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WILKINSON EARNS SECOND TRIP TO OLYMPIC GAMES
Viola finishes second; Hildebrand will join Wilkinson on women’s 10-meter

Laura Wilkinson

ST.PETERS, Mo. – Laura Wilkinson’s (Spring, Texas) road to the Olympic Games seemed like it would be a walk in the park for the reigning Olympic gold medallist as she entered the final night of competition with a 42-point lead, but she quickly found herself struggling to keep her Olympic dream alive with less than a seven point lead going into the final round.
 
Wilkinson scored 4’s - 6.5’s on her second and third dives while 17-year-old Brittany Viola scored 7’s – 8.5’s throughout her first four dives, bringing the two divers to within seven points as they entered the final dive. But Wilkinson, who had the last dive of the Olympic Diving Trials, stepped onto the platform determined to make her second Olympic team.  She scored 9’s on her back 2 1⁄2 somersaults with 1 1⁄2 twists in the pike position to complete the competition and ended with a score of 878.85 to Viola’s 836.40.
 
“You have to let it go fast and comeback for your next dive ready to fight back,” Wilkinson said of her middle dives. “The cool part about diving is anything can happen and you don’t know what your competitor is going to do. So you can’t just give up if you miss one dive, you have to come back fighting like a tiger.”
 
With the win Wilkinson joined teammate Kimiko Soldati (Magnolia, Texas) on the Olympic team, who earned her spot in the 3-meter springboard on Saturday. Soldati and Wilkinson teamed up in the 10-meter synchro but finished second on Thursday.
 
Based on USA Diving’s selection policy, Sara Hildebrand (St. Paul, Minn.), who received an Olympic spot on Thursday on the 10-meter synchro, will join Wilkinson on the platform event in the Olympics. Hildebrand, who was also a 2000 Olympian on the platform, finished fifth with 809.88.
 
Wilkinson and Hildebrand will be nominated to the U.S. Olympic Diving Team, subject to the final approval of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
 
Wilkinson and Hildebrand will join fellow 2000 Olympians Troy Dumais (Ventura, Calif.) and Mark Ruiz (Orlando, Fla.) on the Olympic team, as well as Cassandra Cardinell (Loudonville, N.Y.), Justin Dumais (Ventura, Calif.), Caesar Garcia (Baton Rouge, La.), Rachelle Kunkel (West Valley City, Utah), Kyle Prandi (Strongsville, Ohio), Soldati and Justin Wilcock (Smithfield, Utah).
 

 
ATHLETE QUOTES:
 
SARA HILDEBRAND:
 
ON BEING NERVOUS KNOWING THAT SHE HAD TO BEAT JUST ONE PERSON TO MAKE THE OLYMPIC TEAM:  
“A little bit, but you still try to keep the same frame of mind. You are competing against yourself and your own scores, and putting yourself in a situation of you’re competing against everyone else.  It’s not just you and one other person.  We always want to try and do our best.”
 
ON WHAT SHE IS GOING TO TAKE ANY TIME OFF NOW THAT THE OLYMPIC TRIALS ARE OVER: 
“Maybe a few days off not much just enough for body for recovery. It has been a long stressful week.  Doing three events everyday makes your emotions go up and down constantly.  So just a few days off to recuperate and I will get right back into it.  I will probably focusing more on platform since I won’t be doing three meter.  I am not going to push it by the way side and say that I am totally done with it.  I don’t think I could not just drive three meter any more.  I have come along way on springboard so I will train that through nationals, but really focus more energy on the platform.”

 ON DIVING SIX OUT OF THE SEVEN DAYS: 
“It was a very long week, but that is ok and it makes you stronger in the end.”
 
ON MAKING CHANGES ON HER DIVES: 
“No, there won’t be any changes. What you saw here you will see it again only with better entries.”

ON HOW NERVOUS THE DIVERS WERE DURING THE FINALS:
“It is hard to say.  I think between the top three divers it was a little bit tense for those three because they were all fighting for first place.  It was a little bit tougher than pre-lims.”ON THE RULES ABOUT WHO MAKES THE TEAMS: 
“It’s hard because it has always been the top two in every event go (to the Olympics), but with the introduction of synchronized diving, trying to figure out how to put our best team forward, include individual divers, but still be on a number restriction.  It’s hard and the only good thing was that we knew about it before coming into this meet.  Every diver knew that if you didn’t win your event you chances were probably pretty slim that you weren’t going to make it (the Olympics).  So knowing that and having that in your head diving makes it a little bit easier, but if you did get second knowing that. I might still have a chance, but I knew I had to win.”

LAURA WILKINSON
 
ON THE PROBLEMS WITH HER MIDDLE DIVES:
“It is really frustrating just like you probably imagined it would be.  Kind of like I can’t believe that I just did that, but you have to let it go fast and comeback for your next dive ready to fight back.  The cool part about diving is anything can happen and you don’t know what your competitor is going to do.  So you can’t just give up if you miss one dive, you have to comeback fighting like a tiger.”

ON COMPARING THIS TEAM TO THE LAST OLYMPIC DIVING TEAM: 
“This is really exciting to have eleven people on the team because last time we only had seven.  So that is pretty cool.  I think this is a great team, and I think we are sending our best people.  We have a couple of great medals shots, and I think as long as we go in there confident we are going to do well.”

ON IF SHE KNEW WHAT SCORE SHE HAD TO BEAT GOING INTO HER LAST DIVE: 
“I was aware of that, but I still wanted to end on a good note.  I wanted to feel good about the way that I came back and finished, and fought my way back. I wanted to earn it.”

ON HER LAST DIVE: 
“I have gotten a few nines on it before.  I like that dive. That is why I put it last. It’s just fun and it is not as hard as some of my other ones (dives) for me.  Everybody has challenges on different types of dives, but I like that one.”