If you've been keeping up with the Americans' medal count thus far at the Olympics, you may have seen a pair of handsome American men who took home bronze medals the other night in the men's 3-meter springboard synchronized diving event. One, Troy Dumais (age 32) comes from a diving family in SoCal and has competed in several previous Olympics without ever earning a medal, so he was happy. His partner, though, is young Stanford student Kristian Ipsen, 19, who was born in Walnut Creek and now lives in Clayton. His dad, Kent Ipsen, is the owner of several pizzerias over there, with locations in the WC, Clayton, Antioch, Concord, and Rocklin.

It was a difficult event — trying to fit elaborate twists and flips in when just jumping off a springboard a few meters above the water — and one that's been dominated for years by the Chinese. But Ipsen and Dumais managed to clinch the bronze after nailing a reverse 2 1/2 somersault with 1 1/2 twists.

Ipsen will be returning to class at Stanford this fall, after taking some time off to train, and he'll be part of the class of 2015. Ipsen spoke with Stanford's alumni mag this week about how he got started diving.

I loved to flip on the trampoline as a kid, so my parents signed me up for gymnastics. In gymnastics, I kept getting moved up into higher age groups with older children. I was an incredibly shy young kid and this made me uncomfortable, so I then tried swimming. I loved the water but I stopped this, too, because I got bored going back and forth. My parents then thought of a combination of the two sports and found diving. I feel that the level of success I have had in diving has come from a God-given gift.

Below, another photo of Ipsen and Dumais, mid-flight.

Photo: AP

[Stanford Alumni]
[MSNBC]