Background

Wilkinson was born and raised in Houston, Texas and lived with her parents, Ed and Linda
Wilkinson. She attended Klein High School in Houston before going to University of Texas. As a
child, Wilkinson was a gymnast, but had to give up on the sport after a growth spurt during
puberty made her too tall to continue. It was then that she turned to diving. When she first started
diving, a teacher told her she was too old to start a new sport and was later kicked off her high
school team because they thought she was a "waste of space".[2] Wilkinson is a 2001 graduate of
the University of Texas, where she majored in public relations. While attending school on a
scholarship, she decided that she would rather put school on hold and go after her dream to
become an Olympian. She trained in The Woodlands, Texas.

Career
Wilkinson's interest in the sport began as she was swimming in the gym's pool and watched a
young female diver in training execute an impressive dive. Her first jump off the 10 meter
platform didn't occur until she was 15 years old. She took up platform diving and joined the U.S.
National Team in 1995.

2000 Summer Olympics

Six months prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics, Wilkinson suffered a serious foot injury that
kept her out of action for a couple of months. She employed a visualization technique to practice
her dives during this time, and wasn't fully healed when she qualified for the 2000 Summer
Olympics. Still in pain from her foot injury, she landed in eighth place after the first of five dives
in the platform finals. She went on to earn the first gold medal for a female American platform
diver since 1964.[3]

2004 Summer Olympics

Wilkinson finished in fifth place at the 2004 Summer Olympics, but had left an impact on her
competitors. Several of them repeated the techniques she used at the 2000 Olympics by starting
their dives with a handstand.