatted him up over the phone from LA.
- The man in 2014—healthy, happily married, and mentoring future Olympians.
How did Back on Board come about?
Will Sweeney [the film’s producer] read an article in the New York Times about my coming back to the sport of diving, and he thought there was a story there, so he reached out to Cheryl [director Cheryl Furjanic], who’d just finished the documentary Synch or Swim about synchornized swimming, so she’d learned the landscape of dealing with the USOC, the IOC, the NGB, and all that. Cheryl also did a kind of informal survey and found that if you were under the age of 27, you didn’t know who the heck Greg Louganis was. When she approached me, she said, “You’ve contributed so much to the LGBT community and the HIV community, and these kids need to know that. Wold you be interested in doing a documentary?” I said sure. And then we went on this journey. So much happened during the time we were filming.
One thing that really struck me in the film is when you explained how for the whole first part of your life, you’d been on the Olympic track, with a very clear goal and the support of an array of professionals, living this very intense and regimented life. On top of that, you had what I consider a second full-time, high-stress job, of remaining closeted and functional. What was that like?
I was out to friends and family, and to people in USA diving. It was a different time. We didn’t have social media. Reporters were actually very respectful. There was plenty to read between the lines in a lot of the pieces written. But still, we were a small team, no one wanted to room with the fag, so a lot of times I’d end up rooming with the coach. There was usually one person on the team who was secure enough in their sexuality that it was a non-issue, but still… I had instances with that throughout my career.
And now we’re in this amazing new age of tolerance and acceptance. How are you adjusting to the new gay reality?
I just wrote a piece for my Huffington Post blog, basically asking the question “Is the perception of sexuality changing?” It seems like so many young people, they don’t like the labels. This is one of the issues with the Gay Games—how to get young people involved? These young people, they don’t like to categorize themselves. They don’t want to say I’m gay, bi, whatever. They see sexuality as much more fluid. I think we’ve made tremendous strides, positive strides in certain areas of the world. And we have our challenges in Russia and Uganda and other parts of the world. When Sochi happened, the LGBT community was up in arms, saying “Boycott, boycott, boycott!” And I came out against a boycott and I got all these hate letters—how could I call myself a gay man, how horrible and selfish I am, all this stuff. As an elite athlete, you have a shelf life, and I competed on two sides of two boycotts: the 1980 boycott, when we didn’t go to Moscow, and then 1984 Olympics when the Eastern Bloc countries didn’t come to the LA Olympics.
The documentary addresses how, despite your amazing Olympic achievements, offers like the ones flying at your fellow ’84 gold medalist Mary Lou Retton were not coming to you, with the suggestion that homophobia played a part. Was it hard seeing Mary Lou Retton all over Wheaties boxes, while you were left out in the cold.
Oh, Mary Lou on the Wheaties box… had the Eastern Bloc countries been here, I’m not sure that would’ve happened! As for me, I was just coming into the original commercialization of the Olympics. It used to be Olympic athletes would have their careers and get on with their lives—young people would go back to school, get degrees. But after the big commercialization, it became the story that an Olympic medal is worth millions. It became a game for agents, placing bets on who the public will attach itself to. This is why the mentoring is very dear to my heart. I’ve seen what happens. Suicide, poor transitions out of the sport. There are a lot of misconceptions out there, and these young athletes not only need financial support and guidance, they need emotional support.
How was Back on Board unveiled for you? What’s it like watching a movie of your life?
Well, I had already done Breaking the Surface [the 1997 TV movie based on Louganis’s autobiography], so I’d already gone through the process of signing away creative rights for the movie. I’d wanted Keanu Reeves to play me, and then they pitched Mario Lopez, and I said, “Slater?! Really?” And it turned out he was wonderful! So I’m used to signing away rights and creative control, and I didn’t see anything [of Back on Board] until the end of last year. It was pretty close to hitting the film festival circuit, and I just sat there and watched it. It was a little embarrassing at times, a little awkward at times, a little nostalgic. I think they really did a wonderful job of capturing my journey back into diving and educating, and also the real-life side, the economic crash, all that.
See Greg Louganis and Back on Board on Thursday, October 9, at SIFF Cinema Egyptian. Full info here.
