According to Ben Turner, Purdue swimming and diving’s strategic communications manager, Olympic diver Tyler Downs is not currently a student at Purdue University, the Purdue Exponent reports. And while there was no reason given for his departure, the Exponent claims that the Purdue sports information director said “Men’s Swimming & Diving has left the door open for his return.”
Downs is not listed on Purdue’s 2022-23 roster and was absent from the Boilermakers’ season opener against Missouri that took place this past weekend. However, he still has “IN” in his Instagram bio, which is short for the state of Indiana (Purdue is located in West Lafayette, Indiana).
SwimSwam has reached out to Downs regarding why he left Purdue, and what plans he has for the future of his career.
At the 2022 NCAA Championships, Downs won a title in the platform diving event, in addition to finishing ninth in the one-meter and fifth in the three-meter. He scored 43 individual points—the tenth most out of any swimmer or diver at men’s NCAAs. His 43 individual points also made up half of Purdue’s 85 total points from that meet, which earned them a 16th-place finish as a team. Aside from Downs, the Boilermakers’ top scorers were divers Jordan Rzepka (19 points), Gregory Duncan (12 points), and Benjamin Bramley (7 points), with Duncan and Bramley having graduated since then.
With Downs gone now, Rzepka is Purdue’s only returning NCAA scorer. This means that the team’s ranking is going to take a major hit, as removing Duncan, Bramley, and Downs’ points would move the team from 16th down to 30th at NCAAs last year.
Although he’s likely not competing in the NCAA anymore, Downs has not retired from diving, as he is entered in the Berlin stop of the FINA Diving World Cup set to begin on October 20, 2022.
At the 2020 Olympic Games, Downs finished 23rd overall in the men’s three-meter springboard event. He also competed at the 2022 World Championships, where he was 12th in the one-meter springboard and 20th in the three-meter springboard. Downs is a popular social media personality, having amassed over 882,000 followers on TikTok.
Oh is that what IN stands for? Huge if true
Ripfest, where he trained before college is also in INdiana.
He’s a “social media personality” on TikTok. He probably sees that, not diving, and his professional future.
No one should be surprised at this, given he finished NCAA’s and went straight to the Oscar’s.
Let’s just say the “student” portion of student-athlete wasn’t really working out for him…
I mean, I know this will be the unpopular opinion, but I really do not understand him turning professional (if that’s what he’s doing.) He’s not AMAZING in diving and I’m assuming most of his income comes from being an influencer. It just seems like a very risky decision to make given that we’ve seen many influencers rise and fall in short periods of time.
He didn’t have a choice if you don’t go to classes!
This is old news!
College isn’t for everyone. It’s not always a choice between turning professional or doing four years of college and graduating.