Date: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 10:53:08 -0500 (CDT) From: Kevyn Jacobs To: "Kansas Queer News [KQN]" Subject: OLYMPIC CHAMP LOUGANIS SAYS HE'S NO LONGER RUNNING Date: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 OLYMPIC CHAMP Louganis SAYS HE'S NO LONGER RUNNING By SCOTT CANON Kansas City Star LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Greg Louganis, the Olympic champion who last month revealed his infection with the AIDS virus after publicly acknowledging his homosexuality a year earlier, said Wednesday that his new-found candor brought him freedom. ``I'm here. I'm healthy. I'm not running from reporters,'' the retired diver told a University of Kansas audience. ``It's very, very empowering.'' Louganis, a gold medalist diver and best-selling author, drew a handful of protesters and more than 500 admirers for his evening speech sponsored by LesBiGayS KU, a campus lesbian and gay group. He talked of an athletic career in which he didn't talk publicly about his sexuality, but during which many of his friends and even some of his competitors knew he was gay. Traveling abroad with a U.S. Diving Team well aware that he was gay, Louganis found himself both an international sports star and social outcast. ``I was lucky if I had somebody on the team who would room with me,'' he said. ``Nobody wanted to room with a fag.'' During one competition, Louganis said, several other divers hounded him and plastered anti-gay stickers throughout his living quarters. The chief instigator, he said, was ahead of him going into the final dive of the competition. Louganis beat him with that last dive. ``It felt great,'' he said. The performance was ordinary for his exceptional career. In 1976, at the age of 16, he snagged a silver medal at the Olympics. In 1984 and 1988 he captured double golds. With the release last month of his autobiography, ``Breaking the Surface,'' which was co-written by Eric Marcus, Louganis revealed that he was HIV positive. He also discussed chronic depression, aggravated by hiding his sexual orientation and HIV status. Louganis, now 35, had been going through intensive psychotherapy for more than a year leading up to the release of the book. A day before he was scheduled for an interview with television's Barbara Walters to promote the book and reveal that he was HIV positive, he found out that his therapist had died. ``It took all of my strength and energy to go ahead,'' Louganis said. ``I cried all the way there (to the interview). I cried all the way back. ... Now I can stand here and say: `I'm Greg Louganis. I'm gay and I have HIV.' '' He compared his situation to that of the late rapper, Eric Wright, known as Eazy-E, and said he preferred to break the story on his own terms. ``It must have been so lonely all that time,'' Louganis said. ``Now I can talk to people about my medicine, or tell a friend why I'm feeling depressed.'' On Wednesday afternoon, Louganis spoke to divers on campus and performed a brief exhibition for about 250 people. An hour before his speech, the extended family that makes up the Rev. Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka picketed outside the Kansas Union. The group regularly pickets events the preacher perceives as supporting homosexuality. Church members stood on the curb holding placards. Many of the signs invoke the Bible and dwell on AIDS. Answering questions from students after his speech, Louganis said: ``I feel sorry for him (Fred Phelps). It's sad. ``I feel like handing him a teddy bear and saying: `You need hugs.' ''