Louganis Suffers From Aids Diving Great Admits Cut On His Head Worried Him During 1988 Olympics.

Greg Louganis, the only man to sweep diving gold medals at consecutive Olympics, said he has AIDS and was HIV-positive when he hit his head during the 1988 Summer Games and bled into the pool.

Louganis, in an interview with ABC News “20/20” to be televised Friday, also said his wound was stitched by a doctor who did not know of his condition and was not wearing gloves.

In transcripts of the interview released Wednesday, Louganis said that “according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) standards of AIDS versus HIV, I do have AIDS,” and that he tested positive for the AIDS virus just before the 1988 Games in Seoul.

It was during the preliminaries of the springboard event in Seoul that Louganis cracked his head on a reverse dive and became “paralyzed with fear” when he started bleeding in the pool.

“I was so stunned,” Louganis said. “I mean, what was going on in my mind at the time was, What’s my responsibility? Do I say something? It’s, you know, this has been an incredibly guarded secret.”

He did not reveal his condition to the U.S. Olympic Committee doctor who stitched the wound, and felt sure the chlorinated water in the pool would dilute the virus.

“I just held my head … I just wanted to hold the blood in, or just not let anybody touch it,” Louganis said.

“I didn’t anticipate hitting my head on the board,” he told interviewer Barbara Walters. “I didn’t anticipate, you know, the blood. That’s something … I didn’t think about at the time.”

After getting stitches, Louganis returned for the last few preliminary dives and qualified for the next day’s finals. He easily won the springboard gold. When it was over, he wrapped his arms around coach Ron O’Brien and sobbed.

He said he told his coach “nobody will ever know what we’ve been through.”

Louganis said he received word that a former companion was dying of AIDS six months before the Seoul Games. Louganis had himself tested and was told he was HIV positive, according to ABC News. He was placed on the drug AZT, taking it every four hours around the clock, and was still taking it during the Olympics.

“Dealing with HIV was really difficult for me because I felt like, God, the U.S. Olympic Committee needs to know this … U.S. Diving needs to know it, because what if I get sick at the Olympic Games and am unable to compete?” he said.

However, Louganis said he never told the USOC because “I was encouraged not to.”

“By whom?” Walters asked.

“By this small team of people … doctor, coach.”

Asked if he wasn’t afraid that Louganis would hurt himself or infect someone else, O’Brien said:

“No, not really. Because there’s very, very little chance. If it were in a sport like boxing or wrestling, football, where there’s a lot of contact, personal contact, I would have been very concerned. But our sport is such that you don’t ever come close to anybody.”

Now, however, Louganis’ illness has changed from HIV to AIDS itself, he said.

The disclosure brought a quick and sympathetic response from USOC president LeRoy Walker.

“The USOC is saddened by the news that Greg Louganis is battling this deadly illness,” Walker said. “And our prayers are with him in his fight. At the same time, we are again reminded about the need for precautions by doctors and trainers who treat injuries where blood is involved.”

Since 1989, the USOC has adopted strict guidelines about treatment and prevention when deadling with athletes’ blood, including rules that doctors, trainers and chiropractors use latex gloves.

Louganis won four gold medals for springboard and platform diving at the Olympics in 1984 and 1988.

At the Gay Games in New York last year, Louganis announced that he was homosexual. Since retiring from diving, he has pursued an acting career and appeared in an off-Broadway play.

His book, “Breaking the Surface,” is due to be released Monday by Random House. It deals with AIDS, as well as Louganis’ homosexuality, dyslexia, racism he suffered because of his Samoan heritage, an allegedly abusive stepfather, teenage depression and three suicide attempts, according to Tom Perry, a spokesman for the publisher.Telephone calls to Louganis’ attorney, Pat Benson, and spokeswoman, Maggie Meyerson, were not returned.

Louganis won his first medal, a silver, at the 1976 Games in Montreal when he was 16 years old.

He was a member of the 1980 Olympic squad but did not get to compete because of the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Games.

Four years later in the Los Angeles Olympics, he dominated the competition, completing the first springboard-platform sweep in 56 years.

Louganis was the only diver to score consecutive perfect 10s in an international competition. He also held three world championships, three Pan American championships and 48 national titles at one point.