Team USA Olympic diving coach David Boudia shares amazing Kobe Bryant story

Former US Olympian and current Team USA Diving Coach David Boudia joined FanSided on behalf of Team Toyota, which supports athletes’ Olympic and Paralympic aspirations & rallies the world behind them. For updates and more, follow along throughout the games.

Three-time Olympian and four-time medalist David Boudia has had an outsized impact on Team USA's diving dominance over the past few cycles. This summer in Paris, Boudia has returned after taking the head coaching reins at Purdue University from his mentor, and is sharing his expertise to a new generation of American divers.

One thing Boudia surely has them prepared for: being starstruck around the Olympic Village.

As Boudia told FanSided (live from the ground in Paris), his "Welcome to the Olympics" moment was the Opening Ceremony in 2008, marching from the "fencing stadium to the Birds Nest" as part of the Beijing games.

Boudia was already awestruck, aware that he was in the midst of a dream realized, when he noted his Team USA gear and remembered, as a child watching the 1996 Olympics, what it felt like to see the country's greatest athletes unified in a similar manner. It only got tougher to believe he was awake when he looked to his side and saw Kobe Bryant, walking in lockstep.

Team USA's David Boudia was awestruck by Lakers icon Kobe Bryant

"I was like, 'This is absolutely incredible'. I walked around that Birds Nest in Beijing and just started bawling," Boudia recalled, with a glint in his eye. "I called my dad and my mom, thanking them for what they sacrificed for me to get to this special moment."

"And now, on this side, as a coach, I look forward to hearing those cool stories from our first-time Olympians."

Team USA's Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook took home one of the games' first medals, nabbing the silver in the women's 3m synchronized springboard finals. Now, if they could only manage to bump into Diana Taurasi at the food court, the circle really would be complete.