BTN's The B1G Story on Soldati & Boudia Set to Premiere

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The relationship between Purdue Diving’s Adam Soldati and David Boudia serves as the focal point for the Big Ten Network’s documentary The B1G Story: More Than A Coach, which premieres Friday night on BTN after Purdue Football’s season opener goes final.

Purdue’s season opener kicks off at 7 p.m. ET at Ross-Ade Stadium and is likely to go final around 10 p.m., after which BTN plans to premiere the latest chapter in The B1G Story series. More information about replays and on-demand viewing options for The B1G Story: More Than A Coach will be announced in the coming days.

With a crew led by BTN senior feature producer Kevin Ritchie, The B1G Story: More Than A Coach spotlights the excellence of the Purdue Divers under the leadership of Soldati and Boudia. As an Olympic champion, four-time Olympic medalist and six-time NCAA champion, Boudia is the most decorated Purdue student-athlete of this century and the most accomplished of the Boilermakers’ numerous All-American divers since Soldati was hired at Purdue in the spring of 2005.

Soldati served as the head coach of the Purdue Divers for 19 seasons until a succession plan was expedited as Boudia succeeded his mentor in the spring of 2024. Soldati opted to step down as head coach after he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in February 2024.

Soldati remains the director of diving at Purdue and has been blessed with good health since his diagnosis. He was able to serve as the primary on-site coach of the Boilermakers while traveling to the USA Diving Nationals Championships last month in Morgantown, W. Va.

The relationship between coach and athlete, and its evolution since Boudia arrived on campus fresh off his first Olympic appearance in 2008, serves as the backbone of The B1G Story: More Than A Coach. Soldati guided Boudia to a dominant three-year college career and Olympic medals in 2012 and 2016. Later the two men teamed up as coaches at Purdue and ultimately traded roles when Soldati’s ALS diagnosis necessitated the passing of the torch, as the coaching succession plan went into effect much earlier than anticipated. The two men remain friends and confidants, with Soldati acknowledging in the documentary that Boudia is a “fox hole guy; I can call him any time of the day – anywhere, anytime.”

Along with footage captured on campus, Soldati and Boudia also filmed extended in-depth interviews at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Indianapolis. Olympian Kimiko Soldati, Soldati’s wife, also shared her perspective as part of the interviews at the Scottish Rite Cathedral.

Additionally, former Purdue diving coach (and current Minnesota diving coach) Wenbo Chen and Dr. Senda Ajroud-Driss, an ALS expert from Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, are also featured in the documentary. Olympic sports and basketball journalist David Woods, who covered Boudia’s career at the Indianapolis Star, also provided insight via interviews.

The BTN’s cameras were also on-hand in Raleigh, N.C., in May 2025 when Soldati became the first diving coach to be awarded the National Collegiate & Scholastic Trophy by the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America. With a large Purdue contingent in attendance as part of the annual CSCAA Awards Celebration, Soldati gave an acceptance speech that centered around the theme of cherishing the small, overlooked moments – “don’t miss the moments that matter.”

So far in the 2026 calendar year, the Purdue Divers have had a pair of Big Ten champions, a pair of NCAA silver medalists and won five medals at the USA Diving National Championships.

Big Ten Network’s The B1G Story series has provided an in-depth spotlight for stories around the Big Ten Conference. Recent projects have included…
• The Miracle of March 8th: Michigan Men’s Basketball’s aborted takeoff at an Ann Arbor airport before going on to win the 2017 Big Ten Tournament as the No. 8 seed
• Tom Izzo Back Home Again: Izzo’s return to the Upper Peninsula and his alma mater Northern Michigan University
• The Streak: Penn State Volleyball’s NCAA-record 109-match win streak from 2007-10
• George Taliaferro: A leader in the desegregation at Indiana University and the first African American drafted in the NFL
• Volleyball Day in Nebraska: Behind the scenes of the Huskers’ world-record crowd for its Memorial Stadium match and the how the sport’s popularity has soared in the state of Nebraska