The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series will make the second-to-last stop of its tour on Saturday, when it pays a visit to Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art.
The competition, which features 11 divers from nine different countries, has already made stops in Chile, Mexico, Athens, France and Italy en route to its upcoming trip to Boston.
Greg Louganis, who won gold for the United States at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics as a diver, joined the Cliff Diving World Series tour as a judge in Athens. While the event can be seen for free along Fan Pier, Louganis believes the show would be worthy of paying admission.
"There's some really amazing tricks that they're doing," Louganis said. "The kids that are involved are actual divers. Most of them have diving backgrounds … So basically the dives you'll see are the ones you'd see in the Olympic games."
Reigning champion Gary Hunt has a commanding lead in the event, which will conclude Sept. 4 with the finals in Ukraine. The Great Britain native has 89 points through five rounds, well ahead of the Czech Republic's Michal Navratil, who sits in second place with 60 points.
Unlike any of the past events, where natural cliffs were used, the divers will be making their leaps off the 80-foot-high roof of the ICA and into the Boston Harbor.
Louganis does not, however, expect this change to make much of a difference.
"That's what Red Bull's doing, they're sort of standardizing [the competiton]," he said. "It's supposed to be between 26 to 28 meters high, so the height is consistent. The water depth is generally safe.
"Like I said, the tricks they're doing are amazing. Their form, that's what we're looking for is overall as a judge, is the impression," he added.
Louganis retired shortly after the '88 Olympics. In the following years, he appeared in several movies and went on a book tour after co-writing his autobiography, "Breaking the Surface," which spent five weeks as the New York Times' No. 1 best seller.
Only recently has Louganis gotten back into the sport as a coach, but he said it has turned out to be a great decision for him.
"It's interesting because once I got back into it and started as mentor and doing a bit of coaching, I realized that I actually have something to offer young kids coming up," he said. "It's been an amazing journey discovering that … And the response has been terrific."
Currently, Louganis is helping out at diving camps and working as a mentor for USA diving. But that didn't stop him from jumping at the opportunity to be a judge at the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.
"I'm just ecstatic about [how the event is] really uniting diving," he said. "Whether it be high diving, cliff diving, Olympic diving, juniors or masters … It's an incredible group of talent at the event. Just bringing recognition to those individuals is a great thing."
