U.S. diver David Boudia wins men’s platform at London Olympics

LONDON --

David Boudia of the U.S. put on a diving clinic for the ages under pressure-packed circumstances Saturday at the London Olympics, winning the gold medal in the 10-meter platform in the closest competition in the event since 1988.

That’s when American Greg Louganis won the platform in Seoul, the the last time a U.S. men’s diver had earned gold in that event.

Louganis was on hand at the Aquatics Centre and watched Boudia secure gold on his final dive of the competition with the highest-scored effort of the night.

“This is so surreal right now,” said Boudia, a 23-year-old from Purdue who nearly failed to get out of the preliminaries Friday, grabbing the 18th and final spot.

“I can’t believe I’m an Olympic champion.”

This was the first individual gold medal by a U.S. diver since Laura Wilkinson won the 10-meter platform in 2000 in Sydney. The United States has won four diving medals in London.

“To be in the record books besides Louganis, the greatest diver in the entire world, an Olympic legend, is amazing,” Boudia said.

Boudia beat out Qiu Bo of China by 1.80 points. Tom Daley of Britain won the bronze medal. Chinese divers had won six gold medals in diving in London, and this was supposed to be No. 7.

Qiu looked devastated, in tears, and a giddy Daley promptly jumped into the pool to celebrate with his teammates. Boudia, who had won a bronze medal in the synchronized platform event, found his parents in the stands.

“I don’t think I was supposed to, but I sprinted down there,” Boudia said. “I climbed up the stands and hugged every single one of them.”

The three-way battle among Boudia, Qiu and Daley was riveting. They were separated by 0.15 after five dives. Daley had the lead after five rounds and Boudia and Qiu were tied.

The noise level in the Aquatics Centre increased with each round, and the crowd included soccer star David Beckham and his sons. Boudia followed Daley in the rotation and instead of being bothered by the applause, the American diver relished it.

Daley received a rare re-dive when flash photography from the crowd unnerved him in the first round. He had been thrown off, receiving a score of 75.60, and it climbed to 91.80 on the do-over.

Boudia was kept waiting, but the delay did not seem to bother him.

“I’m so glad I went after him, I’m an adrenaline junkie,” Boudia said. “Diving after Tom Daley, having 18,000 people erupt in the stands. My heart was racing. I was having so much fun up there.

“I had no idea where I was standing in the competition. I had no idea where I was in contention, let alone gold-medal contention.”

Daley’s final dive had a 3.3 degree of difficulty and Boudia’s last effort carried a 3.6. It was a back 21/2 somersault with 21/2 twists in the pike position and it earned 102.60 points, too much for Qiu to overcome.

“They were all pretty much tied,” said U.S. diver Nicholas McCrory, who finished ninth. “David’s last dive is his back twister, which is a great dive for him. Once I saw that they were ... tied, I knew David was going to end up on top.

“You put him in that position and he’ll hit his dive.”

Louganis has been playing more of an active role with USA Diving as an athlete mentor after a long period of distance. He was quick to give credit to others in the governing body and praised the organization for finally getting on the right track with a game plan, which had been lacking.

“China had a game plan and I think we can do it,” Louganis said. “Our goal was to get one [medal] and to end up with four is incredible.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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