David Boudia & Steele Johnson Take Silver Medal in Rio!

Tuheir first event is in the books and it was a ridiculously successful one for Purdue’s Steele Johnson and David Boudia. the duo, representing the United States in the Men’s 10-meter synchronized diving event, won the silver medal on Monday.

The gold was won by China’s Chen Aisen and Lin Yue, who led from the first dive to the last. The degree of difficulty went up with each successive round, and it showed int he scores. The U.S. had a 54.00 in round 1 and a 53.80 in round 2. By round 3 they dropped an 82.52, but China was better in each round.

The Chinese had consecutive 57s followed by an impressive 92.82 on their third dive. to push their lead to nearly 16 points at the halfway point. Boudia and Johnson were slightly off on their fourth dive, but it was still good enough for an 85.68. The Chinese were a little off on theirs allowing Boudia and Johnson to edge slightly closer with an 85.32.

By round 5 it was pretty clear the U.S. were the only ones with a chance to catch the Chinese. The Germans had a fantastic fourth round to get close, however, putting the silver medal in slight jeopardy.

The U.S. took care of that with a solid fifth dive that netted the man 85.47. it wasn’t perfect, but the degree of difficult was enough for a higher score. the Chinese blew them out of the water, however, with a 106.56 on a spectacular dive. That made the final dive pretty much academic.

The Americans still needed to hold off the Germans and British for the silver, however. Germans finished at 438.2 with a subpar final dive. The American dropped an impressive 95.04 in their final dive, but the Chinese needed only a 60 or so on their final dive to give the U.S. the gold. The Chinese dropped a 98.28.

So China won with a score of 496.98. The Americans were second with a 457.11. The British had a hell of a final dive to get the bronze with a 444.45.