Sixteen years ago, senior Joona Puhakka decided that he was going to be an Olympic diver.
Unfazed by the mammoth goal of earning the right to compete against the world's best, the ambitious 7-year-old from Helsinki, Finland, never wavered from his pursuit of greatness.
Eleven years later, Puhakka was selected to compete for his country in Sydney for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games.
"For me, when I went to Sydney, it was a huge step to understand my ability and how good I can be," he said.
The next year, as Puhakka continued to climb the ranks as a high-school senior, ASU diving coach Mark Bradshaw was struggling to recruit from the American pool of athletes.
"I was having difficulty finding kids interested in coming here," Bradshaw said.
After losing some of his originally targeted prospects, he learned of Puhakka's emergence while attending an international competition and made his pitch.
"I just persisted on staying in contact with him and eventually he got seriously interested in coming to ASU," Bradshaw said.
Puhakka admitted that while the W.P. Carey School of Business appealed to his academic desires, the main reason he set his sights on Tempe was the opportunity to compete under Bradshaw.
"[I came here] mostly because of Bradshaw," Puhakka said. "Mark has been a really good coach and I'm happy with my decision."
The Olympian made an immediate splash for ASU during his freshman year, becoming the program's first national diving champion in 35 years when he took first place on the one-meter springboard at the NCAA tournament.
He also made three All-American teams and was named the Pac-10 Diver of the Year, a title he has held every year since.
"He's got a really good blend of his demeanor and his approach to diving," Bradshaw said. "He's pretty relaxed and calm about it."
Puhakka has captured six Pac-10 championships and four NCAA titles in his career at ASU thus far.
In 2004 he was named the NCAA Diver of the Year, and that summer he returned to the Olympic spotlight in Athens.
Despite disappointing results -- Puhakka did not place -- he views the experience as the ultimate learning curve and already has his full attention on 2008.
"After Athens I realized right away that I have to get on the things I'm not good at," he said. "I need to get on them right now to be good in the Beijing Olympic games."
In the meantime, the most prominent diver to ever attend ASU will have to be content with dominating the local competition. But even with his overwhelming success at the collegiate level, Puhakka never takes a dive lightly.
"The NCAA's are always extremely tough," he said. "There is really good competition and world divers there, so winning has never come easy to me. I've just had really good meets."
Puhakka currently holds school records in the one-meter and three-meter six-dive formats.
"He's graceful and fluent, but he combines power and strength with that and he's been a very consistent diver," Bradshaw said. "It makes him tough to beat."
Reach the reporter at steven.bohner@asu.edu.
