General Mills Finally Does Right By Greg Louganis

Finally!

Next month, Greg Louganis, the openly gay Olympic diving great will be featured on the cover of Wheaties boxes.

The move by General Mills comes eight months after an HBO documentary about Louganis sparked both renewed interest in his story and in the reasons why one of our Olympic greats was never given the Wheaties treatment.

And a great deal of the credit goes to Julie Sondgerath who saw the documentary on Louganis and then started an online petition at Change.org:

"From the moment I hit send on the petition, I knew this was possible."

Forty-one-thousand signed petitions, and a month, later, Julie Sondgerath went to General Mills and used her story and Greg’s story to get the deal done.

Greg Louganis became the only man in diving history to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in both springboard and platform diving in 1984 and '88, but he found that opportunities available to other Olympic stars eluded him because he’d come out as gay:

"The times have changed so drastically and so fast. When I came out to my mom, she feared I'd always be a second-class citizen and never have a chance to be married. But Johnny [Chaillot] and I are married and we're making a life together."

And again, in 2016, you’re an inspiration to athletes, both gay and straight.

Congratulations!

ESPN