As Olympic trials draw near, Boudia set to plunge into coaching role

Diving requires an athlete to suspend the belief that their fear can hurt them.

It can’t, of course, because they’ve jumped from 10 meters – about the height of a three-story building – thousands of times. They’ve watched replays of themselves doing it and analyzed how to be better.

Still, bronze-medal 10 meter diver Jordan Rzepka compares it to skydiving. And he says he would never skydive.

“It’s terrifying,” he said. “But I love it.”

Divers like Rzepka spend little time dwelling on their fear, though. Because, like the smell of an old house, it just never goes away, no matter how much you mask it in air fresheners.

“You learn to trust yourself as you grow in the sport,” the junior said. “So that’s the biggest thing is just trusting that your body knows what to do because the fear doesn’t go away, ever, but you just get more comfortable with it.”

There’s a bit of that now, for Purdue diving past and present, as a program leader steps away in circumstances that hit like a Brinks truck and gnawed like a rat.

Nineteen-year leader of Purdue diving, Adam Soldati, coached his last day for Purdue Tuesday. He’s stepping away with only hints of gray spots in his beard because of an ALS diagnosis in February.

“From February through championships season (in early March), that was something that we were just chewing on and struggling with,” said David Boudia, who will try to fill Soldati’s shoes as the next coach. “And obviously there’s a lot of grief that came with it, day by day.”

“There’s no doubt at least for the first year, there’ll be transition lulls, but he’s trained me well,” Boudia said.

The training wheels will begin to loosen Monday. Purdue will send 12 divers to Olympic trials in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Soldati will begin the slow fade into retirement. He’s far from there right now, though.

“Technically, today is my last day of officially being on the pool deck coaching,” he said.

There will be plenty for Soldati to do on the non-technical, non-official side. He said he’ll guide Boudia through the Olympics season however he needs to, before becoming a consultant of sorts. He’ll get busy making binders, transferring his knowledge once he’s transferred his power. And he’ll focus on living the healthiest lifestyle possible.

The combination of Soldati and Boudia’s experience will be a boon, sophomore Daryn Wright said, both at the trials and whatever comes after them.

“Dave specifically, he knows how it feels,” Wright said. “So when I come up to him, and I’m like, ‘I feel this way. I’m not comfortable.’ He’s like, ‘I’ve been there. This is how I fixed it. I hope this will help you.’”

Nerves can get in the way, Soldati said.

“It feels different when you have cameras in your faces,” referencing reporters filming him as he spoke.

“There’s basically four years of anticipation for this one meet where you only do 15 dives,” Wright said.

There’s a clock on the wall of Morgan Burke Aquatic Center, counting down the days til that fateful event that has won Purdue diving such glory. It said 44 days Tuesday, as Rzepka nodded toward it.

“I’m like, oh boy, you know it’s game time,” he said. “So hopefully a little bit before, you want to start just dialing in on what you want to do. Start visualizing and feeling yourself at the competition. Knowing what the stress is going to be like and just putting yourself in the best position to dive the best you can.”

Then, in his USA diving shirt with an Olympics logo across the chest, he looked a little higher on the wall. The names up there were next to records. Boudia was printed four times. Silver-medalist Steele Johnson was up there twice.

“Hopefully, we can take down some of Boudia’s records,” Rzepka said.

“But we’ll see.”