Laura Wilkinson
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| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Competitor for  United States |
|||
| Women's Diving | |||
| Olympic Games | |||
| Gold | 2000 Sydney | 10 m platform | |
| World Championships | |||
| Gold | 2005 Montreal | 10m Platform | |
Laura Wilkinson (born November 17, 1977 in Texas) is an American diver.
As a child, Wilkinson was a gymnast, but had to give up on the sport after a growth spurt during puberty made her too tall to continue. She wanted to occupy herself with another sport like gymnastics that would allow her to compete barefoot, but she had not yet made a final decision. One day, while swimming in the gym's pool, she witnessed a young female diver in-training execute an impressive dive, and she quickly developed an interest in the sport herself. She would then take up platform diving, where in 1995, she joined the U.S. national team.
Six months prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics, Wilkinson would suffer a serious muscular foot injury while intensely training, that kept her out of action for a couple of months. During this time, she used mental images to visualize her dives. Her over-strained foot was not fully recovered by the time she started diving again, but she was able to qualify for the Olympics.
At the 2000 Summer Olympics, Wilkinson, who was still in pain from her cramped weak foot, was in eighth place after the first of five dives in the platform diving finals. However, a series of spectacular dives, combined with disappointing dives by the favorites, earned her the first gold medal for a female American platform diver since 1964. Because of the injury, one of the things she did to compensate for the weakened foot was to start the dive on her hands- this was unprecedented at this level of competition.
Wilkinson would fail in her attempt to repeat in the same event at the 2004 Summer Olympics, as she finished in fifth place. However, she had already had an impact on her competitors. Several of them repeated the technique she used at the 2000 Olympics by starting their dives with a handstand.
At the 2005 World Aquatics Championships, she won the gold medal in the 10 meter event.
Wilkinson is a 2001 graduate of the University of Texas, where majored in public relations.
Laura also travels around the country speaking to girls at The Revolve Tour, a Christian girls confrence.
