Greg Louganis, the four-time Olympic gold medal-winning diver, will be awarded an accolade that has eluded him for decades, thanks to a Chicago woman's petition campaign: a Wheaties box. 
 
 Wheaties maker General Mills said on Tuesday Louganis, along with swimmer Janet Evans and track and field star Edwin Moses, will be featured on "Wheaties Legends" boxes that will appear in stores starting in May. 
 
 Greg Louganis is also widely known for hitting his head on the diving platform during rounds at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. In 1995, he revealed he was gay and had been diagnosed as HIV-positive six months before that accident in 1988. 
 
 Julie Sondgerath, an IT consultant in Chicago, started the petition last summer. She said she was inspired to start the campaign after seeing a documentary on Louganis' life, HBO's "Back on Board: Greg Louganis." 
 
 Wheaties boxes General Mills Edwin Moses, left, Janet Evans and Greg Louganis will appear on Wheaties boxes starting in May. Edwin Moses, left, Janet Evans and Greg Louganis will appear on Wheaties boxes starting in May. (General Mills) 
 
 The documentary highlights Louganis' life that's now largely spent out of the public eye, discussing the struggle of being gay as a young diver, his HIV-positive status and in the later years, struggling with financial instability and navigating a return to diving as a mentor for Team USA. 
 
 "I was so distraught I started the petition that first night," Sondgerath recalled. "I told my husband the next day, 'I think I just did something random and crazy.' I feel like if I waited and did it the next morning, I wouldn't have had the courage." 
 
 Sondgerath, who was in high school when Louganis won gold, said she found Greg Louganis' email online the next day with a link to the petition. He returned the note that same day, thanking her, but at the same time, Sondgerath said it seemed like Louganis didn't have much hope that anything would come of it. 
 
 "I think really he resigned himself to the fact it wasn't going to happen," she said. 
 
 The petition eventually received more than 40,000 signatures after promotion from various media outlets and even Louganis himself. Sondgerath said she delivered it to General Mills' Minneapolis headquarters in September. She said she met with top brass about the campaign, but that there weren't any promises made at that time about whether Louganis would make it on a box. 
 
 General Mills spokesman Mike Siemienas said the petition didn't have a direct impact on the decision, but rather the company took into consideration the accomplishments of all three athletes "on and off the field." 
 
 Siemienas also brushed off the possibility that General Mills left Louganis off a Wheaties box when he won gold in 1984 and 1988 due to prejudice. 
 
 "They didn't come out and say it, but the message was loud and clear. They knew I was rumored to be gay, and homosexuality wasn't going to fly on a wholesome Wheaties box," Louganis wrote last year on celebrity social media service WhoSay. 
 
 In 1984, Mary Lou Retton made it on a Wheaties box after winning a gold medal in U.S. gymnastics with a perfect score on the vault. In 1988, the honor went to Michael Jordan. 
 
 "There's still a lot of gold medal athletes that don't appear on a Wheaties box," Siemienas said. The "Wheaties Legends" series features athletes after they retire from competition. 
 
 Siemienas pointed to Louganis' accomplishments now as well as his diving domination three decades ago as equal factors in the selection process. Beyond his mentorship of the U.S. Olympic diving team, he's a Special Olympics ambassador and motivational speaker. 
 
 After the petition gained attention last fall, Louganis said that he holds no ill will toward General Mills for not appearing on the Wheaties box, but he still wanted the honor for his supporters. 
 
 "Do I need the Wheaties box to feel fulfilled? Absolutely not," he wrote on WhoSay. "To simply be here, living my life as my true self is rewarding enough. However, I feel like I owe this box to my friends, family, and fans that have been cheering me on for decades. Sure, the Wheaties cover would have been cool in 1984 ... but after all we've been through, it would be even more iconic now." 
 
 Sondgerath said she's amazed by the response to the petition, but said for her, this was a unique call to action. 
 
 "This came from such an innocent and authentic place," Sondgerath said. "It really was one of those moments where I immediately thought that something wrong and it was such an easy thing to fix." 
 
 The Wheaties boxes will be in stores for three to six months, depending on retailers' stocks. 
 
 sbomkamp@tribpub.com 
 
 Twitter @SamWillTravel 

 Better Late Than Never: Olympic Champion Greg Louganis Gets His Wheaties Box 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy Of General Mills Courtesy Of General Mills 
 
 In his competitive diving career, four-time Olympic diving gold medalist and five-time world champion Greg Louganis has been all over the world. Now he'll be in one place that's eluded him for years: your kitchen table. 
 
 Wheaties announced that Louganis — who is openly gay and HIV-positive — along with two other former Olympians, hurdler Edwin Moses and swimmer Janet Evans, will be featured on the cereal boxes as part of the revamped "legends" series. 
 
 In a 2015 HBO documentary called Back on Board: Greg Louganis, the diver said he understood that he wasn't featured on the Wheaties box during the prime of his career in the 1980s because he didn't fit the company's requirement of a "wholesome image," as he was rumored to be gay. He came out publicly about his sexual identity and HIV-positive status in 1995. 
 
 Louganis says he is glad to finally be getting the recognition. 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy Of General Mills Courtesy Of General Mills 
 
 "[It's] so incredible to be honored with the likes of Edwin Moses — we were in our first Olympic games in 1976 together," Louganis told NPR's All Things Considered. "Janet Evans — we trained at Mission Viejo together — I watched her grow up." 
 
 Louganis became the only man to sweep the Olympic diving events in back-to-back games when he won gold medals in both springboard and platform diving in the '84 and '88 Olympics. He's now a role model for other athletes including British Olympic diver Tom Daley, who came out as gay when he was around 20 years old. 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy Of General Mills Courtesy Of General Mills 
 
 "I would have always wanted someone like him as a role model on the front of a cereal box," Daley told NPR's Ari Shapiro. "He's a great model and forever will be the greatest diver to walk this earth." 
 
 General Mills spokesman Mike Siemienas told NPR he couldn't provide an answer as to why Louganis wasn't on the box previously because no one who was involved in those decisions still worked at the company. Siemienas said a committee is responsible for determining which athletes are on the boxes. 
 
 Wheaties unveiled the "legends" cereal boxes after the documentary detailing Louganis' athletic career and experiences as a gay man sparked a petition on Change.org to get the diver on the iconic Wheaties cereal box. Created by Julie Sondgerath, who had never met Louganis, the petition garnered nearly 45,000 signatures. 
 
 Wheaties told NPR that the petition did not factor into the decision to put Louganis on a Wheaties box. 
 
 "We were aware of the petition, as we see this all the time from fans wanting their favorite athlete on the box," Siemienas said. "But appearing on a Wheaties box is not a popularity contest. Wheaties chooses athletes based on their achievements on and off their field of play." 
 
 As for Louganis, he says that he appreciates the honor more now than he would have in the 1980s. 
 
 "Back in '95, I wasn't expected to live very long because we thought of HIV-AIDS as a death sentence, so to be here today, now 56, the box means so much more to me than it would have then because I feel like I'm being embraced as a whole person, not just for my athletic achievements." 

 Greg Louganis set a diving record in the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles when he won two gold medals. He became the first man to reach 700 in platform diving. Greg was diving's superstar and Swimming World named him "The Greatest Diver Ever." At the time, General Mills explained Louganis did not meet their "wholesome demographics" to grace the cover of the famed coveted Wheaties box. Greg Louganis deserves (still) to be on the cover of the Wheaties box. And with marriage equality passing in June of 2015, what a great way to pay it forward to Greg and all of his accomplishments. After watching HBO's documentary Back on Board: Greg Louganis, I felt inspired to ask General Mills to right a wrong and put him on the Wheaties box.
– Greg Louganis is finally on a Wheaties box, three decades after his four Olympic gold medal wins. The diver won gold at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics, and though he didn't come out as gay until 1995 (when he also revealed he was HIV-positive), Louganis has argued in the past that rumors of his sexual orientation kept him off Wheaties boxes at the time (a charge Wheaties denies). Now, after a Chicago woman's petition, he's finally getting the honor, the Chicago Tribune reports. Julie Sondgerath started the petition last summer after watching an HBO documentary on Louganis; it eventually got more than 40,000 signatures, and on Tuesday, General Mills announced that Louganis would appear on "Wheaties Legends" boxes, which will be in stores for three to six months starting in May. Swimmer Janet Evans and track and field star Edwin Moses will also be featured on the boxes, which are intended for athletes who have retired from competition. Sondgerath sent a link to her petition to Louganis right after she started it, and he thanked her, but "I think really he resigned himself to the fact it wasn't going to happen," Sondgerath tells the Tribune. (General Mills says the petition didn't directly impact its decision to feature Louganis.) "Back in '95, I wasn't expected to live very long because we thought of HIV-AIDS as a death sentence," Louganis tells NPR. "So to be here today, now 56, the box means so much more to me than it would have then because I feel like I'm being embraced as a whole person, not just for my athletic achievements."