Friday, April 21, 2006
Diver Wilkinson says she's getting faster
| |
|
| Laura Wilkinson dives during the U.S. Open diving championships in Indianapolis, Thursday, April 20, 2006. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings) |
INDIANAPOLIS -- When Laura Wilkinson looks around the pool deck, she sees
wide-eyed
teenagers nearly half her age with compact bodies and fancy moves.
Yet the 28-year-old stateswoman of American women's diving says she still
feels like one of the
kids, even as she refuses to let them push her into retirement.
"I feel the strongest I've ever been and I'm getting faster," she
said as she prepared to compete at
this weekend's U.S. Open in Indianapolis. "I never dreamed I'd be doing the
dives I am now. It's
given me new goals and new passion, and I feel like I'm just starting
again."
In some ways, Wilkinson has gotten a second chance.
She decided to skip the international competition in China this week, where
most of her Olympic
teammates are, so she could refine three new dives in Indianapolis. She returned
from wrist surgery
in January 2005 wanting to learn more, test the limits and challenge herself
against the impressive
youngsters who hope to dethrone the 2000 Olympic champion.
If Wilkinson has her way, they'll have to wait a few more years.
"I think her career is winding down, but I don't think it's going to be
over before 2008," national coach
John Wingfield said. "She's gotten quicker in her old age, and she's still
improving. She needs to improve
and she's going after it."
For nearly a decade, Wilkinson has been the standard bearer for American
women. She is the only
platform diver to earn a career triple crown with gold-medal performances at the
Olympics, World
Cup and World Championships.
Wilkinson is again proving herself the exception in a sport where flexibility
and speed reign,
contenders are getting younger and 25 is considered ancient.
In Thursday's preliminary round on the 10-meter platform, she dominated with
a five-dive total of 345.600,
nearly 16 points better than Cassandra Cardinell, an Olympian with Wilkinson in
2004.
Haley Ishimatsu, the 13-year-old who has qualified for international
competition and is being touted as a
future star, was third at 317.550.
Wilkinson had some problems in the semifinals, finishing fourth at 280.300. Ishimatsu was first at 371.400.
To those who think Wilkinson's time is running out, she has a message: Think again.
"I'm glad we have kids coming up because that's the future of our sport
and I need people to push me, too,"
she said. "They're just pushing me forward, not out."
Wilkinson considered quitting after leaving Athens without a medal in 2004.
Once the disappointment
wore off, though, her competitive nature took over.
She rededicated herself to the sport, introduced more difficult dives to her
repertoire and decided to
make another medal-winning performance at Beijing her next big goal.
Only then will Wilkinson walk away from the pool.
"I'd love to end my career there," she said. "But yeah, that would be it."
Coaches continue to use Wilkinson's talents - in and out of the water - as
the model for what divers should
be and what they hope America's new crop of divers can become.
"She goes beyond, sometimes, what you think she's capable of,"
Wingfield said. "Laura has that special gift
to step it up and really perform well when all the marbles are on the
line."
And in a sport where the baby-faced newcomers seem poised for a breakthrough,
the two-time Olympian
refuses to give in to age. Instead, she hopes to lead a new pack of American
divers into Beijing.
"I dream big, I dream really big," she said. "I want another
gold medal, but it's not enough. I want to see
what my potential is, and I want to be as good as I can be."