American Olympic diver Greg Louganis, now 63, has put up three of his five Olympic medals up for auction on his website to raise money for the Damien Center, an Indianapolis, Indiana AIDS service organization.
Louganis says that he wants to name one area of the Damien Center for his mother, Frances Louganis, and another for Ryan White, a teenager who died of AIDS in 1990 and brought global attention to the disease.
The three medals up for auction:
- 1976 silver medal for 10-meter platform
- 1984 gold medal for 3-meter springboard
- 1988 gold medal for 10-meter platform
Louganis came out publicly as gay at the 1994 Gay Games, and a year later announced that he had HIV, making him one of the highest-profile athletes to come out as gay at the time.
The Montreal silver was originally listed at $350,000 and the Seoul and Los Angeles golds were listed at $750,000. They are now listed for more than double that – the silver for $750,000, and the golds for $1.5 million each.
This is the second time he has put the medals up for bid – they apparently didn’t sell in the initial auction in November.
The auction was intended to close on March 31. There were some reports of bids on the Los Angeles gold medal, but so far, it still seems to be available.
An Olympic gold medal sold by Steve Christoff from the legendary “Miracle on Ice” US Olympic Team at the 1980 Winter Olympics is currently the record sale. That medal went for $375,961 earlier this year.
Louganis talks about why he’s auctioning his medals:
Louganis is a five-time Olympic medalist, as he won gold in 3-meter and platform at both the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and 1988 Seoul Olympics. He is the only male diver in Olympic history to have won both events in consecutive Olympic Games. He also has won five World Championship titles and 47 national titles, which is the most in history.
Outside of diving, Louganis has been an actor, coach, author, and activist. He has a history of being an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, as well as for HIV/AIDs awareness.