Boudia, Finchum Both Want To Be The Top
U.S. Olympic divers David Boudia and Thomas Finchum are partners in synchronized 10m platform, but in the individual 10m, they strive to beat each other and everyone else to win the gold. However, as good friends who both live and train in the Indianapolis, Indiana area, they each make it clear that if one doesn't win they hope the other one does. They are very supportive of one another and have only good things to say. You can tell it's all genuine because they are just so sweet and wholesome like all Hoosiers are.
David Boudia and Thomas Finchum have gotten a lot of attention during the 2008 Beijing games. Early on they only finished fifth in the synchronized event, but their time on air has made a lot of people take notice of the Olympian's talent and boyish good looks. Many favorable comments have been made on the internet by their new admirers. NBC appears to be aware of the interest in them as it frequently shows the pair in the stands watching their fellow divers in the other diving competitions.
A sizable amount of the attention on the net has been to label one or both of them as gay, gay, gay, but unless someone is looking for a wet boyfriend, it's not clear why that seems to be important to some people in this case. After all, Australian 10m diver Matthew Mitcham has already publicly stated his gayness, so if anyone is looking for a gay diver to support, they could go with the official entry. On the other hand, I can understand patriotic Americans wanting to see their own gay in a tuck position. 
David Boudia started out at age 5 as a gymnast. He did that for five years but then turned to diving. It was during his gymnastics phase that he first thought about being an Olympian. His earliest memory from watching the Olympics was when he saw the U.S. girls of "The Magnificent Seven" winning the team gold in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Boudia remembers feeling the excitement with them and knowing that's what he wanted to do also.
While in high school, David Boudia left his public school to be be home schooled. Boudia said, "I definitely think since I've left Noblesville [High School], it's been harder to have a social life, but I am able to have one after practice because when my friends are at school, I'm training. When I'm done with training, I'm able to go and have a good time. It's definitely good to have a social life, and after the Olympics, I'll have even a bigger one when I go to Purdue." Boudia is very excited about being a Boilermaker after Beijing. "Really, right when I get off the plane, I'll be packing up and going to school at Purdue," Boudia said.
When David Boudia prepares himself at Beijing for diving off of the platform, he'll likely find a secluded spot and watch the movie Miracle about the U.S. Olympic hockey team winning a gold medal at 1980 winter games. It's been an essential part of his ritual since 2007. Another thing he does is listen to "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC before his first dive and then listen to more upbeat music to keep his energy up as the competition progresses.
Thomas Finchum got his start in diving when his grandmother noticed him jumping off houseboats on family trips and gave him some pointers and encouraged the family to sign him up for formal diving lessons. The rest is history as Thomas Finchum has become one of the best divers in the world. He trains six hours a day, six days a week, but does find time to enjoy other interests like music, computers and movies.
One of the interesting things about Thomas Finchum is the growth spurt he experienced. At the 2004 U.S. Olympic he was a skinny little kid, 5'3" and 92 pounds. Four years later he had grown to be 6'1" and 150 pounds, enduring aches to his back, wrist and knees along the way. David Boudia is a muscular 5'9" and his size, strength and quickness allow him to do a more difficult dives than the taller Finchum. Thomas Finchum is now long and lean and he can't twist and flip as easily as Boudia. Instead, Finchum adds polish and artistry to his dives.
What I will miss about David Boudia and Thomas Finchum after the Olympics.
David Boudia video
4 comments:
The speculation about David Boudia and particularly Thomas Finchum being gay is not because we want an american star to be gay. It's because they seem to be gay, Finchum in particular. You act like there is some kind of gay quota system or something. Only one gay allowed at a time.
I read maybe 15 to 20 different sites that questioned Finchum and Boudia and I think none of them even mentioned Matthew Mitcham, the confirmed gay man. I thought it was strange to speculate about two other divers when if anyone wanted to write specifically about gay divers, they didn't just start with Mitcham. See, why skip the confirmed and proceed straight to the speculation? Especially now, looking backward and considering Mitcham is the gold medalist.
Another thing I noticed is that most people who mentioned the gay thing were writing only about the Americans' orientation and nothing about their talent, their achievement or medal prospects. It might be different if orientation were mentioned as the fifth or sixth thing about them, but when it was the only thing, I have to question the relevance of the comments. It would be like creating a blog post that said "Thomas Finchum. Is he white?" That kind of thing is just a spam post, which if you do a Google search you will see that a lot of sites did exactly that in order to gain traffic without having to actually think of some original commentary.
It is more complex than that. People (outside of Australia) don't talk about Matthew Mitcham because he looks and acts gay. He is a camp stereotype who makes no attempt to disguise the fact that he is gay. That makes him boring to the masses.
It is the unknown makes them speculate about Finchum and Boudia .. and worse than that, speculate about them as purely sexual objects.
They are not just divers, they are world-class divers; but the gay 'sports' sites that are doing the speculation almost ignore their diving abilities and just talk about them as sexual objects.
Thomas Finchum's trunks slip a little we have posts dedicated to his crack and what sort of masturbation fantasy provides.
These idiots complain that more gay athletes don't come out .. but don't they realise that they are providing one of the strongest incentives to stay securely in the closet?
As if that isn't bad enough, this sort of sexualized commentary gives the homophobes all the evidence they need to justify their belief that no gay man can be interested in sport for the sake of the sport itself and that there is always a sexual pretext.
It turns my stomach. No wonder so many gay sportsmen and women choose the closet.
I just want you all to know that I actually just recently met Thomas Finchum as he attended my church with a long time girl friend of his while on vacation and he has his head on straight and is focused on his career in diving. Yes, he does seem a little more feminine than most guys, but that does not mean that he is gay. I can't wait to see both he and David Boudia in the next Olympics and watch them win a medal for the US diving team!
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