Olympic Diver shares his story with Eastside Community Church

RICHMOND, Ky. (WTVQ) – Eastside Community Church in Richmond invited a special guest to come and speak to their members.

He’s an Olympic Diver who won a silver medal in synchronized 10-meter diving from the 2016 summer Olympic Games in Brazil.

23-year-old Steele Johnson has been diving for 15 years, he said it has been a huge part of his life.

“I’ve learned you know a lot about what it means to be an athlete, what it means to be a student and what it means to be someone in the public eye and how to handle that all well and I feel like I’m still learning that but you know along the way you learn these lessons,” Johnson said.

He said his experiences have made him who is today.

“There’s been a lot of ups, you know winning an Olympic silver medal, a bunch of NCAA titles, getting to travel the world and meet a lot of really cool people but there’s been a lot of downs, two foot surgeries in the past year, hitting my head on the 10-meter, not qualifying for the Olympics when we had an easy chance to the first time,” Johnson said.

He said he wants people to understand that they have value, that they are worthy of love, and that they were created by a creative God and therefore should open their life up to joy and freedom.

Steele gave advice to one young diver that attends the church.

“I am in this position where I’ve got a lot of growth to do but I’m also in a place where I can speak to the younger generation and share what I’ve learned with them. it’s kind of what Dave Boudia has done for me, he in 2012 won a gold medal and just being able to talk to him and ask what that was like and wear the medal was super exciting and four years later I was able to get my own medal,” Johnson said.

He says everything comes full circle.