The USA Diving Senior National Championships, which run through this weekend at the IU Natatorium in downtown Indianapolis, offer fans a chance to see the best divers in the country compete.
The event, which is part of the Team USA Champions Series, presented by Xfinity, serves as an opportunity for athletes to qualify for this summer’s Pan American Games in Peru and the FINA World Championships in South Korea.
The finals began on Sunday, with championships having been awarded so far in the four Olympic synchronized events and two mixed-gender synchro events, as well as individual 1-meter.
The individual Olympic-event finals are coming up this weekend, with men's 3-meter and women's platform on Saturday and men's platform and women's 3-meter on Sunday. Saturday's events will be broadcast live on NBCSN (12:30 p.m. ET) and NBC (2 p.m. ET).
Among those who will be competing this weekend are six Olympians, all of whom represented Team USA at the Olympic Games Rio 2016. Ahead of the competition, here’s a look at what the Olympians have been up to since leaving Rio.
David Boudia (2008, 2012, 2016)
The most decorated of the athletes competing this weekend, Boudia is a three-time Olympian and four-time Olympic medalist in 10-meter platform, having won an individual gold medal in 2012. The Lafayette, Indiana, native and Purdue grad comes into Indianapolis with a different look, though. Following a post-Olympic break from the sport, Boudia is back — but competing on the 3-meter springboard.
Boudia began his comeback on the international stage with a silver medal in the 3-meter event at the Gold Coast Grand Prix meet in Australia in November 2018. His effort at his first competition since Rio and first in his first 3-meter competition since 2014 earned him mention as a finalist for the United States Olympic Committee’s Best of November for Team USA Awards.
Since competing in Rio, Boudia and wife Sonnie have welcomed two more children to their family: daughter Mila (2017) and son Knox (2019), who join daughter Dakoda, who was born in 2014.
Amy Cozad Magaña (2016)
Shortly after finishing seventh in the 10-meter synchro event in Rio, Amy Cozad married Alex Magaña to become Amy Cozad Magaña. The Indianapolis native continues to be a factor on the platform, both individually and with current synchronized teammate Daryn Wright.
On Monday, Magaña and Wright finished second in the synchronized event. Now the 28-year-old will go for her third 10-meter individual national title, and her first at the summer nationals. Magaña is coming off a win at the 2018 Winter Trials in December, and she finished second at the FINA Grand Prix last month in Mission Viejo, California.
Michael Hixon (2016)
A 2016 Olympic silver medalist alongside Sam Dorman, Hixon has since joined forces with former Indiana University teammate Andrew Capobianco for the 3-meter synchro event after Dorman retired last year, and they’ve gotten off to a strong start. The duo went from second at the 2018 U.S. championships to first at the winter trials in December, and last month they claimed a bronze medal at the FINA Diving World Series event in Montreal, marking their first international competition together. On Monday, they opened the senior nationals by winning their first national title together and securing their spot at worlds.
Now Hixon, a 3-meter bronze medalist at the Summer Youth Olympic Games Singapore 2010, is climbing the ranks individually, too. He won his lone world championships medal in 2015 in the non-Olympic 1-meter discipline, and finished 10th in the 3-meter in Rio. At the Montreal Grand Prix, he just missed the finals after finishing fourth in the semis.
An Amherst, Massachusetts, native, Hixon graduated from Indiana in May 2018, completing a career in which he won three NCAA titles, two of them coming while competing for Texas.
Steele Johnson (2016)
Johnson, a Carmel, Indiana, native, has been busy since teaming up with Boudia to win a 10-meter synchro silver medal in Rio. In 2017, he got married. In 2018, he had two surgeries on his right foot, and in March he announced that he would be forgoing his final season of college eligibility to turn pro. Then, in May, he received his diploma in interdisciplinary film and video studies from Purdue.
All told collegiately, Johnson earned five NCAA diving crowns, joining Boudia (6) and Troy Dumais (7) as the only NCAA male divers with at least five titles.
Now he’s looking to make a mark both individually and in synchro. Last year, Johnson and Brandon Loschiavo won the synchronized event at nationals. This year, Johnson and Benjamin Bramley finished second and their cumulative score from prelims and the final earned them the spot for world championships.
Individually, Johnson is coming off a fourth-place finish on the 3-meter at last year’s national championships and a 10th-place finish at the Montreal World Series.
Jessica Parratto (2016)
Parratto, who finished 10th individually on the platform in Rio, has been busy racking up honors as a collegiate athlete at Indiana, including four Big Ten titles and two NCAA medals. The Dover, New Hampshire, native was named Big Ten Diver of the championships in 2019 after winning the conference titles in the 1-meter and platform events and finishing third in 3-meter. At the NCAA championships, the redshirt senior was third in 10-meter, ninth in the 1-meter and 20th in the 3-meter.
Having graduated from IU in May, Parratto now looks to continue her success on the national and international levels. She opened the national championships with a third-place finish in the 10-meter synchro event on Monday, teaming up with Delaney Schnell. In total, she has won eight national titles, including two individually, on the platform.
Parratto, who was Indiana’s female Big Ten Medal of Honor winner, also competed in the synchronized platform event in Rio, finishing seventh with partner Amy Cozad (now Magaña).
Katrina Young (2016)
Already a national champion this year in the synchronized platform event, Young will be a favorite going into the individual event, too. She started the U.S. championships by teaming with Samantha Bromberg to win the synchronized event on Tuesday and guarantee herself an appearance at worlds. It was the latest run of success for the pair, who also won the winter trials in December and finished third at last month’s grand prix event in Mission Viejo.
Individually, Young — who finished 13th in Rio — is coming off a U.S. title in 2018, followed by a runner-up finish at the winter trials. In April, she also competed solo at the World Series event in Montreal, finishing seventh. A native of Shoreline, Washington, Young graduated from Florida State in 2015.
Wendy Mayer is a writer from Raytown, Missouri, who has been involved in sports for more than 20 years, including 17 years in collegiate athletics media relations. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
