Boilermakers Country

Olympian David Boudia Joins Purdue Diving as a Full-Time Assistant Coach

Olympian and former NCAA champion David Boudia will work with coach Adam Soldati as an assistant coach for the Purdue diving team. Boudia won eight Big Ten titles and a pair of NCAA titles for the Boilermakers in each season from 2009 to 2011.

D.J. Fezler

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — David Boudia, a Purdue alumnus, Olympic gold medalist and NCAA champions, was hired to take on a full-time assistant coaching role with Purdue diving. 

Boudia will work alongside coach Adam Soldati, who's trained the Boilermaker divers since the spring of 2005 and coached Boudia to four Olympic medals. Boudia trained at the Burke Aquatic Center since closing out his college career as a six-time NCAA champion in 2011 and has also served as a volunteer assistant under Soldati.

Boudia is a three-time Olympian in the 10-meter dive and won two medals at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. His gold medal in 2012 was the first by an American man in the event since Greg Louganis in 1988. 

Four years later, he teamed with Purdue diver Steele Johnson to win a silver medal in the synchronized 10-meter dive. Boudia also won bronze in both London and Rio. 

Boudia made his Olympic debut as a 19-year-old in 2008. Despite changing events to the 3-meter dive, he nearly became a four-time Olympian when he finished third in the event at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials last month.

Since platform diving was added to the NCAA Championships in 1990, Boudia and Johnson are the only divers in the country to win NCAA titles in all three events during their careers.

“David’s success at the NCAA and Olympic levels has had a positive impact on everyone at the pool,” Soldati said in a release. “As a fulltime coach and staff member with us now, he can continue to inspire and instruct everyone as we work to sustain our level of excellence. I’ve been successful in guiding our divers into positions where they can flourish and perform at a high level. But David can share with them what it’s like to actually compete at the elite levels. That will only help us get better in the years to come.”

Incoming Purdue athletes Jordan Rzepka and Sophie McAfee joined Tyler Downs among the top teenage performers at the Olympic Trials. They’ll have the opportunity to learn from Boudia at Purdue.

“Purdue Diving has a history of greatness in large part due to Adam Soldati,” Boudia said. “I am looking forward to standing beside him as we work to continue this legacy, coaching our divers to reach their greatest potential. I’m excited for this opportunity to remain an active part of the excellence at Purdue.”

Boudia is a 21-time USA Diving national champion. He was named Purdue Male Athlete of the Year three times during his college career, and he won eight Big Ten titles and a pair of NCAA titles in each of three appearances at the national championship meet from 2009 to 2011. 

In 2011, Boudia was recognized as the Big Ten Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year, and he remains the only diver to ever win the award. Boudia was inducted into the Purdue Athletics Hall of Fame in September 2016. 

Boudia’s four Olympic medals are tied for second-most by any American diver, just one shy of Louganis’ record five. Boudia and his wife, Sonnie, were married in the fall of 2012. They are the parents of three children – daughters, Dakoda and Mila, and a son, Knox.

“David has set a high standard of training and performance at the Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center for a long time,” Soldati said. “I’m grateful he has chosen to continue to assist me in teaching our Boilermakers what it takes to excel at a high level. He brings a tremendous amount of wisdom to the table and will be a great asset for our program on multiple levels.”

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D.J. Fezler
D.J. FEZLER

D.J. Fezler is a staff writer for BoilermakersCountry.com. Hailing from The Region, he is from Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana and has spent the last two years covering Purdue football and basketball. 

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