Diving In
I recently went one on one with Olympic Gold medalist Laura Wilkinson. Laura made history at the 2000 Olympics when she became the first American woman since 1964 to win a Gold Medal in platform diving. She did so despite competing with three shattered bones in her foot, sustained in pre-Olympic training. Twenty years after winning Gold, Laura came out of a 9-year retirement seek to recapture Gold in Tokyo.
Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your story and your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. What is something about you that would surprise people?
Laura: That I have tattoos, lol.
Adam: Looking back, what is your sharpest or most significant memory from your Olympic experience?
Laura: It would have to be at the 2000 Olympics. My favorite moment was before my final dive. I didn’t know I was in the lead, but I knew that I was doing really well. I was in the medal hunt. I remember thinking, as I was waiting for them to call my name before that final dive, that I'm living out my dream in this moment. No matter if I end up first or fifth, I’m getting to live that right now.
Adam: What is something that would surprise people about the life of an Olympian?
Laura: A lot of us don’t make much money. In fact, most of us are paying to do our sport. So, you know we are really doing it because we love it.
Adam: How did you get here? What failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?
Laura: I've had some very significant injuries that have given me the opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone and do things that I maybe wasn't planning on doing, and that has made me stronger and better.
Most recently I resumed training after a two-level cervical fusion, spending a year in recovery using an Orthofix bone growth stimulator that significantly help speed up recovery. During that time I took the opportunity to revisit mental skills that I used in the past and began to really remember the tools I had used to help overcome any real or perceived obstacles in my path to my goal of returning to the Olympics.
Adam: What are the best lessons you learned from the achievement of becoming an Olympian and then a gold medalist?
Laura: I think that you have to dream big because if you don't, there's no way you're ever going to do it. But even if you don’t reach those big dreams and goals, you are still going to take yourself so much farther than you ever would of if you hadn’t dreamed big to begin with. I think it is really important to reach for those huge, almost impossible dreams because you might actually achieve them.
Adam: What drove you to come out of a 9-year rretirement to seek to recapture Gold in Tokyo as a 42-year old Olympian?
Laura: It wasn't an overnight decision. I missed being around the pool, and my coach told me I could come “play” once a week while my kids were in preschool. I was just thinking that maybe that would make me a happy Mommy. That's kind of how I started. I would just come out for one hour on a Monday and I just kept coming back. It felt good, like home, as soon as I hit the water, and so I just kind of kept going and things just came back. Then we started to wonder, “Well would I be crazy to do this thing?” And my coach said no, so we just gave it a whirl and it started to snowball after that.
Adam: What obstacles have you had to overcome and how have you been overcoming them?
Laura: Well that’s kind of two-fold. I now have four kids that I did not have before retirement. So initially there’s that juggling act between being a mother and an elite athlete. In some ways I had to learn to be a little selfish and make training, health and recovery a priority. But as a mom, you have to make your children, their health, their safety and their needs number one. It directly conflicts, so it’s been a learning curve of trying to figure out, not just how to balance it, but what is my actual priority. How can I make them go together? So yes, my children are my top priority overtraining, but my kids can be a part of my training. They can do that with me and learn from it. That’s actually something beautiful that’s come out of being quarantined, that my kids get to see how much time and energy and how hard I have to work every single day, multiple times a day, to do this. I think it is teaching them some important life lessons. And I get the benefit of them cheering me on every step of the way. They jump in with me sometimes in my workouts and it’s been a really special time.
Adam: How have you been managing the one-year Olympic postponement mentally and physically?
Laura: It was kind of surreal how the postponement happened. This pandemic was nothing anyone could’ve prepared for or predicted how things would roll out. Every day you woke up to a new damage report and it was overwhelming.
People were talking about Olympic postponement and what were we going to do and that caused me a lot of anxiety. You are left unsure. Are we going to do this? How do I proceed right now with the world in this state? So, when they actually made the announcement to postpone, I was actually relieved because it just made the most sense. It provided immediate answers and now I could make a new plan on how to begin to move forward.
Ultimately, the postponement was a gift for me personally. I was just coming off of my surgery and gearing back up. I was playing catch up, trying to get ready in time for this Summer. But now I have an entire extra year to prepare and get ready, get truly comfortable and confident with my dives again and hopefully go into 2021 feeling really great
Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader?
Laura: I think two things. One, true leaders lead by example. You can’t just tell people what to do, you need to be able to show them how to do it. Also being responsible for their growth. You need to be there for the people you are leading. You have to invest in them. That not only inspires them, it also lifts you up. A rising tide lifts all ships.
Adam: How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?
Laura: It is more of that same idea. Having that dedication and heart for the people you are leading and really showing them how it’s done. And just continuing to walk that path. Showing how to navigate and overcome obstacles, not just with words, but with action. Leading by example is a two-pronged growth path. It benefits you just as much as those you lead.
Adam: Who are the best leaders you have been around and what did you learn from them?
Laura: My coach Kenny Armstrong has always been a big influence on me and a huge mentor. Since 1993, the first time I stepped onto a pool deck, he’s been there for everything. All the ups and down, the sideways twists and turns, we’ve navigated them together. He’s an incredible leader. He’s taught me both through his experience, as well as knowing me personally. He invests the time to really get to know his athletes very well, what makes them tick, when to push their buttons and when not to. And he’s never closed off, thinking he knows all the answers. He’s open to learning more, while helping you do the same. He’s taught me how to communicate, and how to work together as a team. It’s really special.
Adam: What is the best tip applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?
Laura: Any kind of leader has to be the one willing to do it themselves and willing to stop what they are doing and help somebody else climb up the ladder.
Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?
Laura: I’ve been given lots of really great advice through the years. But the one that stands out most was in 1996. I missed making the Olympic Trials, the first one I was really gunning for, and I missed it by a really really small margin. 1992 Olympic Gold Medalist Mark Lenzi was on the pool deck and he came up to me and said “I know this really stinks right now but let this light the fire. Let this be the fuel that gets you through the next four years so you can be on the next team and be on the top of the podium.” I didn’t like it at the time, but I took it to heart and it really was the fuel for the next four years.
Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?
Laura: The key is never giving up especially when you fail at first. People might not realize this or even want to hear it, but failure is a critical part of success. Those of us that failed and have fallen on our knees, if we are willing to get back up and figure out what went wrong and how to make it better, often we turn that failure into ultimate success. In life we have these dips but if we continue to rise back up, we continue to get better. Failure is the thing that forces you out of your comfort zone. It forces you to face the things you couldn’t do or the things you did wrong and forces you to figure out how to get it right the next time. That’s what makes you continue to improve and to aspire to and achieve greatness. Don’t give up when those failures hit. I won two world titles after posting devastatingly low scores on a second dive only to come back for a third and final dive, clawing, fighting and scraping my way to the top.