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Well, prelims and semis down, just finals to go. I have just five dives left in my 10 meter platform career. I have been waiting for this moment for a very long time, but at the same time, it's almost hard to believe it's already here.
Since I've been here in Beijing, I've had a lot of time to reflect on moments throughout my diving life. This sport and the people in it have really made me who I am. God has used diving to help me understand who He is and how to trust Him. It was in the middle of a diving meet that I gave my life back to Him. God showed me at that meet when I put my life in His hands, that He had plans for me and a future.
There have been times when diving has scared me to my very core, but when I've taken that step of faith and trusted Him, He has always helped me overcome those fears. And today I love diving more than I probably ever have.
The people in this sport that have become my friends, have also become my family. From my very first team at home to countries all around the world and even those of us that don't speak too many words in the same language, we are a family. And I treasure that family so very, very much!
Tonight I face one of the biggest challenges of my career as I face the dominant Chinese divers in their home country. There are just 12 divers, 5 dives, 3 medals, and one gold.
There are so many thoughts I'm having right now, and I keep trying to explain them, but I wrote so eloquently those same feelings before my final in Sydney, so I'd like to share part of that with you...
"I have nothing to lose. The only thing I have left to give is my heart. Tonight I dive with my heart. Tonight I give it all to God who brought me here. Tonight I have faith that God brought me here for a reason- to conquer the unconquerable. To show the world His light. Tonight I ask that I be His witness to the world. Tonight I fight for dreams, for hopes, I fight for God."
I want to thank you all for your continued to support and prayers! Laura
Hey everyone, Just wanted to send out a quick note that I will be on The Today Show on NBC Monday morning at about 9:30am.
***SPOILER ALERT***
Christina and Nancilea started off super strong today in the women's 3m finals. Both of their first 3 dives kept them in the medal hunt. On the fourth round both Christina and Nancilea had some tough hurdles (for the non-divers out there, that's the walking approach into the jump) to deal with. Christina was way over the end of the board and Nancilea was pretty far back from the end. Both worked really hard to recover their dives but it really set them back. They both came back and finished out very strong in the final round. Nancilea finished in 8th place with 316.7 and Christina was 9th with 315.7. Great job girls!
Tomorrow Chris and Troy take the stage on men's 3 meter springboard.
Laura
kay, apparently I had the scheduling mixed up as there is one more morning of swimming left.
*** So here's your SPOILER ALERT****
I saw Michael Phelps win his 7th gold medal of these games from the tv in the athlete's lounge here in the village. It was such an amazing fight for a swim, I was so excited I was standing up and then jumping up and down and screaming as he took an extra stroke to out-touch the swimmer next to him for the gold by .01 seconds! And this was after being about 4th after the turn... talk about amazing....
I hopped on the bus thinking I would get there in time for the final medley relay, but apparently that's tomorrow! But I got there just in time to see Michael receive his gold medal and hear our National Anthem play yet again in the Olympic pool.
Watching that swim and replaying it in my mind, I can't help but think how it embodied so many things we all need to remember. Just because you're down certainly does not mean that you're out. Come back fighting with everything you have and dig deep and you can still find some more. Never, ever give up just because things might not be going as planned. And we all know that magical things happen at the Olympics. I know these things too, but for some reason it's easy to forget them sometimes. It's good to be reminded, especially like this :)
On another fun note, my friend Allen sent me a link to a really cool view of the pool from about where my family will be sitting in the finals. Thought you all might feel a little more like you're here if look at this:
http://www.mercurynewsphoto.com/2008/08/cube_inside2.mov Laura
As many of you know, we came very close again in the men's 3 meter synchro, but ended up 4th place, just under 5 points shy of a bronze medal. China won the gold sweeping all 4 synchro events. Russia took the silver and Ukraine the bronze.
Yesterday afternoon we finally started the individual events. Christina and Nancilea had solid preliminary rounds finsihing 8th and 11th. The top 18 from the prelims advance to semifinals, so both of our girls will be in the semis tonight at 8pm Beijing time. They need to finish in the top 12 tonight to advance to tomorrow's finals.
On the 14th there were no diving events and I had the day off, so my husband, parents and brother came into the village to see where we're living and check things out. It's always nice that they can see where I am and get a feel for what I've been talking about. They are at track and field events today and are excited to check out the inside of the bird's nest!
After a stormy day off, the weather really cleared up and today is beauitful blue skies just like yesterday. Eriek and I were able to get some great pictures of the torch and some of the venues in the great weather, so I'll post those soon!
This morning Michael Phelps is going for his record breaking 7th and 8th gold medals, so I think I'm about to sneak over to the pool early to go watch!
*SPOILER ALERT*
*Okay, I've been asked to give a warning if I'm mentioning results that may not yet have aired back home- so for all of you who haven't seen the men's or women's synchro tower yet and want to be surprised, this is your fair warning that I will be discussing the meet!*
Thomas and David did a very solid job in the men's platform synchro event but were just under 5 points out of a bronze medal finishing 5th with 440.64. Our first two events were nail biters to the final dive with so many teams so close in score you just didn't know who would end up on the podium. The Chinese won their second gold medal in diving in this event, and the German team had a defining final dive which gave them the silver while Russia finished with bronze.
Haley and Mary Beth took the stage today in women's platform synchro. They had a solid start in the first two voluntary rounds then were just a little off in the next two optional rounds. They were in eighth place going into the final dive but finished strong pulling up to 5th place with 309.12. China took their third gold medal of the games in this event with a score of 363.54. Our Auzzies friends took the silver with 335.16 and Mexico earned the bronze with 330.06.
Jevon and Chris will dive in the men's 3 meter springboard synchro event tomorrow which will conclude the synchro events. GO TEAM USA!!!
On another exciting note, we're usually getting to the pool as the swimming finals are going on so we've been able to watch a lot of the finals. Yesterday morning when the USA men won their come from behind gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay, we were there watching and screaming and freaking out with the crowd on the pool deck! It was such an amazing moment and we postponed workout a bit so we could stand and hear our national anthem play while the guys received their GOLD medals. What an awesome day...
That's all for now, Laura
Greetings from Beijing! It's a dark and stormy day here in Beijing, but I love a good storm and it reminds me of home :)
I have a lot of ground to cover, so I'm going to start with today and work my way back.
Today was our first day of competition- women's 3 meter synchro. Kelci and Ariel (Team USA) trained awesome and dived confident and determined. It was a great contest! Our girls were right in the middle of the medal hunt the entire contest. It came down to the very last dive and Germany edged us out of bronze by 4 points. I know coming so close is hard, but I am so proud of them as they fought for every dive and finished 4th at the Olympic Games! China won the gold and Russia the silver. Tomorrow Thomas and David will be competing 10 meter synchro.
I know many of you watched Opening Ceremonies on tv as I got all of your messages that you saw me in the crowd! That's really exciting :) That was such an amazing day! First the US delegation met in the Fencing Hall to meet with President Bush! He came out and spoke to us and then took pictures with each team and even took a few minutes to shake our hands and talk with us! It was so incredible! Don't worry, I have pictures to share :)
After that excitement, we walked over to the gymnastics arena where all the countries gathered to be marched out to the stadium. We were country number 140 out of a little over 200 so we had a few minutes to sit and wait. We caught glimpses of the show on the screens inside, but they were only showing it for a few minutes at a time. We then lined up for the march to the stadium. As we got closer to the stadium we were all getting excited. As we went through the tunnel and could see the inside of the stadium ahead, we all started chanting, "USA... USA... USA..." it was so amazing! I have a video of it, too! The march out was so fun but my very favorite part was seeing the torch lit. For those of you who didn't catch this on tv, Li Ning- a Chinese gymnastics gold medalist that designs all of their warm up gear now- was hoisted up in the air and proceded to run in the air with the torch around the stadium. The edges of the stadium that he was running by lit up with pictures of all the cities that the torch relay had been through. When he made it around to the torch, he lit a fuse that quickly zipped up and around the torch. It was the most beautiful site and I had goose bumps all over my body even though it was 95 degrees out and we were sweating through our jackets!
I have posted an album of Opening Ceremonies, however we are not allowed to post anything from inside the stadium until after the Olympics are over. So I have everything leading up to that point here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28820&l=bdc61&id=506127458
The village has definitely come alive now with an exciting buzz in the atmosphere now that the competitions have started. My training is going well and I'm looking forward to my competition. I still have over a week though to cheer my teammates on first. Many of you have asked so here is my diving competition schedule (times are local to Beijing which is 12 hours ahead of EST):
Preliminaries: Wed, Aug 20 - 07:00 PM Semifinals: Thu, Aug 21 - 10:00 AM Finals: Thu, Aug 21 - 08:00 PM
This is what we have found so far for Houston's (CST) local tv airing of my events:
20th NBC 11:30am - 1:00pm 21st T elemundo 1:00pm - 5:00pm 21st NBC 7:00pm - 11:00pm Check with www.nbcolympics.com for your local listings.
I just heard from my family and know that they have arrived safely in Beijing and are checking into their apartment as I write this- yay!
I hope you are all having a wonderful day in whatever part of the world you are in!
I have So many adventures to fill you in on, but I don't have much time to write as we're getting ready for Opening Ceremonies!!! We have been told that President Bush is taking pictures with all the USA teams, too! Talk about an amazing night! I did just post two photo albums, one of fun random village things and one of our trip to the Great Wall. Here's the link to the village album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28597&l=10ebb&id=506127458
And here's the link to the great wall album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28598&l=39bf8&id=506127458
I'll send more stories in the morning. In the meantime, if you have ATT Uverse, you can watch Opening Ceremonies LIVE at 8am EST Friday 8-8-08. If you're watching your local NBC it will be on at 8pm EST. Look for me, I'll be waving! Laura
Well, we had a few days of beautiful blue skies and last night the haze blew back into town. It's been smoggy all day today and the air feels like a green house. It was even a little hazy in the pool, but nothing that would affect our diving.
They were practicing fireworks the other night for the Opening Ceremonies this Friday. Knowing the Chinese and their fireworks... I have a feeling Opening Ceremonies are going to be amazing!
I visited the ice bath, or as the trainers were calling it, the cold plunge, last night after 10 meter. Don't worry, no injuries, it just helps my body recover better. It was way colder than I'm used to but a nice water polo player named Peter in the next ice bath over talked to me to help me through it.
Most of the divers are on the 4th floor of our building, but there wasn't quite enough room for all of us, so Nancilea and I are directly upstairs from them in an apartment with 3 judo girls- Rhonda, Sayaka and Valerie. Nancilea and I have our own room and bathroom but we share a common room. It's been fun getting to know people from different sports!
Down stairs in our building is where the USOC (United States Olympic Committee) has set up their offices, medical & treatment rooms, and an athlete lounge. The athlete lounge has 2 rooms of computers with internet access, wireless throughout the entire floor, a room with phones that we can call home for free, and 2 rooms with tvs that you can either watch tv on or put in movies.
The dining hall is just a short 3-5 minute walk from our building and there is a huge variety of food to choose from. But the best part about dining hall always has been and always will be... people watching! You see that athletes come in ALL shapes and sizes and we all just stare at each other and eventually make some new friends. My favorite past time is guessing which sport people play.
The other day Nancilea, Christina, and I ventured around the village a bit and discovered the massive workout/weight room. It has pretty much every kind of training equipment you can think of. That same building has massage available and steam rooms. There's an entertainment area that has pool tables, air hockey, shuffle board... you name it. They also have a tv room filled with flat screen tvs hoooked up to DVD players so you can watch whatever you want. There is also an outdoor lap pool next to it.
I haven't visited the international zone yet, but there are apparently some cool stores there I have to check out!
Very close to our building is a building called the Super Resident Center. It has a huge game room in it that makes you feel like you're at an arcade! It also has internet and phones available for all countries.
I discovered earlier this year that my website and foundation website are blocked by the Chinese web servers. I also discovered today that while I can pull up all my emails on my webmail, my google-alerts do not download onto my computer through this server. I had a problem with it serval times. It's very interesting each time I discover what they do and do not allow. I do have access to an American server though, so I will be updating the website as needed.
I just wanted to take a minute to share all of my little discoveries so far with you.
Well we're here in Beijing and it looks amazing! The entire drive in from the airport was landscaped like a fancy garden! And the Olympic Village where the athletes stay is spectacular! They've also dressed up the pool with colorful banners and everything just looks gorgeous- I can't get over it :) I just posted a photo album of the team going through processing, the village and the pool. Check it out: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27791&l=d0f3f&id=506127458
We're basically just into heavy training right now, but I'll let keep you posted on anything more exciting than that!
So we made it through processing and there are just a few hours until we leave for the airport and off to Beijing!
We got to San Jose State College last night around 8pm, had a quick bite to eat, a team meeting, some unpacking and a good night sleep. This morning we had a chance to train at Stanford- one of the best outdoor pools in the world! The weather couldn't have been more beautiful and quite a few people came out to watch practice and wish us well.
Following practice we had lunch and then the processing began... First we had an opportunity to purchase a leather jacket with the Olympic rings on the back. Then we got a prepaid VISA card for some travel per diem. Next we had an opportunity to upgrade our Olympic rings. Some of you have seen the Olympic rings I have from USA Diving, but this was for the rings we get from the USOC. You can upgrade all the way to 14k- white gold or yellow gold- and you can add diamonds. There's even a box you can check so that if you win a gold medal, your ring will say "gold medalist"!
And then came the most important and exciting part... the apparel! We were given shopping carts to go to each station and fill up! We wore swim suits under our clothes so we could try everything on and make sure it fit perfectly. Then we took our opening ceremonies jackets and pants to the alterations area. Then we had a quick team picture in one of our new jackets. Then we were off to a brief for the seven different sports that were processing today. (Diving, men's gymnastics, women's basketball, judo, some track & field, equestrian and I'm blanking on the seventh!)
Then we had to take all of our stuff back to our dorm rooms and repack! This was a bit of a mad rush as we had about an hour to pack our two bags we're checking through to Beijing and get together in a box all the stuff we are sending home and then catch dinner before it closed! Somehow though, we all managed to get it done :)
Then our teammate, Cassidy Krug, who came from Stanford to the Woodlands to train with us this last year came to visit us! We had a nice but somewhat delirious chat with Cassidy and now I've just finished gathering all my carry on things together.
We have been told that we have a special check in and security area at the airport (sweet!) and we can put some extra things in our check bags once we get there in the morning. Then it will finally be... off to Beijing!
I have tons of fun pictures to post soon, but it will probably have to wait until we're settled into the Olympic Village where we'll be living for the next 26 days.
Until then... Laura
Laura Wilkinson Olympic & World Champion www.laurawilkinson.com President, Laura Wilkinson Foundation www.lwfound.org