Gold medalist, now a mom, 43, rekindles her Olympic dream
Laura Wilkinson, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist diver, now a 43-year-old mother of four, is making a comeback aiming at the Tokyo Olympics.
What would possess a 43-year-old mother of four with a titanium plate in her neck to dive headfirst off a 33-foot-high platform into a swimming pool, hitting the water at nearly 35 mph?
When that Mom is Laura Wilkinson, it makes more sense.
Wilkinson has won all three major diving world titles — an Olympic gold medal in 2000, a world championship in 2005 and the World Cup in 2004. After nine years in retirement, and recovered from a double cervical fusion surgery, she is back in training in hopes of reaching the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
No American woman has placed at the Olympics in the 10-meter event since Wilkinson, who lives in Spring, Texas, near Houston. As part of her preparation for the Olympic Trials, she was one of 198 divers competing this weekend at the Coral Springs Winter Invitational, an opportunity to practice her dive list and compete during the pandemic.
Although she has already made history, she is not satisfied.
“Pushing the boundaries is something that’s always been encouraging to me,” she said by phone while playing with her children at a Broward County park. “Hey, how far can I go? What can I do? Being a mom of four kids, I’m not going to do something to put myself in massive danger. I’m going to be wise about it. But this is a really cool opportunity for me to push my own limits and also encourage people to try things.
“Just because society says you can’t do something at a certain age doesn’t mean that’s true. People have always told me, ‘Oh, you should be done with diving after you win the Olympics or after you finish college. You should move on with your life.’ But some people are not built to do that. We all have different callings and gifts and different desires in our lives. I think it’s OK to do that. If you have the skills and passion and a supportive family around you, it’s a pretty awesome opportunity.”
Her Olympic win in Sydney was dramatic. She was the first U.S. woman to win gold in the event since 1964, ending a long streak of Chinese winners. Making it more impressive was the fact that she won with a fractured foot.
She went back to the University of Texas and graduated in 2001, got married to swim coach Eriek Hulseman in 2002 and continued her diving career. She finished fifth in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and ninth in Beijing.
Although her performance in Beijing was not how she envisioned ending her career, Wilkinson was 30 and eager to start a family, so she retired. Their daughter Arella was born in 2011. The next year, they adopted another daughter, Zoe, from China. Three years later, Wilkinson gave birth to a son, Zadok. In 2017, they adopted daughter Dakaia from Ethiopia.
“My brother was adopted, so that was always something I was open to,” Wilkinson said. “Our family grew crazy fast after a long time of trying.”
She continued to dabble in diving for fun when her children were very young
and said it “felt like home” to be back at a pool. She worked for NBC at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio Olympics. She started itching to compete again after the Rio Games, and six months later had her full 10-meter dive list back.
By early 2017 she was training full time, aiming at the Tokyo Olympics, which were scheduled for 2020. That summer, she finished second at the U.S. Championships, which qualified her to compete in the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials.
All was going well until
Fall 2018, when she felt discomfort and weakness in her arm. An MRI revealed degenerative disc disease in her neck, which was pinching her spinal cord, caused in part by the wear-and-tear of a lifetime of diving. She was told that whether she continued diving or not, she needed the surgery to be able to do everyday activities, and that if she didn’t, a minor car accident or fall down the stairs would have been very dangerous.
She underwent the fusion surgery on Dec. 26, 2018 and spend six weeks in a neck brace.
In March of 2019, she was cleared to dive off a 1-meter board. It was
“kind of scary and nerve wracking to go headfirst into the pool at first,” she said. “It took a while to get comfortable again and not be so stiff. There was a lot to work through, so it took me a full year to get back on 10-meter.”
In February 2020, she won a meet in Orlando, and she finished third a month later in San Antonio.
Then COVID-19 hit and most aquatic centers closed their doors, including those at Texas A&M and the University of Houston, where Wilkinson had trained. She struggled to find a 10-meter training site. She worked out on springboard, and occasionally on a 5-meter platform. But she did not have access to a 10-meter platform until this week in Coral Springs, and she used the meet for training, competing in only four of five dives in the preliminary round.
The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics from July 2020 to 2021 was a blessing in a way, she said, because it has allowed her to get fully healthy.
“It’s really nice to be in Coral Springs because there’s a full set of platforms, so I got to go off 7-meter, 10-meter, so I’m excited to feel like I’m getting back into it again,” she said. “It’s been an interesting road. This week has been important for me to get some impacts off the top and be in a meet atmosphere again. It was fun to be nervous and excited again and remember how to compete.”
“I just feel like it’s a gift to be able to do it again. It’s been a really cool adventure. I know I only have so much time to do it before I have to hang up that suit.”
Wilkinson, with the help of her husband, has been able to juggle diving and parenting. Arella and Zoe are 9, Zadok is 7 and Dakaia is 5. They are her biggest cheerleaders. She says the decision to make a comeback has proven to her that mothers’ dreams do not have to be deferred.
“When I first became a mom, it felt like you have to put your dreams down and be a mom, like your stuff is over and you just live for your kids,” Wilkinson said. “And I think that’s so messed up now that I’m doing this. I can go after my dreams and my kids can be part of that with me.
“I want to encourage other moms who might be on that same train of thought, no, don’t exclude your stuff from your life. Let your kids watch you go through the ups and downs. Don’t just tell them how to handle struggles, show them.”
FIU right-hander Christian Santana was 20 minutes away from his second start of the season Saturday when his arm started to swell.
He was swiftly taken to the hospital.
“When I woke up, my arm felt funny, but nothing too crazy,” Santana told the Miami Herald on Monday afternoon from his bed at Baptist Hospital. “But when I was warming up, my arm got huge, and they told me I had to get it checked out.”
Santana said doctors found a blood clot under his clavicle.
“They are going to dissolve it and put me on blood thinners to ensure it won’t happen again,” said Santana, 21. “They said they caught it early.
“I know I will pitch again. It’s just a matter of when.”
This is not Santana’s first setback. He had shoulder surgery in May 2019, and he made his return to the mound this year on Feb. 20, pitching five scoreless innings.
He thought he was on the way to a big year until his arm got swollen.
“It just happened so fast — from the game to the emergency room,” said Santana, who is set to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in sports management this summer. “It’s frustrating. But God has a plan for everyone.
“I’ll be back.”
The Panthers (4-3) split four games against Miami of Ohio this weekend. However, a 15-6 loss in 10 innings Sunday left a bitter taste.
“We should’ve won,” FIU coach Mervyl Melendez said.
The coach was referring to FIU’s 6-2 lead entering the ninth inning. Relievers Richie Pena and Garrett Rukes couldn’t nail down the save as Miami of Ohio scored four runs in the ninth, including two on walks, before adding a nine-spot in the 10th inning.
FIU has three more home games this weekend, against Indiana State, before visiting Coastal Carolina, the program that won the 2016 College
World Series.
Here’s a closer look at where FIU’s baseball team stands heading into the third weekend of the season:
Rotation: Tyler Myrick is 1-0 with a 0.75 ERA after two brilliant starts. He struck out a careerhigh 13 batters Friday, walking just one and allowing no earned runs in six innings.
Myrick had ERAs of 3.73 and 3.86 his first two years but then missed 2019 after elbow surgery. Last year, he struggled (0-2, 6.50) in four starts, but he is clearly recovered.
FIU’s third starter (behind Santana) is true freshman Matt Fernandez, who is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA, showing potential.
With Santana out, another true freshman, Orlando Hernandez Jr., figures to jump into the rotation behind Fernandez. Hernandez has a 4.15 ERA in 4.1 innings.
“I’m very happy with our starting pitching,” Melendez said, “and that’s the one area I was uneasy about entering the season.”
Bullpen: Aside from
Myrick, Santana, Fernandez and Hernandez (combined 1.79 ERA), the rest of FIU’s pitchers have a 12.02 ERA.
Two FIU relievers who have pitched well so far are Steven Casey (4.2 innings) and Jan Figueroa (4.1 innings). Both have a 0.00 ERA. Figueroa has three career saves. Casey has two career saves, both of them in 2018, before he had elbow surgery.
“Not everyone can be a closer,” Melendez said when asked about his bullpen. “For the other relievers, there will be different roles. It’s about us learning about our players and who can get it done. It’s a bit of a process of elimination.”
Offense: FIU is 13 for 14 on steals. FIU’s opponents are just 4 for 6 on steals, making this a team strength.
But FIU has been outhomered 9-2, and opponents have 22 extra-base hits to 14 for the Panthers.
The only two FIU hitters to homer are a pair of true freshmen: first baseman Adrian Figueroa and backup outfielder Christian Eiroa. And Figueroa’s shot
was an inside-the-park homer.
Defense: FIU seems to be in good shape defensively. Melendez really likes true freshman shortstop Steven Ondina (two errors). Veteran second baseman Derek Cartaya (no errors) is tied with Ondina for the team lead with 16 assists.
As for FIU’s catchers, Melendez praised veteran Luis Chavez for his handling of the pitchers. Humberto Torres, who has the strongest arm of FIU’s catchers, is used late in games because of his ability to shut down a running game. He has gotten into five of FIU’s seven games.
After a three-year hiatus, Surfside-based Transacta Developers is ready to move forward on an 11story condo tower in North Beach. But Denny’s devotees need not fear: a new Denny’s will replace the current one at the oceanfront corner of 72nd Street and Collins Avenue.
Plans for 72+Collins Hotel & Condominium submitted to the City of Miami Beach Design Review Board call for 74 hotel rooms, 168 condo units and a handful of retailers and restaurants. The site is currently home to parking, an empty lot and retailers including a Denny’s restaurant.
The new design is one story higher than a previous plan approved in 2018. At the time, the market was saturated with condos.
In March 2020, Transacta and its partners in the project, Claro Developers, faced a $14.2 million foreclosure lawsuit from its mortgage lender Lion Financial. The case closed after Lion Financial gave the partners until December 2020 to pay off its debt.
Bernard Egozi, a partner at the Aventura-based law firm Egozi & Bennett and representative of Lion Financial, declined to comment on pending litigation.
“We have an agreement with our lender, and our project will be moving along,” said Transacta
CEO Silvia Coltrane by email. “We are very excited with our new partners.” Those include Casa Grande Shopping Center, LLC, managed by Pablo Wichmann, and AHM Advisors LLC, managed by Elysee Investments’ CEO Haim Yehezke and president Avi Dishi.
The Miami Beach Design Review Board is expected to consider the plans in March, said Neisen Kasdin, managing partner of Akerman’s Miami office. Kasdin is representing the project.
The project may face challenges in the design review process, said Ana Bozovic, founder and real estate market analyst of Analytics Miami.
“It is very hard to get a project off the ground in Miami Beach,” Bozovic said. “A faction in the City of Miami Beach don’t want anything done.”
If approved, the project would take three years to build, Coltrane said. “We believe that the time is right now. There is demand, there is a lot of money available for construction at the present time at low interest rates.”
North Beach is on the cusp of transformation. While South and MidBeach have been redeveloped in recent decades, North Beach was overlooked until the last few years. Now both the city and private developers are investing the area. In 2019, Terra Group completed Eighty Seven Park in 2019, motivating many high-fliers to drop millions on units. The same developer is building a 28-acre North Beach Oceanside Park, which will connect to a new 7-mile beachwalk.
Developer Robert Finvarb received design approval last summer for a new town center mixedused development. But the redevelopment of the Byron Carlyle Theater — is off the table.
Known as the most affordable area in Miami Beach, North Beach attracted the highest number of condo buyers shopping for units below $300,000 in 2020.
Given Florida’s population growth and the expansion of tech and financial companies, Bozovic said, 72+Collins Hotel & Condominium can provide housing to a “missing middle” in Miami Beach, those looking for two-to-three bedroom units ranging from $750,000 to $2 million.
“The people that are migrating here,” she said, “are the upper middle class that buy these types of units.”
NCIS After Sloane’s
(Maria Bello) name is discovered in Afghanistan at the site of an abandoned bus with a murdered driver, Gibbs (Mark Harmon) accompanies her on an urgent rescue mission to find a group of girls who were kidnapped from that vehicle, in the new episode “True Believer.” Meanwhile, McGee, Bishop and Torres (Sean Murray, Emily Wickersham, Wilmer Valderrama) manage to track down a hacker who transmitted some highly compromising intel to the Taliban. Ismail Bashey and Wais Wardak guest star. 8PM _ The Resident After Conrad (Matt Czuchry) gets a desperate phone call from his former Army commander, who is wounded and stranded in a forest, the trip to save him brings some intense emotions back to the surface in the new episode “Hero Moments.” Meanwhile, Devon and Kit (Manish Dayal, Jane Leeves) encourage a sickle cell anemia patient to undergo hip replacement surgery to help ease her pain. Elsewhere, the Raptor (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) is called away during surgery, leaving Mina (Shaunette Renée Wilson) to finish the procedure. 8 PM G The Flash The hit superhero series opens Season 7, which finds Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) trying to stop the cunning Eva McCulloch (Efrat Dor) and discover a way to find his missing wife, Iris West-Allen (Candice Patton). Season 6 recurring players Brandon McKnight and Kayla Compton, who play scientist Chester P. Runk and metahuman Allegra Garcia respectively, are promoted to series regulars, joining returning series veterans Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Tom Cavanagh, Jesse L. Martin and Danielle Nicolet in their familiar roles. 10:01 PM & New Amsterdam One of TV’s top medical dramas finally returns for Season 3 — with an additional two seasons already on order from NBC — after delays from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and related production issues. As the action resumes, medical director and widowed single father Dr. Max Goodwin (Ryan Eggold) finds himself and his dedicated team struggling to remain optimistic in the face of a medical crisis that only exposes the gaping inequities of the U.S. healthcare system. Freema Agyeman and Tyler Labine are among other returning regulars.