David Boudia retires after golden career: 'Eyes set for Paris 2024, just in a new role.'

Noblesville diver David Boudia, the second-most decorated Indiana athlete in Olympic history, announced Wednesday he is retiring from competition.

Boudia, 33, won four medals at three Olympics, including gold on 10-meter platform at London in 2012. He finished third on 3-meter springboard – one spot from Team USA – in the 2021 Olympic Trials at Indianapolis.

“You always hear people say you’ll know when it’s time to hang it up, and I never believed that. I do now,” Boudia wrote in an Instagram post. “I took my final dive at Olympic Trials in 2021 and the following months were rough.

“But ever since that dive, not once have I had a feeling of ‘I need to get back in.’”

More: David Boudia overcame drug use, suicidal thoughts

Boudia has continued in the sport as an assistant diving coach at Purdue, his alma mater. He was also an assistant coach for Team USA at the recent World Championships.

The only other Indiana athlete to win as many as four Olympic medals is Lafayette's Ray Ewry, also of Purdue. Ewry won eight golds in standing jumps — all discontinued events — in 1900, 1904 and 1908.

Boudia is an eight-time USA Diving athlete of the year, six-time NCAA champion at Purdue and 2005 IHSA state champ.

In 2019, at age 30, Boudia won a landmark 21^st national title, making up a 28-point deficit with four dives to go on 10-meter platform at Indianapolis. He ranks third in history among American men behind Greg Louganis (47) and Troy Dumais (38).

At the 2012 London Olympics, Boudia barely advanced out of prelims in 18^th and was third in semifinals. Scores began from scratch in the final. Boudia came through on his final dive to score 568.65 points, beating world champion Qiu Bo of China (566.85) and Britain’s Tom Daley (556.95).

It was the United States’ first gold medal in Olympic diving since Laura Wilkinson on women’s 10-meter in 2000 and first in the event by a U.S. men's diver since Greg Louganis in 1988.

Boudia wrote hearing his name as “Olympic champion” still sends shivers up his spine.

“(B)ut even more than, it was because of diving I found my purpose in life: ‘to glorify God and enjoy (H)im forever,' " he wrote.

Before the 2016 Rio Olympics, Boudia wrote a memoir, “Greater than Gold,” in which he revealed struggles with drug use and suicidal thoughts.

At Rio, he won a bronze medal on 10-meter and, with Carmel’s Steele Johnson, a silver medal in the synchronized event.

Boudia’s consistency at or near the top of the world has been matched by few. He was a World Cup bronze medalist on 10-meter as long ago as 2008 – eight years before his bronze at Rio de Janiero -- and nearly made his first Olympic team at age 15 in 2004.

So not only did he compete in three Olympics, he nearly did so in five. In an era in which Chinese divers usually claimed the top two spots, Boudia won four silvers on 10-meter at World Championships: 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015.

On Instagram, he wrote:

“I look forward to continuing to be immersed in the diving world as a coach and see what the next chapter holds. Eyes set for Paris 2024, just in a new role.”

Contact IndyStar reporter David Woods at david.woods@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: USA gold-medal winning diver David Boudia retires from competition