Olympic Gold Medal-Winning Diver David Boudia Retires at 33

Four-time Olympic medal-winning diver David Boudia has announced his retirement from competition.

Boudia, 33, is the most accomplished American diver of his generation, and is one of the few divers in the last 30 years to have won an Olympic gold medal representing a country besides China.

Boudia won his first major international medal when he took bronze on platform at the 2007 World Championships. He also won gold on platform at the 2007 Pan American Games that season.

A year later, the Texas native made his Olympic debut at the 2008 Beijing Games in the synchronized 10 meter platform event with partner Thomas Finchum, as well as the individual platform event. While he didn’t medal in either (10th individually, 5th in synchro), that set up a run of silver medals at four straight World Championships: in synchro in 2009 with Finchum, and individually in 2011, 2013, and 2015.

His biggest success came at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, where he won an individual gold medal on the 10 meter platform event. He became the first American gold medalist in the event since Greg Louganis in 1988. That is one of only two American gold medals in diving since the 1992 Olympics (Laura Wilkinson, 2000).

He and his new partner Nick McCrory also won a bronze medal in the 10-meter synchro event at those Games.

Four years later, in Rio, Boudia took bronze individually and paired with Steele Johnson for silver in the men’s 10-meter synchro event.

Boudia compete at the Tokyo 2020 US Olympic Diving Trials only in the 3-meter springboard events, eschewing his traditional platform diving. In the individual event, he led through preliminary and semifinal rounds, but ultimately placed 3rd. He and partner Steele Johnson placed 3rd in the 3-meter synchro event as well, where only one slot for the Olympics was available.

At Purdue, Boudia was a six-time NCAA Champion. He was also named USA Diving’s Athlete of the Year eight times. His 21 US National titles ranks him 3rd in American history behind Greg Louganis (47) and Troy Dumais (38).

Away from competition, Boudia served as a judge on the ABC show Splash in 2013, which lasted just one season. He and his wife, Sonnie Brand, have three children: Dakoda, 8; Mia Primm, 5; and Knox, 3.