{"id":60520,"date":"2025-12-31T22:45:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=60520"},"modified":"2025-12-31T22:45:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T03:45:33","slug":"olympic-icon-greg-louganis-opens-up-about-new-life-in-panama-after-selling-his-medals-to-fund-a-move-away-from-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/12\/31\/olympic-icon-greg-louganis-opens-up-about-new-life-in-panama-after-selling-his-medals-to-fund-a-move-away-from-the-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Icon Greg Louganis Opens Up About New Life in Panama\u2014After Selling His Medals To Fund a Move Away From the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Olympic star\u00a0Greg Louganis\u00a0has offered a glimpse inside his life\u00a0after quitting the U.S.\u2014months after he sold off several of his medals in order to raise the funds he needed to relocate full-time to Panama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The legendary diver, 65, who auctioned off three of his Olympic medals shortly before moving to Panama in August, recently returned to his home country in order to celebrate the holiday season with his loved ones, a move he opened up about in a candid Instagram video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing his fans and followers, Louganis was full of joy about being able to spend time with his father, sisters, and brother in\u00a0Hawaii\u2014but admitted he was excited to return to his new home, where he said he hopes to remain for a long period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy biological father lives here. It\u2019s been a great visit,” he said in a video shared on Dec. 29, adding that one of his favorite experiences away from his family was meeting some “really wonderful people” who were part of an LGBTQ hiking group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got together with the group and we did this little hike. It was just a little hike. It was over before I felt it started. But it was nice. It was more of a social thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It\u2019s been a good visit here. Also kind of reaffirming that it was a good time to make those changes. So many of my friends are dispersing to different parts of the world, which is really cool,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while he had a wonderful visit, the diver confessed that he was ready to go back to Panama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m going to be in Panama for a while. That will be nice,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that although his move to Panama isn’t permanent\u2014explaining that he does not currently have plans to apply for citizenship\u2014he does hope he will be there for quite some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not getting a hold of attorneys and changing my citizenship or anything like that, but that\u2019s a possibility,” he shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The diver shocked fans in August when he revealed he would be ditching his longtime home in the U.S., while also candidly opening up about his financial woes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a previous Facebook post about selling his medals and his home, he explained that his career had not panned out the way he had hoped, pointing the finger at his lack of “proper management” for his money struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI needed the money. If I had proper management, I might not have been in that position, but what is done is done; live and learn,” he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sporting sensation joined a lengthening line of celebrities who have quit the U.S. in the past few years, with the likes of Ellen DeGeneres, Richard Gere, Rosie O’Donnell, and Eva Longoria all relocating to pastures new since mid-2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While all of their reasons for moving vary, Louganis noted that his own decision to ditch the United States came after “many friends” of his lost their homes during the\u00a0California wildfires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know I am choosing to do this, but their resilience is an inspiration for me to start anew, with an open heart and an open door. Opening up to possibilities. I realized I often close myself off, shut myself down, and play small for the comfort of others,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I have realized or given myself credit for what I might be able to accomplish.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The diver also touched on his career as an athlete, while comparing himself to his former coach, Ron O\u2019Brien. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was honored, proud, and blessed to have been that for him. It was all achieved with love at the core. Now I get to discover who is Greg Louganis? Without the distraction and noise from outside. At least this is my goal, and hey, I may not find that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think I may find it at times, in moments, my goal is to live it! Discover, allow, and nurture that human spirit through the experiences of life. To be joyful in the moments, embrace the grief, the anger, and the laughter, and embrace it all, feel it all in this experience we call our lives,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dozens of celebrities lost their homes to the January wildfires, with stars such as\u00a0Adam Brody\u00a0and\u00a0Leighton Meester,\u00a0Paris Hilton,\u00a0Cameron Mathison,\u00a0Billy Crystal, Spencer Pratt,\u00a0and\u00a0Heidi Montag\u00a0all confirming that their properties had been destroyed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Olympic star\u00a0Greg Louganis\u00a0has offered a glimpse inside his life\u00a0after quitting the U.S.\u2014months after he sold off several of his medals in order to raise the funds he needed to relocate… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjVcLzEyXC9lOTRkMTE0NjBmODFiZDI2NTMyYmQxMjhkNWZiOTkwN3ctYzM3OTE1MjM5NTlzcmQtdzkyOF9xODAuYXZpZiIsInR4dCI6Ik9seW1waWMgSWNvbiBHcmVnIExvdWdhbmlzIE9wZW5zIFVwIEFib3V0IE5ldyBMaWZlIGluIFBhbmFtYVx1MjAxNEFmdGVyIFNlbGxpbmcgSGlzIE1lZGFscyBUbyBGdW5kIGEgTW92ZSBBd2F5IEZyb20gdGhlIFUuUy4iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.GLefg07dTJ-mpr5zbFcLswVLNLkn-_5RmqRhas3ulOsMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":60521,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/e94d11460f81bd26532bd128d5fb9907w-c3791523959srd-w928_q80.avif","type":"image\/avif"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[13064],"class_list":["post-60520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-olympic-icon-greg-louganis-opens-up-about-new-life-in-panama-after-selling-his-medals-to-fund-a-move-away-from-the-u-s"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60523,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60520\/revisions\/60523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}