Thu, Apr 16, 2020 page16

• Tokyo postponement a boon for mother of four diving into Olympic comeback

  • Reuters
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  If you are Laura Wilkinson, a 42-year-old mother making your return to competitive diving after undergoing spinal fusion surgery, a year’s delay to the Tokyo Olympics is not a bad thing — it is a gift.

  For those wondering why a mother of four is throwing herself off a 10m tower, you have to look back two decades when Wilkinson’s name might have been familiar.

  It was a new millennium and Wilkinson, despite being hobbled by a broken foot, had just spectacularly won gold on the 10m platform at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

  Her triumph ended Chinese domination of the event stretching back to the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

  No American woman diver has won Olympic gold in any diving discipline since.

  Comebacks have long been a staple of the sporting genre, but Wilkinson’s return has all the elements of a unique feel-good story.

  Her journey not only evokes memories of Tiger Woods’ comeback following career-saving back surgery, but also exhibits the same kind of determination Serena Williams has shown in returning to competition after giving birth.

  To top it off, Wilkinson would also be facing an element of danger that neither Woods or Williams have to contend with when they are swinging a club or a racket respectively: Living with the risk that one small misstep while crashing into the water at 61kph might leave you a paraplegic adds another layer of drama to what is already a compelling return.

  Throw in the COVID-19 pandemic that has turned the sporting world upside down and delayed the Tokyo Games for a year, Wilkinson — should she earn one of two spots on the US squad — would be 43 when she steps onto the Olympic tower again.

  Her goal is not just to climb back to the top of an Olympic 10m platform, but to stand on top of the podium by becoming the oldest woman diver to win gold.

  That record belongs to China’s Wu Minxia, who was 30 when she won the synchronized 3m springboard at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics.

  “This is something I never thought I would be able to do again,” Wilkinson told reporters in a telephone interview from her Texas home.

  “People just tend to retire in my sport in their early 20s and that’s it, you just never think you are going to do it again,” she said. “I kind of feel like I was made for it, so to have another opportunity is such a gift.”

  Wilkinson was one of those “people” as she dived into a new life to raise a family when injury prevented her from competing at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

  She had two children with her husband, Eriek, and adopted two more, but the sport took up permanent residence in the back of her mind.

  “I don’t think I ever wanted to be done with diving,” Wilkinson said. “The idea of coming back was kind of always there, especially when I watched the next two Olympics and the quality wasn’t as high as when I was diving in 2008.”

  “After Rio I talked to my coach and asked if it would be crazy,” she added.

  Her long-time coach, Kenny Armstrong, was soon on board and plans were put in place for an Olympic return.

  In the background there were doubters, but it was the not the first time Wilkinson had heard she was too old.

  As a young girl, Wilkinson’s goal was to become a gymnast, but a growth spurt in her early teens ended that dream. So she switched to diving, only to be told she was too old for a new sport and was kicked off her high-school team.

  “As far as can she do it [at the Olympic level], there was no doubt in my mind at all,” Armstrong told reporters. “I think they [young divers] are a little intimidated, it makes them sit up at the table a little bit straighter.”

  “They better bring their A game, because they know she can beat them,” he added.

  Wilkinson’s return to competition began positively with a second-place finish at the 2017 nationals, but a nerve issue down her arms threatened to cut short her comeback.

  A magnetic resonance imaging scan revealed cervical damage that would require surgery and possibly end her Olympic dream.

  “I was going to have to make this decision to have surgery to try to dive or just retire and be mom,” Wilkinson said.

  “I talked to the surgeon and he said: ‘Any minor accident, a slip down the stairs, a small car accident, could make you a paraplegic,’ so that kind of took the decision out of my hands,” she said.

  “It was very scary,” she added.

  In December 2018, Wilkinson underwent spinal reconstruction surgery before beginning her rehabilitation. She used everything from cryotherapy to an Orthofix bone stimulator that uses electromagnetic energy to stimulate bone growth.

  Having already qualified for the US Olympic trials, Wilkinson was in a race to get back to full fitness when the Tokyo Games were suddenly postponed. That gifted her a bonus year.

  “I’m actually really thankful for it [the postponement],” Wilkinson said. “I kind of felt like I was running out of time, so having the extra year is like a gift.”
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Taiwan shuts down as Krathon nears

  • 2

    Outer rim of Krathon reaches Taiwan

  • 3

    Taipei mayor defends typhoon holiday declaration

  • 4

    Storm kills one, work canceled for second day

  • 5

    How Japan’s humble onigiri took over lunchtimes around the world