Laura Wilkinson

Last updated
Laura Wilkinson
Personal information
Full nameLaura Ann Wilkinson
Born (1977-11-17) November 17, 1977 (age 46)
Houston, Texas
Home town Spring, Texas
Height5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Sport
Country United States
Event(s)3m, 3m synchro, 10m, 10m synchro
ClubWoodlands Diving Team
Medal record
Women's diving
Representing the Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States
Olympic Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2000 Sydney 10 m platform
World Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2005 Montreal 10 m platform

Laura Ann Wilkinson (born November 17, 1977, in Houston, Texas) is an American diver, three-time Olympian, and Olympic gold medalist. She is the first woman to win the three major diving world titles. [1] Wilkinson retired in 2008. After nine years of retirement, she returned to competition in 2017 and placed second at Nationals. She trained for her fourth Olympic Games (2021) at Texas A&M University's swimming and diving facilities but did not qualify. [2]

Contents

Background

Wilkinson was born and raised in Houston, Texas and lived with her parents, Ed and Linda Wilkinson. She attended Klein High School in Houston before going to University of Texas. 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. It was then that she turned to diving. When she first started diving, a teacher told her she was too old to start a new sport and was later kicked off her high school team because they thought she was a "waste of space". [3] Wilkinson is a 2001 graduate of the University of Texas, where she majored in public relations. While attending school on a scholarship, she decided that she would rather put school on hold and go after her dream to become an Olympian. She trained in The Woodlands, Texas.

Career

Wilkinson's interest in the sport began as she was swimming in the gym's pool and watched a young female diver in training execute an impressive dive. Her first jump off the 10 meter platform didn't occur until she was 15 years old. She took up platform diving and joined the U.S. National Team in 1995.

2000 Summer Olympics

Six months prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics, Wilkinson suffered a serious foot injury that kept her out of action for a couple of months. She employed a visualization technique to practice her dives during this time, and wasn't fully healed when she qualified for the 2000 Summer Olympics. Still in pain from her foot injury, she landed in eighth place after the first of five dives in the platform finals. She went on to earn the first gold medal for a female American platform diver since 1964. [4]

2004 Summer Olympics

Wilkinson finished in fifth place at the 2004 Summer Olympics, but had left an impact on her competitors. Several of them repeated the techniques she used at the 2000 Olympics by starting their dives with a handstand.

2008 Summer Olympics

On June 26, 2008, Wilkinson qualified as a member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Diving Team in diving by taking first place in the trials. She announced her retirement and this Olympics would be her final competition.

2020 Olympic Games

In 2017, after nine years of retirement and spending five years as a pool-deck diving analyst for NBC Sports, Wilkinson returned to competition and placed 2nd at U.S. Nationals. She trained full-time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics—which would have been her fourth Olympic Games (delayed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 global pandemic), but did not qualify for the team. [5] [4]

Non-diving career

While not competing in diving, she worked for NBC Sports as a diving analyst on the pool deck, doing so in London 2012, Rio 2016, and Paris 2024, with the latter serving as a color commentator for individual events. [6] [7]

Personal life

Wilkinson is married to Eriek Hulseman. They welcomed their first child, a girl, Arella Joy, on May 11, 2011. In December 2012, they adopted a baby from China named Zoe. Wilkinson gave birth to a son, Zadok, in January 2014. [3] Their fourth child, Dakaia, joined the family from Ethiopia in March 2018. She also travels around the country speaking to girls at The Revolve Tour, a Christian girls' conference. [8] She had major surgery on her neck in 2018 to repair damage to discs injured by her diving career. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tania Cagnotto</span> Italian diver (born 1985)

Tania Cagnotto is an Italian diver. She is the first female Italian diver to win a medal in a World Championship. A five-time Olympian, she won medals in both individual and synchronized springboard diving in her final appearance at the Olympics in 2016. She is also a 20-time champion at the European level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aileen Riggin</span> American diver and swimmer

Aileen Muriel Riggin, also known by her married name Aileen Soule, was an American competition swimmer and diver. She was Olympic champion in springboard diving in 1920 and U.S. national springboard diving champion from 1923 to 1925. After retiring from competitions, she enjoyed a long and varied career in acting, coaching, writing and journalism. She was a swimming celebrity in Hawaii and the United States and an active ambassador of women's swimming well into old age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dara Torres</span> American swimmer (born 1967)

Dara Grace Torres is an American former competitive swimmer, who is a 12-time Olympic medalist and former world record-holder in three events. Torres is the first swimmer to represent the United States in five Olympic Games, and at age 41, the oldest swimmer to earn a place on the U.S. Olympic team. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, she competed in the 50-meter freestyle, 4×100-meter medley relay, and 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and won silver medals in all three events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Bowman (coach)</span> American swimming coach

Robert Bowman is an American swimming coach who is the current Director of Swimming and head men's coach of the Longhorns swimming and diving teams of University of Texas. Bowman is best known as the coach of 23-time Olympic gold medalist American swimmer Michael Phelps and, more recently, of French swimmer Léon Marchand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vicki Draves</span> American diver (1924–2010)

Victoria Manalo Draves was a Filipino American competitive diver who won gold medals in both platform and springboard diving at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. Draves became the first woman to be awarded gold medals for both the ten-meter platform and the three-meter springboard. Additionally, Draves became the first American woman to win two gold medals in diving, and the first Asian American to win Olympic gold medals. She was born in San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Webster</span> American diver (born 1938)

Robert David "Bob" Webster is a retired American diver who won the 10 m platform event at every competition he entered between 1960 and 1964, including the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and 1963 Pan American Games. He later became a diving coach at the University of Minnesota, Princeton University, and the University of Alabama. He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1970 and the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Boudia</span> American diver (born 1989)

David Alasdair Boudia is an American diver. He won the gold medal in the 10 metre platform diving competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the bronze medal in the same event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He also won a bronze medal with Nick McCrory in the men's synchronized 10 metre platform at the 2012 Summer Olympics and a silver medal in the same event with Steele Johnson at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Kelly Anne McCormick is a retired Hall of Fame female diver from the United States. She dove for Ohio State University and twice competed for her native country at the Summer Olympics, winning a silver (1984) and a bronze medal (1988) in the Women's 3m Springboard event.

Michele Anne Mitchell is a former diver from the United States. She is a two-time Olympic medalist on the 10-meter platform, winning silver in 1984 and 1988. In 1988 she was inducted into the University of Arizona Athletic Hall of Fame and the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1995. Formerly the longtime diving coach at UA, she is the director of operations for the swimming and diving teams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chen Ruolin</span> Chinese diver

Chen Ruolin is a Chinese platform diver and coach. She is a five-time Olympic gold medalist, ten-time World championship medalist, nine-time World Cup medalist, four-time Asian Games medalist and two-time Universiade gold medalist, making her one of the most accomplished female divers in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edna Child</span> British diver (1922–2023)

Edna Lilian Child was a British diver. Competing in the 3 metre springboard she won a gold medal at the 1950 British Empire Games and a bronze at the 1938 European Championships and finished sixth at the 1948 Summer Olympics. At the 1950 British Empire Games she also won a gold medal in the 10 metre platform. Her husband Ken Tinegate competed in rowing at those Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anja Richter</span> Austrian diver

Anja Richter-Libiseller is an Austrian platform diver. She is a four-time Olympian, and a multiple-time Austrian diving champion in her respective discipline. Richter is also the sister of Jürgen Richter, a springboard diver who competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, and the granddaughter of Liesl Perkaus, a multiple-time Austrian track and field champion, and a discus thrower who competed at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.

Annett Gamm is a German platform diver. She is a two-time Olympian, a multiple-time German diving champion, and a four-time consecutive gold medalist in the women's synchronized platform at the European Aquatics Championships. Gamm is also a member of the diving team for Dresdner SC, and is coached and trained by Frank Taubert, who competed in the men's springboard and platform events at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, and at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, representing East Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simone Manuel</span> American swimmer (born 1996)

Simone Ashley Manuel is an American professional swimmer specializing in freestyle events. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, she won two gold and two silver medals: gold in the 100-meter freestyle and the 4×100-meter medley, and silver in the 50-meter freestyle and the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. In winning the 100-meter freestyle, a tie with Penny Oleksiak of Canada, Manuel became the first Black American woman to win an individual Olympic gold in swimming and set an Olympic record and an American record. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she won a bronze medal as the anchor of the American 4×100-meter freestyle relay team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica Parratto</span> American diver

Jessica Parratto is an American diver.

Katrina Young is an American diver. She competed for the United States in the women's 10-meter diving at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and in the 10-meter platform contest at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delaney Schnell</span> American diver

Delaney Schnell is an American diver. In the 10 meter platform, she won a bronze medal at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships. In the 10 meter synchronized platform, she won silver medals at the 2020 Summer Olympics and 2022 World Aquatics Championships as well as a bronze medal at the 2019 Pan American Games. In the 10 meter mixed synchronized platform, she won a bronze medal at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships. She competes collegiately for the University of Arizona.

Krysta Palmer is a diver from the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jordan Windle</span> American Olympic diver

Jordan Pisey Windle is a Cambodian-born American diver. He is the first diver of Cambodian descent to compete in the Olympics.

Jane Ann Figueiredo is a Zimbabwean diving coach. She is best known for coaching 2020 Tokyo Olympics men's 10 m synchro champions Tom Daley and Matty Lee, and the 2000 Sydney Olympics women's 3 m springboard champions Vera Ilyina and Yulia Pakhalina. She was head diving coach at the University of Houston from 1990 to 2014, during which time she was awarded the NCAA Diving Coach of the Year four times, and members of her team won a total of 51 CSCAA All-America honours and eight NCAA championships. She was assistant coach to the British Olympic team in 1996, assistant coach for the Russian Olympic team between 2000 and 2008, and has been head diving coach for the British Olympic team since 2014.

References

  1. 1 2 Amy Wray and Rachael Scott. "Olympic diver and gold medalist attempts comeback after nearly a decade in retirement". CNN. Retrieved 2020-10-04.
  2. ↑ Barron, David (14 June 2021). "End of an era: Laura Wilkinson's Olympics bid comes up short". Houston Chronicle . Retrieved August 4, 2024.
  3. 1 2 ""Wired Differently," 2000 Olympic Diving Champ Laura Wilkinson Returns At Age 39". 25 March 2018. Archived from the original on 2018-03-25. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  4. 1 2 Wallace, Ava (29 April 2020). "Diver Laura Wilkinson pursues comeback with four new training partners: Her children". Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  5. ↑ Shinn, Peggy (April 21, 2020). "Diving Back In: Now 42, Olympic Gold Medalist Laura Wilkinson Sees Olympic Postponement As A Gift". Team USA. Archived from the original on April 25, 2020.
  6. ↑ "U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS COVERAGE TO BE FEATURED ON 20 NIGHTS IN PRIMETIME ON NBC AND NBCSN IN JUNE AND JULY". NBC Sports. 2016-06-16. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
  7. ↑ Bumbaca, Chris. "NBC tries something new for Olympic swimming, gymnastics, track in Paris". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
  8. ↑ Wilkinson, Laura (Dec 17, 2012). "Learning to fly, but I ain't got wings: Bittersweet Homecoming" . Retrieved Jul 4, 2021.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.