Diver Laura Wilkinson is on a quest for gold once again at the Beijing Olympics. The Woodlands Olympian is sharing her experiences in an online blog.

Sunday, Aug. 24

First of all I, want to thank you all so very, very much for all of your support and prayers and well wishes! I have the most awesome fans and family on the planet! Thank you!

Well, it wasn't the ending I had dreamed of or hoped for, but it was my ending. Even though I wasn't having a very good meet, my team stood up before my last dive and gave me a standing ovation and that meant so much to me. I had a very special moment there before my last dive and I will treasure it always.

Going into the men's platform final, the Chinese had swept 7 of the 8 possible golds so far and it looked like they were going to take the final one as well. But Matthew Mitcham of Australia had an amazing come from behind performance to snatch the gold in the final round! It reminded me of my experience in Sydney and even though it wasn't me on the top of the podium, seeing Matt up there, it made me feel a little more complete.

I'm not too sure what lies ahead for me at this point, but I know I will be spending a lot of time on the Laura Wilkinson Foundation to raise money to build a new facility for my team as ours is closing at the end of this year. Please check out our Web site -- www.lwfound.org

It's a little rough right now as I'm doing it all, but I'll have a lot of time in the coming months to spruce it up and hopefully start organizing some fund raisers.

Also, I want to report that this place really did become a place of praise as we were able to hand out Chinese/English Bibles and one of my archer friends prayed with an athlete to accept Christ! I'm excited to wait and see what God has in store for this place!!!

Thank you again for all of your support and I will certainly keep you posted as new adventures begin!

I love you all!

Laura

Thursday, Aug. 21

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

Saturday, Aug. 16

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:

www.mercurynewsphoto.com/2008/08/cube_inside2.mov.

Laura

Friday, Aug. 15, 2008

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 finishing 8th and 11th. The top 18 from the prelims advance to semifinals, so both of our girls will be in the semis tonight at 8 p.m. 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 beautiful 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!

Laura

Monday, Aug. 11

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

Sunday, Aug. 10

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!

Laura

Friday, Aug. 8

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 8 am 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