Greg Louganis is recalling the hopelessness he felt during the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
Appearing in the NBC News Studios’ documentary series My Generation, Louganis opens up about Generation X and living through the countless deaths brought by the illness in a clip shared exclusively with PEOPLE.
“At my 33rd birthday, I thought I was saying goodbye to all my friends because I thought I was on my way out,” the Olympic diver, now 64, recalls.
“Every time I’d get a sniffle, every time I’d cough, I’d think, ‘Oh my God, this is it,’ ” he says, noting that funding into HIV/AIDS research gave him another chance.
“I got the right treatment and I’m still here.”
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The four-time Olympic gold medalist was diagnosed with HIV just six months ahead of competing in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.
“People in USA diving used to have team meetings that I wasn’t invited to because they had to figure out who was going to room with the f–,” he recalls.
Phill Wilson, CEO of the Black AIDS Institute, also shares his story in the documentary.
“I was all of 27. I got my results back, and they came back positive … They gave me six months and apparently somebody else has another plan.”
Activist Peter Staley recalls his own fears: “I thought I was going to lose everything. I thought I had about two years to live everything and I was going to lose my job and my family and my life.”
He then praises the advances in medicine that have allowed him to continue to fight for impacted communities. “If you can take just one pill a day,” he says, “you can live to old age. And that’s a miracle.”
The four-part documentary, broken down by generation (Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z) and in this episode, also features interviews with Gen X staples like Tony Hawk, Alyssa Milano, Judd Nelson and Darryl McDaniels, among others talking pop culture and news headlines.
Learn more about the moments that defined Generation X, as narrated by Ethan Hawke, with My Generation, airing Oct. 12 at 9 p.m. ET on MSNBC.
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