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Soldati strikes Olympic gold with diving champ Boudia

Open field

After coaching his star diving pupil David Boudia to the bronze medal at the London Olympic in the men’s synchronized 10-meter platform event with USA teammate Nicholas McCrory at the beginning of the 2012 summer games, Sonoma’s Adam Soldati guided Boudia to a golden moment at the end of the global event.

With Soldati – a 1992 Sonoma Valley High School graduate and current head coach at Purdue University in Indiana, where he is a five-time Big-10 Conference diving coach of the year – watching intensely from pool side, Boudia shocked dominant China by upsetting Qiu Bo to win the 10-meter platform diving gold medal.

I watched Boudia – who gave the United States its first diving gold medal since the 2000 Sidney Games – execute near-perfect dives in glorious fashion as Adam broke into a triumphant cheer and then hugged his two-medal winning diver.

For Adam, a member of the SVHS Dragon Athletic Hall of Fame – the gold and bronze medals have etched his name into United States dive-coaching lore.

In 2010, Adam coached the U.S. diving team to its first World Cup win since 1985; he’s been named the American head coach for the USA Grand Prix multiple times; and his divers have earned more than two-dozen medals at international competitions and U.S. national meets, as well as six championships. He’s also coached nine U.S. junior national champions.

As a competitor, Soldati was a prep standout for the SVHS Dragons, winning the Sonoma County League diving championship, then moving on to Santa Rosa Junior College, where, as a Bear Cub, he claimed the state junior college diving title.

Soldati then became a scholarship diver for Indiana University, helping it capture third place in 1996-97 Big Ten swimming and diving championships. He individually qualified for, and competed in, the NCAA indoor and outdoor platform diving championships and got to compete in the Olympic trials.

While now being a two-time Olympic coach, Soldati attended his first summer games at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where he was a supporter of his wife, Kimiko, who was the best 3-meter diver in the country and a member of the United States women's Olympic diving team.

The Soldatis, along with their four children – Blake, 6, Isaac, 4, Maiya, 2, and Emiko, 8-months – are now glowing in the golden Olympic moment, which should last them another four years until the 2016 Brazil games.

Ciao!