Olympic medalist Greg Louganis' estranged husband John Chaillot files for divorce after nearly eight years of marriage

Greg Louganis has filed for divorce from his estranged husband, John Chaillot.

Paperwork to dissolve the union was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court last week, TMZ reports.

The decision to end the eight-year marriage was mutual, the website reports, and the 61-year-old gold medalist expressed gratitude for the couple's friends and supporters. 

Louganis and Chaillot were first romantically connected in 2012 after they initially met on the Match dating site. 

They went on to announce their engagement in June of 2013 and tied the knot later that year. 

Shortly after the two decided to tie the knot, the athlete spoke to People about his desire to be with the paralegal for the rest of his life.  

'I finally met my soul mate – the more I fall in love with Johnny, the more I fall in love with myself. This is what the universe had in store for both of us,' he said.  

Following the pair's nuptials, Louganis told People that their wedding had been a transformative experience. 

The former Olympian told the media outlet, 'I already feel different. The ceremony was so reflective and representative of who we are.'

He then expressed that he had grown especially close to his husband in the relatively brief period of time that they had been together. 

The athlete remarked, 'It has been an incredible journey...I feel like we’ve been through a lifetime in a very short time.'  

Prior to becoming involved with his estranged husband, Louganis was in a relationship with R. James Babbitt that lasted throughout much of the 1980s. 

The former Olympian later alleged that he had been sexually assaulted at knifepoint by his former partner, from whom he eventually filed a restraining order.

Babbitt later passed away from the effects of AIDS shortly after informing the diver about his status in 1988.

The athlete found out that he had tested positive for HIV that same year, shortly before the start of the Olympics in South Korea.  

Their relationship was later expanded on in the 1997 television film Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story, which saw Mario Lopez portraying the diver. 

Louganis kept the news about his condition under wraps for several years, during which his health deteriorated to the point where he began to fear that his life was coming to an end.

The diver waited for his health to significantly recover before he publicly spoke about his experience with the disease during a widely publicized 1995 interview with Barbara Walters.

He has been a vocal advocate for HIV awareness and LGBT rights ever since then, and his life and career were covered in the 2014 documentary Back on Board: Greg Louganis.