SEPTEMBER 19th - Some Questions Will Never Be Answered



On this day in 1988, Greg Louganis hit his head on the diving board during the preliminary round of the 3-meter springboard competition at the Seoul Olympics. This is a fairly well-known event, and probably a bit too high-profile for my usual taste. But being that I was only a wee young lad at the time, I don’t remember seeing it happen. I remember that it happened, but the circumstances were lost on me. I probably was watching VHS tapes of He-Man or ThunderCats and debating in my head whether Lion-O and his Sword of Omens could defeat He-Man and the Power of Grayskull. Point being, I didn’t realize homeboy got stitched up and kept diving for the rest of the round and continued the next day, ultimately winning the gold medal despite the five stitches in his dome. Again, you can’t rely on my memory or perception, as I was more concerned with Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but I never realized that ole Greg kept diving after he smashed his melon. I’m not sure if that says something about my innate Schadenfreude tendencies or if it is more of a societal issue that makes a person remember a painful incident like whacking your noggin on a diving board more than overcoming that moment. Of course the duration of the moment may have something to do with all this. Two seconds of painful misfortune are probably easier to remember than the multitude of subsequent moments spent of overcoming that pain. Despite what that may say about me or society, the fact that Greg was able to overcome it says a great deal about him. I could go into how it’s a stark reminder of hiccups that we all face and how we all need to stitch ourselves up and get back on the diving board, but honestly I can’t stop wondering He-Man would wipe the floor with Lion-O. Some questions will never be answered.

This day has been Marked.

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