WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. ââ'¬" Purdue's Adam Soldati has been selected as the assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic Diving Team at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Soldati will be part of the USA's official coaching staff at the Olympics again after Boilermakers David Boudia and Steele Johnson qualified as part of the 10-diver roster. They swept Team USA's individual 10-meter bids and will be the synchronized 10-meter team as well. Boudia became just the third Boilermaker across all sports to qualify for the Olympics three times. Under Soldati's guidance, he won gold (individual) and bronze (synchronized) medals at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Johnson will be making his first appearance at the Olympics.
Altogether, seven of Soldati's Purdue divers competed at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. The Boilermakers had a finalist in all five events in which they competed. Soldati has been the diving coach at Purdue since 2005 and is a four-time NCAA Diving Coach of the Year honoree.
Indiana University's Drew Johansen was selected as the head coach of U.S. Olympic Diving Team again after the Hoosiers had three divers qualify. Jessica Parratto (10-meter) and Michael Hixon (3-meter) qualified individually and as part of a synchronized team. Amy Cozad will be Parratto's partner for the 10-meter synchro competition.
Randy Ableman (University of Miami), Oleg Andriyuk (Stanford Diving), Ken Armstrong (The Woodlands Diving Academy), Nunzio Esposto (Duke Diving) and John Proctor (Florida State University) also will attend the Games as additional members of the coaching staff.
Boudia and Johnson compete Aug. 8 in synchronized 10-meter. The individual 10-meter competition begins with the preliminaries Aug. 19. The semifinals and finals are set for the following day as the final diving competition of the Rio Olympics. The Opening Ceremony is Aug. 5.
2016 U.S. Olympic Diving Team
David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind./West Lafayette, Ind.) -- Men's synchronized 10m, men's 10m
Kassidy Cook (The Woodlands, Texas) -- Women's 3m
Amy Cozad (Indianapolis, Ind./Bloomington, Ind.) -- Women's synchronized 10m
Sam Dorman (Tempe, Ariz./Miami, Fla.) -- Men's synchronized 3m
Michael Hixon (Amherst, Mass./Bloomington, Ind.) -- Men's synchronized 3m, 3m
Kristian Ipsen (Clayton, Calif./Stanford, Calif.) -- Men's 3m
Steele Johnson (Carmel, Ind./West Lafayette, Ind.) -- Men's synchronized 10m, men's 10m
Abby Johnston (Upper Arlington, Ohio/Durham, N.C.) -- Women's 3m
Jessica Parratto (Dover, N.H./Bloomington, Ind.) -- Women's 10m, synchronized 10m
Katrina Young (Shoreline, Wash./Tallahassee, Fla.) -- Women's 10m