This film is about is about the tough times Greg Louganis (Mario López) had on his way to becoming one of the world's top Olympic divers. Gregory ("Greg") Efthimios Louganis is an American diver, who is best known for winning back-to-back Olympic titles in both the 3 m. and 10 m. diving events. He received the James E. Sullivan Award in 1984 as the top amateur athlete in the United States. Louganis is of Samoan/Swedish descent and was raised in California by his adoptive parents, a Greek-American couple. At age 16, he took part in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, where he placed second in the tower event. Two years later, he won his first world title in the same event. He was a favorite for two golds in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, but an American boycott of the games prevented him from participating. Louganis won two world titles in 1982, and in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, with record scores and leads over his opponents, he won gold medals in both the springboard and tower diving events. After winning two more world championship titles in 1986, he repeated his 1984 feat in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, although not without difficulties. In what is considered one of the greatest feats in sporting history, Louganis suffered an injury, hitting his head on the diving board during the preliminary rounds while performing a reverse 2 1/2 pike. He completed the preliminaries, despite a concussion, then went on to repeat the dive during the finals, with nearly perfect scores, earning him the gold medal. His incredible comeback earned him the title of ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year for 1988.
Louganis posed nude for Playgirl magazine in 1987. In 1994 Louganis announced he was gay and took part in the 1994 Gay Games as diving announcer. He also performed an exhibition of several dives to a standing-room only crowd of nearly 3,000 spectators. Following the announcement of his HIV status, Louganis was dropped by most of his corporate sponsors, with the exception of the aquatics gear manufacturer Speedo, which continues to sponsor him as of 2007. Based on the superior book by Greg Louganis and Eric Marcus, this made for TV movie is a very good profile of an impressive star athlete. Steven Hilliard Stern directed.
