Olympic diving legend Greg Louganis revealed his success on the grandest stage was all in service of somebody else.
“I didn’t have love and passion for the sport,” Louganis, 66, admitted on “The Midlife Chrysalis Podcast” Monday, March 2. “I had love and passion for my coach, Ron O’Brien. I was an instrument for his creation. I was blessed and honored and happy to do that. It sounds altruistic or whatever, but it’s true.”
He added, “[O’Brien] really orchestrated my entire diving career. He saw me dive when I was 9 years old. He saw me in Fort Lauderdale at a competition.”
According to Louganis, O’Brien told his wife, Mary Jane, at the time that the young diver “could be the best diver in the history of our sport if he wants to be.”
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Louganis attended O’Brien’s diving camp and eventually started working with him full-time in 1978, two years after Louganis made his Olympics debut when he was just 16 years old.
Their partnership led to Louganis winning back-to-back gold medals in both the springboard and platform at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
O’Brien died in November 2024 at the age of 86.
Louganis was recently forced to auction off three of his Olympic medals in an effort to move out of the United States. In doing so, Louganis explained how the life pivot was partially due to being a “creation” of his late coach.
“I was honored, proud, and blessed to have been that for him,” Louganis wrote via Facebook in August 2025. “It was all achieved with love at the core. Now I get to discover: Who is Greg Louganis? Without the distraction and noise from outside. At least this is my goal, and hey, I may not find that.”
Louganis also sold his California home in order to afford to move to Panama. “I needed the money,” he admitted. “If I had proper management, I might not have been in that position, but what is done is done; live and learn.”
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“I think I may find it at times, in moments, my goal is to live it!” he wrote. “Discover, allow, and nurture that human spirit through the experiences of life. To be joyful in the moments, embrace the grief, the anger, and the laughter, and embrace it all, feel it all in this experience we call our lives.”
Louganis explained he was partially motivated to pack and move after the devastation of last year’s wildfires in Southern California, which saw “many” of his friends lose their homes.
“I know I am choosing to do this, but their resilience is an inspiration for me to start anew, with an open heart and an open door,” Louganis explained. “Opening up to possibilities. I realized I often close myself off, shut myself down, and play small for the comfort of others.”
He added, “I don’t think I have realized or given myself credit for what I might be able to accomplish.”