The Weight Of Rejection
IllustrationStory★★★★In a recent interview with Barbara Walters, Olympic gold medalist Greg Louganis said that one of the things that drove him to excellence in swimming was the fact that he didn’t fit in with the kids at school. They made fun of his dark skin, they called him “sissy,” they excluded him from their circle. The result was that Greg grew up with low self-esteem. He tried to compensate for it by excelling in sports—specifically swimming, but in spite of his accomplishments he still was a miserable person. He still had low self-esteem. He should have been on top of the world, but instead he was involved in an abusive homosexual relationship that led to his contracting the AIDS virus.
The point
Greg Louganis faced rejection and mockery as a child, which drove him to athletic excellence but left him with low self-esteem and led to destructive choices.