Former Olympian Finchum now focused on music career
INDIANAPOLIS — David Boudia and Thomas Finchum reconvened on the pool deck at the Natatorium at IUPUI on Thursday night. It was a mirror image of 2008, when the duo qualified for the Olympics as synchronized diving partners in Indianapolis.
Only this time, Finchum was a spectator. He watched Boudia qualify for his third Olympic games. The duo stopped diving together in 2010. Finchum retired in 2012 and has moved onto another venture, pursuing a music career.
Boudia said seeing Finchum on the pool deck “brought back a lot of memories,” but he is happy to see Finchum having success out of the water.
“He had the pinnacle of making the Olympic team. He still has that mentality,” Boudia said Friday of Finchum at the Road to Rio Tour on Monument Circle. “He wants to do that with his music career. It shows how determined he is.”
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Finchum was oh-so-close to qualifying for the Olympics not just once, but three times. Finchum finished second in the 2004 10-meter platform standings, which in previous years would have meant a trip to Athens, but a rule change meant the 14-year-old was left at home.
After appearing in the 2008 Beijing games — he and Boudia finished fifth in the 10-meter synchronized diving and Finchum finished 12th in the individual platform — Finchum suffered another near-miss in 2012, qualifying third in the individual platform and fourth in the individual springboard.
Finchum retired the day after failing to make the 2012 Olympic team to pursue a full-time music career.
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“It’s obviously crossed my mind, because I didn’t have my ideal Olympic performance,” he said. “But I look at my life and where I want to go. I know music is my passion right now, and that’s what I want to do. I’ve had my moment with diving, and I’ll always be around the sport, but I’ve had my time with it.”
The Indiana native formed the country band Northern Nights in late 2011, which released its first single later that year. He moved to Nashville to pursue music full-time with the band in 2012.
“I went into a whole new world and a place where I knew hardly anyone,” he said. “But those are the kinds of things you have to do if you have big dreams.”
The band released its self-titled debut EP in March 2013. He has since taken his career solo, and finds himself in a similar spot now as he did when he began his ascent in the diving world — waiting for his chance to make an impression.
“It’s such a tough industry to get into,” he said. “It’s kind of like the Olympics. It’s a slow ride. You can’t make it happen overnight. I took that same mentality when I went into music.”
The pinnacle of success in diving is an Olympic gold medal. There are all sorts of ways to measure success in the music industry, but Finchum isn’t focused on achieving fame.
"I want to create something I’m proud of and that can have the chance to affect other people. I think that’s the big goal. Hopefully that will lead to some of those other accolades, but in the grand scheme of things I do music because I love it.”