(Getty)Troy Dumais is the only American diver who has competed on four Olympic teams. But in every Olympics, the springboard diver's goal of a medal eluded him -- until Wednesday.
With synchronized partner Kristian Ipsen, Dumais earned the bronze medal in synchronized 3m springboard. The Chinese team of Yutong Luo and Kai Qin took gold, followed by the Russian pairing of Ilya Zakharov and Evgeny Kuznetsov.
[ Photos: Olympic diving ]
Their fourth dive, a reverse 2 1/2 somersault with two twists, garnered their biggest scores with an average of 9.1. The rest of their scores hovered around 8.5, showing solid, but not risky dives.
Dumais first was on the U.S. team in 2000. He added synchronized diving to his repertoire in 2004 but came away with no hardware then or in 2008. The pairing with Ibsen, 12 years his junior, helped finally get him to the podium.
[ Related: Chinese diving gold medalist's heart-breaking family secret ]
It's the third medal for the U.S. in diving. After the U.S. went through a 12-year medal drought, every American team entered has walked away with a medal.
Related Olympics coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
More Olympics coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• 8 badminton players out of Olympic tournament for throwing matches
• Jordyn Wieber's emotional roller coaster to gold took parents on ride of their lives
• What causes rowers to go deaf during races