This review is about the book Greater Than Gold by David Boudia with Tim Ellsworth. David Boudia is a Gold Medalist in the10 Meter Platform Diving. This book is about his journey to the Olympics and how he found Jesus along the way.
Boudia tells of wanting the gold medal even as a young boy. He started out in gymnastics and then switched to diving. He was very driven mostly by the accolades, awards and popularity that comes with winning. Boudia was a heavy partier. He smoke, drank and treated people unkindly. His first try at the Beijing Olympics was very disappointing for him partly because of this. He figured he needed to do something different.
David Boudia got a different coach and a different mind-set. He turned his motivation for winning from personal satisfaction to wanting to do it to glorify God. Along the way he meets people who can help him with this and also the girl he eventually marries.
He finally wins gold at the London Olympics. What follows is a whirlwind of interviews, speeches and lots of traveling. He realizes that fame comes with a price. He also realizes that his diving is paying the bills so he continues on with it (and I think he got a bronze medal at the Rio Olympics.)
I enjoyed learning about what goes on in an Olympic athlete’s life. The training, the sacrifices families make and sometime the heartache. It definitely takes a special someone to make it to that major competition.
Reading his thought processes about God and sin in every circumstance got to be a little much for me.
I was given a copy of this book to review but the opinion is my own.
