Greg Louganis has a life story that is a real triumph of determination over adversity. Born 29 January 1960 in California, to a Samoan father and American mother, he was adopted as a baby, ended up with a physically abusive, adoptive father, was bullied because of his mixed race, was raped as a teenager and became the greatest diver of all time, winning golds at two consecutive Olympics in ‘84 and ‘88. Just before Seoul in 1988 he was diagnosed with HIV, went onto heavy medication and still won despite banging and gashing his head on the board in the preliminary rounds. He came out as gay in the 1990s and lost all of his sponsorships apart from Speedo – and is still alive and fit nearly 30 years on.
He’s a Sun Aquarius in a close square to Neptune, which often turns up in athletes’ charts, belying Neptune’s reputation as vague and low energy. His Uranus is in an adventurous trine to Jupiter in enthusiastic Sagittarius; with Jupiter semi-square the Sun. He’s also got a truly difficult Pluto trine Venus Mars Saturn in Capricorn – a deprived, cruel childhood, which left its scars, but toughened him up.
His Sun is square his ultra-determined and ill-treated Mars/Pluto midpoint and his bleak/deprived Saturn/Pluto, both of which also aspect his Neptune and Jupiter. So quite a mix of hardship and luck.
When he was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, his Solar Arc Saturn Mars were conjunct his Sun Mercury, so a time of huge stress and shock, when he thought he was going to die. Tr Uranus was also conjunct his Sun and Mercury. But despite that six months later he went on to sweep the boards of medals.
Hello Marjorie , I love reading your astrology . I have been interested for many years …..
Looking at your comments above I was surprised when I saw you had written ‘his truly difficult Pluto trine Venus Mars Saturn ‘ . I have always thought a trine was a good thing in a chart even though I know Pluto is far from light and airy !
I have Pluto trine Sun Mercury Venus and Mars in Aries and have always seen it as having to go into the depths and sort myself out even if I try to evade this I can’t in the end . Its hard but I’ve certainly grown up emotionally over the years . Thanks for taking the time to read this and hope it makes some sense . All the best Marjie .
Marjie, Trines are certainly easier than hard aspects but it depends which planets are involved. Pluto Mars can be heavy going and as you say forces you to go deep. Add Saturn into that mix and it becomes really quite formidable – certainly it gives strength and resilience but also attracts punishing situations which have to be endured. Saturn Pluto is bleak and deprived; Saturn Mars is cruel.; Mars Pluto can be brutal even in trines, though it also gives courage – so it’s a miracle he persevered through and ended up what seems to be a genuinely nice guy.
thank you for the interesting astrology reading on this swimmer.