BWW Interviews - Greg Louganis, Louis Anderson Chat ABC's SPLASH

Joey Lawrence and Charissa Thompson serve as hosts of the new ABC diving competition series, SPLASH where ten celebrity contestants will face their fears as they flip, twist and spin into the depths of the pool below.

Leading up to the competition, the world's most decorated and medaled diving legend, Greg Louganis, will give each celebrity weeks of training. Each dive will be critiqued by the judges, London Olympic U.S. Gold medalist David Boudia and Australian Olympic athlete and USA Dive Team director Steve Foley. The series premieres tonight, TUESDAY, MARCH 19 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network."

Greg Louganis and Emmy Award-winning comedian Louie Anderson spoke exclusively to BWW about what it takes to dive from dizzying heights in front of a weekly poolside audience!

Louis, I wanted to start by asking - what possessed you to join this series?! Did you have any prior diving experience?

LA: You know, I can't really give you an honest opinion on what possessed me to do it. I guess BWW Interviews - Greg Louganis, Louis Anderson Chat ABC's SPLASH
it's like if you get asked a question at the right time and then you agree do it and then you go, "Did I really just agree to do that?" I think it kind of went like that in some ways. I could swim, I taught myself how to swim about five years ago, I'm a marginal swimmer but no diving experience whatsoever. So I didn't know what I was doing coming in, I just thought, "Well, it's pretty straight forward. You dive off something into something." But of course it's a lot more than that. So that's really how it came about.

Do you have a fear of heights?

LA: I do, I am afraid of heights.

Well good for you for taking on that phobia.

LA: Yeah, you know I just felt that you only live once and you know this is a gift from God. If I get this opportunity, there must be some reason I'm supposed to do it.

Greg, how do you go about teaching someone with such little experience how to dive and how do you help them overcome that fear factor?

GL: Well there's so many different skill sets that it takes to be a diver and we try to work with the fundamentals. For Louis it was about getting him to learn about working out and about how to get fit, keeping your heart rate up and climbing the stairs and gaining some core strength. So each one of our celebrities has a different journey and we're following that journey. And it's such a privilege to be on that journey with them. And I try to bring some fun and joy into the process. Diving is something that I love and have done for a lifetime.

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