Greg Louganis is beginning a brand new chapter in his life.
The U.S. diving legend has auctioned off three of the 5 Olympic medals he received between 1976-1988, offered his dwelling and is parting with most of his different possessions as a part of a journey of self-discovery that’s taking him, no less than for now, to Panama.
“So, as life strikes ahead, what are you ready to go away behind?” Louganis wrote Friday in a Fb publish. “I’m 65 years previous, and I’m asking simply that. I’m not who I used to suppose I used to be. Not even near ‘What’ different individuals or ‘Who’ different individuals suppose I’m.”
Louganis shared some particulars of his plan in that publish and expanded on them on two Instagram Stay posts, one recorded from Los Angeles in his ultimate night time in the USA and the opposite recorded the next day from Panama Metropolis, the primary cease in a journey that may ultimately take him and his canine Gerald to Boquette.
That’s the place they’re going to cool down — “for now,” Louganis mentioned on Instagram.
“I don’t understand how everlasting, or, you realize, I don’t understand how lengthy it’s gonna be,” he mentioned. “I’m simply embracing the ‘I don’t know,’ and likewise staying open for discovery. I feel that’s what this a part of my life is about, being open to find what’s subsequent and actually, actually, actually do my greatest at being current in each place I am going with each particular person I meet.”
A few 12 months in the past, Louganis mentioned, he was in a foul place mentally, feeling “actually, actually alone and remoted.”
“It was actually, actually extreme, actual unhealthy despair,” Louganis mentioned. “And now I’m realizing, I’ve issues to supply. So what that’s and what that appears like, I haven’t figured it out. And I feel that that’s what that is form of about, is recalibration and determining what’s subsequent. … and simply uncover who I’m too. I imply, that’s a giant query.”
U.S. diver Greg Louganis spreads his arms and bends on the waist whereas in mid-dive throughout a springboard diving competitors.
(Sadayuki Mikami / Related Press)
Louganis says a part of the method has been letting go of most of the gadgets he didn’t understand had been weighing him down. Final month, he obtained greater than $430,000 at public sale for 3 of his Olympic medals ($201,314 for his 1988 gold medal in 10-meter platform, $199,301 for his 1984 gold medal in 3-meter sprinboard and $30,250 for his 1976 silver medal in 10-meter platform).
“I wanted the cash,” Louganis wrote on Fb. “Whereas many individuals might have constructed companies and offered them for a revenue, I had my medals, which I’m grateful for. If I had correct administration, I won’t have been in that place, however what is finished is finished; dwell and study.”
Louganis has not talked about what, if something, occurred together with his different two gold medals, received in 1984 for 3-meter springboard and in 1988 for 10-meter platform.
Additionally on his posts, Louganis mentions that he offered his dwelling final week. Public information record Louganis because the proprietor of a residence in Topanga. In keeping with Zillow, a home at that tackle offered on Aug. 28 for $750,000.
As for many of his different belongings, Louganis wrote, “I made a decision to donate, promote what could be offered, give presents, and provides the place issues is perhaps wanted or appreciated. … A thought occurred to me, I had many mates, individuals I used to be near, misplaced every part within the Woolsey Fireplace, after which the Palisades Fireplace simply this 12 months.
“I do know I’m selecting to do that, however their resilience is an inspiration for me to begin anew, with an open coronary heart and an open door. Opening as much as potentialities.”
On Instagram, Louganis described the expertise as “liberating.”
“The reminiscences will at all times be in right here,” Louganis mentioned, putting his hand over his coronary heart. “And so the opposite issues are simply stuff, you realize? We don’t understand how a lot we hold on to, and what I’m additionally studying now on this course of is how oftentimes we don’t understand they weigh us down. You already know, just like the delivery, the storage, all of that stuff.
“Truly, I used to be form of discussing that with Michael Phelps, as a result of he heard that I auctioned my medals. He mentioned, ‘How was that?’ I mentioned, ‘You already know what it was? It was a aid, you realize, as a result of then it was prefer it was a weight off my shoulders.’”
