Watch Olympic Diver David Boudia Take the Plunge in Thailand with Armani’s Acqua Di Giò
Few athletes in any sport have soared high as synchronized diver David Boudia, both literally and metaphorically. He’s clinched more than 20 US national and world titles, and competed alongside the greatest athletes in the world at three Olympic Games, bringing home a gold medal for Team USA in 2012. The intensity of training and the stress of competition, however, took a toll on Boudia’s mental health. Depressed and directionless, he once wondered if he’d ever compete again. “There was a time when I thought I’d never be back at the top,” says Boudia in The Scent of Life, a film series by Armani celebrating its Acqua di Gio fragrance. “Medals lost. Drowning in doubt. I found the courage to rise again.”
To film The Scent of Life, Boudia travelled to Krabi, Thailand, where sheer limestone cliffs soar out of the sea and waves lap against dense mangrove forests. It’s a paradise of white sand beaches and turquoise water, but he has not come here to lie on the beach. The camera follows Boudia as he stands atop a granite cliff high above the waves, preparing himself for his dive. He has spent his life in pursuit of ever-greater glory, honing his body and his mind for this moment.
“I’m in awe as I face the vast magnificence of nature and its infinite possibilities,” Boudia narrates. “No judges. No scoreboard. Just me and the impartial ocean waiting for my return.” He hangs in the air for a moment, his body tensed, his muscled instinctively twisting, flexing and aligning in exactly the way he’s practiced so many times in his mind. The water rises beneath him, ready to enclose him in its deep embrace, before buoying him up to the surface, ready to dive again.
Acqua Di Giò Absolu
Versatile, elemental, and mysterious, wood and water are constant companions. This sensual and elegant fragrance is a meditation on this age-old relationship and is as luxuriously understated as anything deserving of the Armani monogram. Like a high dive from a granite cliff into a turquoise sea, Acqua di Gio Absolu is at once invigorating and refreshing. To complement its unique balance of marine freshness and woody sensuousness, each flask of Acqua Di Giò Absolu is topped by a lacquered, engraved wooden cap made from sustainably sourced ash wood.
