David Boudia (L) and Katrina Young pose with their medals at the Gold Coast Grand Prix on Nov. 17, 2018 in Gold Coast, Australia.
More than two years away from diving competition doesn’t appear to have hurt four-time Olympic medalist David Boudia.
The 29-year-old from Noblesville, Indiana, competed for the first time since the Olympic Games Rio 2016 this week at the Gold Coast Grand Prix in Australia and on Saturday captured the silver medal in men’s 3-meter springboard.
Known as a 10-meter platform diver, Boudia last competed on 3-meter at the 2014 FINA Diving World Cup.
Boudia was in fourth place after the fourth round in the final, but then in the fifth round, performed a reverse 3½ tuck that moved him into third. In the last round, his front 2½ somersaults with two twists scored 76.50 points to give him a total of 422.05, just 7.40 points behind winner Kevin Chavez of Australia, a former world medalist on 1-meter.
Boudia competed at the Olympics for the first time in 2008 in Beijing and began his medal haul four years later in London, where he won 10-meter individual gold and 10-meter synchro bronze with Nick McCrory. Then in 2016 in Rio, he captured silver in the 10-meter synchro with Steele Johnson and bronze in the 10-meter individual.
The former Purdue star took a year off after Rio to evaluate his future then in late 2017 announced his plans to return to competition and hopefully make the 2020 Olympic team. In May, however, Boudia revealed that he was suffering from a concussion that would keep him out of most of 2018’s competitions. He was initially slated to return at the 2018 nationals in hopes of qualifying for the World Cup.
2016 Olympian Katrina Young also medaled for the U.S. on Friday, winning bronze in the women’s 10-meter final.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
