David Boudia and Steele Johnson lead the men’s synchro 10-meter diving trails. The U.S. Olympic trials in diving started last Saturday and the will run until June 26 at the Natatorium at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).

On Sunday, during the preliminary trial, Boudia and Steele became the leaders in diving with a total of 835.56 points. On Thursday’s finals, Boudia and Steele will lead the diving trails with 124.98 points of difference from those placed at the second pace: Ryan Hawkins and Toby Stanley with 710.58 points. Zach Cooper and Max Showalter are in third place with 698.46 points.

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Boudia and Johnson have a long history together, though; they both grew up in the Indianapolis suburbs. Credit: NBC Olympics Rio 2016

Although both divers got a significant leadership last Sunday, they are aware of the qualities of each other and there is so much improvement that could be done.

After the semifinals for the U.S. Olympic team, Boudia said: “Steele was rock solid (in the semis); I think he would say his last dive he wishes he would’ve done a little better. I was the extremely weak link in this competition. I missed my last two dives terribly and those are the kind of dives that you don’t expect to do that. At the end of the day this is a semifinal, it is a stepping stone and you learn from these competitions. And hopefully you can grab some little snippet of what went wrong and go onto finals.”

This year, Boudia is looking to qualify for his fourth Olympics which might be his last one, indeed. At the 2012 London Olympics, he won a gold medal in men’s 10-meter synchronized diving. Also, Boudia owns silver medals from the 2015, 2013, and 2011 World Championships.

In turn, Johson is aiming at his first participation in Olympics. After getting a second place during the semifinals, the 20-year-old diver spoke about his experience of competing with Boudia: “I think it’s super exciting to be back home at the Nat in Indianapolis racing in front of my friends and family. I looked out into the stands and saw everyone wearing my shirts. It’s definitely kind of a surreal moment because I was sitting up in the stands in ‘08 watching this guy (Boudia) qualify for his first Olympics, and now to be in the position where if all goes well on Thursday, I’ll be qualifying for my first Olympics. So I have high energy and big motivation to rest well on the off days.”

Nevertheless, it is not the first time these divers share a 10-meter pool for competition. In February, Boudia and Johnson got a fourth place in a World Cup event in Rio for a qualifying spot in the synchro 10-meter for their country.

https://twitter.com/Steele_Johnson/status/701557228898283520

The winner of diving trials final will make the American diving team for 2016 Rio Olympics.

Source: SwimSwam