Mum's the Word: S1E16 - Diver Laura Wilkinson, Mother of Four Bids For Fourth Olympic Games

WiSP Sports

Olympic gold medalist Laura Wilkinson, ‘The Comeback Queen’, join Pam and Sarah this week to share her inspirational story. Laura competed for the USA at the Sydney, Athens and Beijing Olympic Games, retiring at age 30 to start a family. When the world had watched the best of pro diving, Laura announced her comeback, making a bid for the 2020 (now 2021) Olympics in Tokyo. Since Beijing, Laura has expanded her family, adding four children into the Wilkinson tribe; two of whom were adopted.
Laura grew up inspired to one day go to the Olympics. She recalls watching the famous gold medal win for Mary Lou Retton at the 1984 Olympics and quickly fell in love with the sport of gymnastics. By the time she was 13, Laura realized that this sport was not going to be the one that took her to the Olympic Games and decided to find another sport. This is when she discovered diving.
A rising star in the sport within two years she had won senior nationals. Even after decades in the sport she still gets nervous jumping in the pool the regular way but somehow diving in headfirst does not rattle her. Laura’s career highlight was her epic rise to Olympic glory, winning gold in the 10 meter board at the Sydney Olympics, having broken her foot that season and getting her cast off less than three weeks prior to the Olympic trials. The mental training and visualization work was her secret weapon, as she was forced to build up the mental resiliency she would need to climb from eighth in the final to first. So that is exactly what Laura did…and it worked.
We hear about her adoption of two children, her two pregnancies, the ups and downs through her second pregnancy and how her perspective has changed now competing as an athlete with a large, young family.
The major takeaways from the interview:
- sport is 90% mental, but no one trains 90% on their mental ability;
we are not superwoman, even though we wish we were;
let your kids hold you accountable.
Laura also hosts her own podcast—The Pursuit of Gold—where she hosts variety of guests from Olympic medallists to coaches and sports journalists. If you enjoyed this episode, you will love Laura’s podcast.
Hosts: Sarah Newberry Moore & Pam Relph Jones
Podcast length: 54 mins
Music: Paredes Invisibles by Paula van Hissenhoven
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