Diving for the History Books
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Greg Louganis' chosen sport was diving and he dominated this sport with a 12 year Olympic career. |
His first Olympic Games was in Montreal, Canada in 1976 where he had won a silver medal in the Platform event for the American Team. Subsequently after years of training he was to look forward to performing again for his country at the next Olympic Games in 1980 and was hopeful of winning a gold medal. However, his hopes were dashed when he was left unable to compete when the United States boycotted the Moscow Games.
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The 1984 Games proved to be a superb experience for Louganis, who won the springboard competition by the most points ever in an Olympic tournament. This success however just made him ambitious to win the platform event. He became the first man in diving history to score more than 700 points. On his 10th and final dive, Louganis chose to perform the Dive of Death, a reverse 3-and-a-half somersault in tuck position. Previously Louganis had seen a Soviet diver killed while attempting the same dive. |
Louganis seemd to perform it effortlessly and succeeded in becoming the first diver to score over 700 points.
In the 1988 Seoul Olympics tragedy befell him on his ninth and penultimate dive, he had miscalculated his distance and slammed his head into the board on the way down and received a depressingly low score. He was in danger of failing to reach the finals.
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Louganis, in true style went on to dive magnificently, qualified and won the competition. He later also went on to win the platform event and had reached his dream of the Double- Double and secured himself as the greatest diver in sporting history. |
