Olympic Champion diver, Greg Louganis has auctioned off three of his Olympic medals from multiple games. These three medals fetched a total of over $430K. This auction included his gold medals from the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the 1988 Games in Seoul, plus his silver medal from the 1976 edition in Montreal.
Just the two gold and one silver medals were estimated to be worth around $80,000, but the pedigree of Louganis drove the bidding higher. These three medals brought in $430,865. Which is 437% higher than the predicted value of the medals, according to Yahoo News.
This is not the first time that Louganis has auctioned off his Olympic medals, as he held an auction on his website back in November of 2022, and then again in June 2023. The three medals did not sell, so he re-listed them in this auction. At these auctions, Louganis auctioned off various pieces of memorabilia, such as signed posters, journals, other medals, and suits. In both of the previous auctions, Louganis hoped that his Olympic memorabilia would “bring joy to whoever got them and can inspire others to reach their fullest potential”.
Louganis said after the 2025 auction that he is at a stage in life where he needs the money. He is selling his current home and looking forward to life in a different space. The money from the auction will allow a more secure footing in his new life adventure. Louganis said, “Growth is letting go of the past, and letting go of attachments is true freedom”. In his 2022 and 2023 auctions, the proceeds from the memorabilia went to benefit The Damien Center and Children’s Rights, which is an AIDS service organization.
Louganis is known as the greatest American diver in history. As he won a total of five Olympic medals between three different Games, Montreal in 1976, Los Angeles in 1984, and Seoul in 1988. Louganis missed out on returning to the Olympics in 1980 after the United States boycotted the Games in Russia. Throughout his Olympic career, Louganis won four gold medals, and one silver medal. After winning Olympic silver in 1976 in the men’s 10m platform event, Louganis swept the men’s 3m springboard and platform events at back-to-back Olympics in 1984 and 1988. Additionally, Louganis won five World Championship medals from 1978 to 1986, and six Pan American Games gold medals from 1979 to 1987.
Outside of being a competitive diver, Louganis has been an actor, a coach for the SoCal Divers Club in California, as well as a mentor for both the 2012 and 2016 U.S. Olympic diving teams. He was also a trainer for dog agility competitions.
Most notably, Louganis is a gay rights activist, as well as an HIV activist following his diagnosis with HIV in 1988 prior to the Olympic Games. At the games, he struck his head on the springboard during the preliminary round and bled out into the pool. Eventually came back and won Olympic gold, but Louganis was worried and filled with fear about infecting other athletes with HIV. Ultimately, no one was infected, and Louganis solidified his legacy as the greatest American diver in history.
It’s real sad that anyone who was once very well known & successful would be forced to sell prized mementos that they owned because they fell on hard times.
That’s a lot of money for Olympic medals. He must be popular.
Putting a comma after Greg’s name in the title implies that he himself, not just his medals, is being auctioned off.
he is selling himself