Being on a Wheaties box has been an honor bestowed on dozens of Olympians through the years, yet despite winning gold and setting Olympic records diver Greg Louganis never made it onto the Wheaties box. Speculation was that the reason he wasn’t considered was the fact that he is a gay man.
Now following a petition Louganis has finally appeared on a Wheaties box as part of Wheaties’ revamped “legends” series.
Today, Greg tells Oprah: Where Are They Now? that he was “blown away” when the petition received more than 40,000 signatures. Ultimately, Wheaties awarded Greg his own box. “It’s a tremendous honor,” Greg says. “It means more now than it probably would have then because they would have been celebrating the athlete. I’m a gay man living with HIV, and I feel like I’m being embraced as a whole person and not just a part of me.”
Louganis has one simple message he wants everyone to know. “I guess the important thing to me is really never give up,” Greg says. “Never give up on yourself, never give up on your dreams, because you never know what’s going to happen.”
