Speaker 1: Well, Bowen, I think this may just be the luckiest
Speaker 1: day of our lives and our listeners' lives, because we
Speaker 1: have a true legend. And when does that happen? Certainly
Speaker 1: not when it's just us talking.
Speaker 2: Not when it's just us talking. I feel like I
Speaker 2: about to dive off the three meter springboard into iconography with.
Speaker 1: Oh man, Yes, we made a vested, didn't we We
Speaker 1: sure did, and the puns are already flying. Our producer
Speaker 1: made one before we got on. Bowen, just made one
Speaker 1: before we make a third and embarrass ourselves already. Let's introduce,
Speaker 1: I mean, just one of the all time greats. He's
Speaker 1: already up and at him this morning. He's got a
Speaker 1: school event he's fitting us in where the schedule is
Speaker 1: jam packed. Everyone. Please welcome four time Olympic gold medalist
Speaker 1: Greg lugayin us. Everybody, Hey, hi, Hi, how you doing.
Speaker 2: We're good, We're not as we're not as active as
Speaker 2: your today. What's the school event you're going to?
Speaker 3: Okay, So in Oxnard, the school district in Auxnard, they're
Speaker 3: doing an Olympic Day. So they invited some Olympians and
Speaker 3: Paralympians and we've been going to schools and chatting with
Speaker 3: the kids in the morning and then we play games
Speaker 3: in the afternoon. Yesterday we were dancing. We were learning,
Speaker 3: you know, a dance hip hop. It's been fun. It's
Speaker 3: been like, how are you with a hip hop combo?
Speaker 3: Can you tear it up?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I do pretty good, you know, I can hold my own.
Speaker 3: I mean even at sixty four, you know. Yeah, the
Speaker 3: kids were like, you're what you was sixty four?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you're keeping it tight, sir.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do my bast I try hard.
Speaker 1: Listen. Not everyone can say that that Mario Lopus played
Speaker 1: them in a movie.
Speaker 3: Oh I know, right, Oh my god. I mean I
Speaker 3: should be so lucky, you know. I told him, I said, yeah,
Speaker 3: I should look so good.
Speaker 1: You know. I don't know.
Speaker 2: We were talking about this the other episode because you've
Speaker 2: come up more times and we were like breaking the
Speaker 2: surface the film. I feel like, I feel like you'd
Speaker 2: rather have somewhat like a Greg leugainis being that role,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean just just in terms of just
Speaker 2: in terms of wattage and attraction, star factor, all of it. Well,
Speaker 2: I did a diving right you did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I have bragging rights to say that I
Speaker 3: was Mario Lopez's body double.
Speaker 2: That's something that's a huge thing.
Speaker 1: So, I mean, the Olympics are, they're here. I just
Speaker 1: want to pick your brain a little bit. Four Olympic
Speaker 1: Games you were participating in.
Speaker 3: I qualified for four Olympic Games, but I only participated
Speaker 3: in three because we had a boycott, right right.
Speaker 1: So exactly. So I mean just in the course of
Speaker 1: your career there four Olympics happened. So in terms of
Speaker 1: the memories that you have when you think back, like
Speaker 1: how clear are you? Were you able to soak all
Speaker 1: that in at the time, and if you could have
Speaker 1: a favorite moment or a favorite like era of the
Speaker 1: Olympics that you did, could you speak to those.
Speaker 3: Well, the only opening ceremonies that I went to was
Speaker 3: my first one Montreal, because like I you know, it's
Speaker 3: like my first Olympics. I mean, you got to do that, right,
Speaker 3: But diving is generally is at the end, you know,
Speaker 3: when I was competing, it's at the end of the Olympics.
Speaker 3: So my concern I didn't participate in the opening ceremonies
Speaker 3: in eighty four because I knew that I would probably
Speaker 3: go to the opening ceremonies. Get all hyped up, have
Speaker 3: an incredible week of workouts, and then the second week
Speaker 3: when I had to compete, I probably would have been flat.
Speaker 3: So I was really protective of my energy, you know,
Speaker 3: because there were so many expectations that people had of me.
Speaker 3: And then eighty eight pretty much the same thing. We
Speaker 3: were towards the end of the schedule, and so I
Speaker 3: didn't go to the opening ceremonies and then the closing ceremonies.
Speaker 3: I got carded to do a drug test and I
Speaker 3: was trying to pee in a cup. I missed the
Speaker 3: bus to go to the closing ceremonies because I was
Speaker 3: trying to pee in a cup. You know.
Speaker 1: Wow, the little things you got to check off the list.
Speaker 1: And that piano cup, right, how many times do you
Speaker 1: think you've peed in a cup in your life?
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Oh my god. You know she may
Speaker 3: need to really really count. Yeah. I mean I've been
Speaker 3: drug tested since I was sixteen. I mean that was
Speaker 3: my first Olympics. I was sixteen.
Speaker 2: Wow, gosh, I talk about this some idea. This is
Speaker 2: this is what I find really remarkable about you, is
Speaker 2: that this idea of like separating whatever accomplishment is in
Speaker 2: those things from the medals and like giving the medals away,
Speaker 2: like talk about giving the medals away, auction them off
Speaker 2: like that. I find that incredible because, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: don't you want to keep that trophy around in some yeah,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: Okay, So getting through the eighty eight Olympics after I
Speaker 3: hit my hat on the board, I'm not a fighter,
Speaker 3: you know. And so who I thought of was Ryan White.
Speaker 3: You know. Ryan White is a young boy who was
Speaker 3: a hemophiliac. He contracted HIV through his clouding factor, and
Speaker 3: he was a fighter. He fought for the right for
Speaker 3: kids to go to school, you know, kids that were
Speaker 3: HIV positive, and so he was a fighter. So he
Speaker 3: was my inspiration. And so that's the reason why I
Speaker 3: gave that medal to Genie White, because Ryan was my inspiration.
Speaker 3: And then that was it's at the Children's Museum in
Speaker 3: Indianapolis because they took his room and made it into
Speaker 3: a museum. And then in eighty four when I broke
Speaker 3: seven hundred and ten meters platform, it was a dream
Speaker 3: come true competition for me because it was like my coach,
Speaker 3: Ron O'Brien and I it was just like a dance.
Speaker 3: I mean, we were just having fun. Playing, you know,
Speaker 3: joking around banter and it was just an incredible experience.
Speaker 3: And then I broke seven hundred and so I gave
Speaker 3: that medal to Ron because it was just a culmination
Speaker 3: of all the work and love and trust that we
Speaker 3: had in each other that we we did that together.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm a firm believer you don't achieve greatness
Speaker 3: on your own, and so somebody is always there, you know,
Speaker 3: whether it's a supportive parent or a coach or friend
Speaker 3: or somebody. You know, somebody's always in your corner totally.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean the medals they didn't sell, you know,
Speaker 3: because there was a you know, they had to go
Speaker 3: for you know, so much. But the hopes was to
Speaker 3: provide funding for Damien House because they outgrew the facility
Speaker 3: that they're in and they provide services to the HIV
Speaker 3: community in Indianapolis and so they do incredible work. So
Speaker 3: you know, they're you know, they need to you know,
Speaker 3: they're building out to be able to service more people.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I was trying to help them out, but
Speaker 3: that that didn't quite work out. But you know, I
Speaker 3: do what I can, you know, to you know, to
Speaker 3: try and help them out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but just the concept of that of I guess,
Speaker 2: for lack of a better word, like externalizing your accomplishment,
Speaker 2: which I know which you which we know where you're
Speaker 2: not taking so credit for. But it's still pretty incredible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But you know, the metals are you know, it's
Speaker 3: funny because like a lot of people say, oh, put
Speaker 3: the metals on, and I don't generally put the metals on,
Speaker 3: you know, to get my picture taken, because I want
Speaker 3: to remember, you know, what it was, you know, when
Speaker 3: they put it on the first time, you know, when
Speaker 3: I was on the podium they put it on, and
Speaker 3: that's the memory that I want to have, and so
Speaker 3: I try and stay pretty true to that. And also
Speaker 3: the metals are just things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the memories and the symbol is what it really
Speaker 1: is about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean, and you know, and if they
Speaker 3: can give pleasure enjoy to somebody for whatever reason, you know,
Speaker 3: Ryan being my inspiration, ron O'Brien being my coach who
Speaker 3: was with me by my side through so much to
Speaker 3: be able to share that, that brings me joy.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I mean, just to hear you even speak about
Speaker 1: Ryan White, it just kind of just snaps you into
Speaker 1: the reality that this was such a different world that
Speaker 1: we were living in, I mean cellularly on a basic level,
Speaker 1: like we did not have anywhere near the information, understanding
Speaker 1: or compassion for people that were HIV positive or experiencing
Speaker 1: what it means to go through AIDS at that time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: to hear yourself characterize yourself as not a fighter, I
Speaker 1: just want to go back to that for a second,
Speaker 1: because you said you're not a fighter. I think, sir,
Speaker 1: you are the definition of a fighter and a true
Speaker 1: legend not only in sports, but in awareness. And then
Speaker 1: you know, like even today, you're up and you're out
Speaker 1: to change and improve lives and morale and just you know,
Speaker 1: you're the Olympic spirit SI lives in you. I want
Speaker 1: to know why you don't characterize yourself as a fighter.
Speaker 1: Is it because you think about people at the time
Speaker 1: and you don't want to take that mantle because that's
Speaker 1: for people that really suffered or maybe are no longer
Speaker 1: with us. What is that?
Speaker 3: Well, I've always been a performer, you know, because I
Speaker 3: started doing dancing acrobatics when I was a year and
Speaker 3: a half and I was performing on stage when I
Speaker 3: was three, and so I've always been a performer. I
Speaker 3: feel and This is, you know, my feeling. I will
Speaker 3: help somebody to beat me, you know, I will tell
Speaker 3: them how to beat me, because the better they do,
Speaker 3: the better I'm going to do. And it's all about
Speaker 3: each other, you know. And and that's the way that
Speaker 3: I see it. You know, we're all, you know, you know,
Speaker 3: being our best selves. If you're helping somebody else to
Speaker 3: be their best self, then we're elevating each other. Where
Speaker 3: it's not a competition, right, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't see it as a competition. I see it
Speaker 3: as really elevating humanity.
Speaker 1: So I wonder does that you say you've always been
Speaker 1: a performer, did you throughout your Olympic career think of
Speaker 1: it as performance and more as more than a competition,
Speaker 1: because that's a way I haven't heard an Olympic athlete
Speaker 1: characterize their Olympic performance. You know.
Speaker 3: It's interesting because, like I've talked to quite a few
Speaker 3: Olympians and you know, medalists, gold medalists and all that.
Speaker 3: And there are some athletes that are performers. Their focus
Speaker 3: is on their own performance and that is what spurs
Speaker 3: them on. There are other athletes that are pure competitors, right,
Speaker 3: Michael Johnson. I was, you know, I was talking with
Speaker 3: him and said, yeah, I want the fastest person right
Speaker 3: next to me so I can kick there. But you know,
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, So that's what drives him, you know.
Speaker 3: But for me, I always felt that if I look
Speaker 3: at somebody as my competition, then what I'm doing is
Speaker 3: I'm limiting the potential that I potentially have, because chances
Speaker 3: are if they miss a dive, then I'm going to
Speaker 3: miss a die. Yeah, because I'm using them as a
Speaker 3: benchmark as my competition. And so if they are off
Speaker 3: a little bit, then chances are I'll let up, you know,
Speaker 3: And I don't want to do that. I want to
Speaker 3: give the absolute best performance that I can give. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's like, you know, because my background is in theater,
Speaker 3: you know, and that's what you know, the directors are
Speaker 3: always telling you every night there's opening night, you know,
Speaker 3: because it's near to that audience, right, and.
Speaker 2: You're only as good as your let's say, weakest co star.
Speaker 3: Well yeah, but and the thing is okay, so people
Speaker 3: would say, well, what was your favorite dive? I didn't
Speaker 3: have a favorite dive. They all had to be my
Speaker 3: favorite dive. So in the same vein, You're only as
Speaker 3: great as your weakest dive, your weakest link in the chain, right,
Speaker 3: and so you what you want to do is you
Speaker 3: want to strengthen that chain. You know that you want
Speaker 3: to strengthen that weak link so that you don't have
Speaker 3: a weak link.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you saying you don't have a favorite dive.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask are all your Olympic achievements
Speaker 1: created equally? But I was thinking about it, and like you,
Speaker 1: coming from theater and being a performer, honestly, I understand
Speaker 1: that eighty eight was a lot of drama because of
Speaker 1: the head, because of you know the moment. Yeah, in
Speaker 1: a way, that has to be your favorite, right, because
Speaker 1: you a performer, you really brought the in eighty eight.
Speaker 1: I mean you had all of the world being on
Speaker 1: the edge of their seat like you were mental streep
Speaker 1: on stage.
Speaker 3: King. You know what, It's so interesting that you brought
Speaker 3: up eighty eight and that whole situation, you know, you
Speaker 3: you know, looking at the big picture, Yeah it was.
Speaker 3: It was pretty incredible. But I went back because when
Speaker 3: I was diagnosed six months prior to the Olympic Games,
Speaker 3: and I went to Anthony Fauci and he wanted to
Speaker 3: treat me very aggressively, so he made AZYT available to me.
Speaker 3: So I was on azy T right away, and so
Speaker 3: I didn't have anybody to talk to about my medications
Speaker 3: and the side effects and all that stuff. I was
Speaker 3: literally crawling from my bed in the morning through the bathroom,
Speaker 3: pouring myself the hottest bath that I could stand, get
Speaker 3: in their soak for twenty minutes before I could touch
Speaker 3: my toes and be able to function. Wow, I thought
Speaker 3: I was overtraining. But now looking back, one of the
Speaker 3: side effects of the AZT was low testostera. So basically
Speaker 3: my body was eating itself up because it didn't have
Speaker 3: the hormones to uh, you know, to replenish and rebuild.
Speaker 3: And so I watched recently the eighty eight Olympic Games,
Speaker 3: my performance in eighty Olympic Games, and I could see it,
Speaker 3: you know, I wasn't jumping as high, I wasn't spinning
Speaker 3: as fast, and so yeah, I mean that was it
Speaker 3: was pretty drastic, you know, looking at it through a
Speaker 3: different lens and with new information, and so yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean I was just very very lucky, fortunate, and you know,
Speaker 3: and and and in some ways, you know, it was
Speaker 3: ignorance is bliss, right. I didn't know. I didn't know
Speaker 3: any better, So I was just pushing myself and to be,
Speaker 3: you know, the best I could be at that moment
Speaker 3: in time.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But man, I mean, looking at it now, it's just
Speaker 3: like that was crazy. It was crazy to think that
Speaker 3: I went two Olympic gold medals on easy team. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's insane.
Speaker 2: While you were in this brain fog. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: that kind of makes the achievement of it all the
Speaker 2: more remarkable. Yeah, before we let you go, we want
Speaker 2: to ask you. You seem like someone who's always looking
Speaker 2: for the next big challenge in life. What is the
Speaker 2: next big thing for Greg?
Speaker 3: Gosh? The next big thing for me? Well, I also
Speaker 3: trained dogs, So I've got a little hungarian Pumi who's
Speaker 3: very talented, and so my hopes for him is to
Speaker 3: make world team. Yes, so we're in training for that.
Speaker 3: So that's probably the next big thing. And also, you know, family,
Speaker 3: I'm adopted and so both my parents who raised me
Speaker 3: are no longer on this plane. But I my biological father,
Speaker 3: you know, I've struck up a relationship with that, and
Speaker 3: so learning family, re learning what family means to me.
Speaker 3: It's it's really really fascinating. You know, got a brother
Speaker 3: and two sisters in Hawaii, and so yeah, more discovery
Speaker 3: about family beautiful.
Speaker 1: That's incredible. It's just such an honor to talk to
Speaker 1: you for even a short amount of time. We could
Speaker 1: do it for four more hours, but I know you
Speaker 1: got some lucky students to go talk to. So thank
Speaker 1: you so much.
Speaker 2: Greg.
Speaker 1: I mean, if we might say, you're definitely a fighter,
Speaker 1: and I mean just to see you out there still
Speaker 1: inspiring is inspiring in its own right. So thank you
Speaker 1: so much for giving us your time today.
Speaker 3: Hopefully we can connect and face to face.
Speaker 1: I hope.
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, where are you guys?
Speaker 3: Where are you?
Speaker 1: So? I'm in Los Angeles? Boone famously is in New York.
Speaker 2: I'm in New York. But yes, but oh okay we
Speaker 2: go back and forth.
Speaker 3: Okay, well yeah we'll connect. We'll connect, definitely.
Speaker 2: Must absolutely sure.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for my pleasure.
Speaker 2: Well, Matt, that was just delightful. What a real honor
Speaker 2: to talk to him, even through zoom. It kind of
Speaker 2: just exudes. It comes through like technology is nothing. It's
Speaker 2: like it just transcends.
Speaker 1: All it really, I mean, the top about the star quality,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's really it's and it also seems like
Speaker 1: we're going to be hanging out with him at some point,
Speaker 1: so I just know he jams out in person.
Speaker 2: Absolutely what an incredible human being, someone who I think
Speaker 2: probably has like the right mindset about the Olympic Games
Speaker 2: throughout the entire like sort of span of it, like
Speaker 2: leading up to his games, his three Olympics, doing the
Speaker 2: actual thing, and then in the sort of like post
Speaker 2: Olympics life that a lot of these in Olympians lead.
Speaker 2: I feel like he's set such a wonderful example.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I mean, and he has accomplished so much since
Speaker 1: then and lived so much life since then. There was
Speaker 1: a few things I wanted to talk to him about
Speaker 1: what I didn't get to, such as having an iconic
Speaker 1: Greek last name, but not being Greek yourself, because Louganis
Speaker 1: that's not just a Greek last name, that is a
Speaker 1: very very Greek last name and adopted. So I mean,
Speaker 1: just the amount of people who probably come up to
Speaker 1: him and say ya sas he probably it's probably a
Speaker 1: lot of emotional overwhelmed sure, sure.
Speaker 2: And worst of all, ol of Tone's skin and so
Speaker 2: of course people just like even visually just kind of
Speaker 2: identify that with him.
Speaker 1: You couldn't have told me he was in Greek, right,
Speaker 1: but now I'm telling you he's not.
Speaker 2: He's not. And you know, the thing that inspired him
Speaker 2: to put his metals up for auction was Marie Condo,
Speaker 2: So another w for Marie kind of influencing the original influencer,
Speaker 2: not THEA but you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I mean talking about OG influencers. You know, famous COVID
Speaker 1: influencer Fauci. Anthony Fauci has been coming into the mix
Speaker 1: in the late eighties.
Speaker 2: I mean, one of the first people to get azet.
Speaker 2: The fact that he was literally suffering through those eighty
Speaker 2: eight games and he still wins gold pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: And to not call himself a fighter or not identify
Speaker 1: as one that I'll tell you what that really is
Speaker 1: right there, that's true humility. You can tell he really
Speaker 1: feels in service not only to the people watching, but
Speaker 1: to the people alongside him. And that was really inspiring
Speaker 1: to to hear him talk about how it's only worth
Speaker 1: winning if you're going up against the best, which I've
Speaker 1: always agreed with. But you know it's you watch the
Speaker 1: traders now and it's like they want to knock the
Speaker 1: good people out so they can get to the end.
Speaker 1: And that's not Olympics, no, correct.
Speaker 2: Luganis would be terrible on the traders.
Speaker 1: He would not be good at the traders at all.
Speaker 1: He'd be a terrible trader. He's too kind, he's too sweet,
Speaker 1: and we just saw that firsthand. You guys, the Olympics
Speaker 1: are underway. You can listen to our episodes which are
Speaker 1: flying freely coming at you. Two guys, five rings us
Speaker 1: the podcast. We thank you so much for listening as always, isn't.
Speaker 2: That right, bo, I'm so thankful and thank you for
Speaker 2: speaking on my behalf and thank god it was the truth.
Speaker 2: Follow the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music,
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