Written by Greg Louganis, Eric Marcus, and Alan Hines
Directed by Steven Hilliard Stern

Greg Louganis was someone I admired in my younger days for a variety of reasons.  Watching his life story evolve was one of the things that shaped how I felt about a variety of subjects.  I’d already read his autobiography titled Breaking the Surface when I watched the film by the same name, and recently I had the opportunity to watch it again.

Mario Lopez portrays the adult version of Olympic Gold Medal Diver Greg Louganis in this made-for-television adaptation of the autobiography by the same name.

The telefilm opens with a re-enactment (and actual footage) of one of his most notorious dives during the 1988 Olympic Games where Louganis didn’t push away quite far enough from the springboard and hit his head.  While this was scary at the time just for those of us who were worried about him getting hurt, it was later one of the shots heard ’round the world in terms of the AIDS epidemic.

The film then goes back to Louganis’ childhood.  He was of Samoan ancestry and adopted by the Louganises in Southern California.  He faced problems of his ancestry growing up in a white suburb as well as not living up to his father’s expectations.  His mother seemed to accept him completely and without reservation.  It was once he started showing promise as a diver that his father seemed to show more interest in him.  But he was hurting from so many things, and trying to find his place in the world.

In terms of his life, there seems to be a lot missing.  The book dwelled much more on the roots of his interest in diving and what helped make him such a talented diver.  His early interest in gymnastics and dance is glassed over.  It also skips a lot of the hard training and a lot of the story of his earlier years to get to Louganis’ Olympic years. This starts with the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.

Where the film falters in so many ways is that it doesn’t have a direction. It seems to want to dwell on the relationship between Louganis and his (adoptive) father.  Although there was tension in that area in the book, I don’t recall there being as much focus on it as there was in the film.  I realize the movie was made for television in 1997, so perhaps they were a little concerned about focusing more on his homosexuality, even creating false tension with his best friend Megan who wasn’t there in the book.

The film also combines characters, leaving out the real details as to how he became infected with AIDS as well as some of the graphic episodes of domestic abuse he suffered.  Condensing a life into a two-hour movie can be difficult, but I do question what aspects were left out and what the film’s producers and director chose to focus on.

Mario Lopez does a good job as the adult Louganis.  He doesn’t quite have the same look, which is noticeable when the film uses the archive footage of the Olympic dives by the real Louganis.  However, he is good in the role.  I give a lot of credit to Rafael Rojas III who portrays Louganis at a younger age and does a terrific job.

If you are interested in the journey Greg Louganis took in his life as a gay diver in the Olympics and all that went along with it, I highly recommend the book he wrote.  This film is not a good representation of that book, even though Louganis consulted on it and appeared at the end.  Indeed, that is one of the best parts as it is reminiscent of how he and others who were brave enough to “come out” at the time probably helped a generation of closeted gay youths.