Throughout the summer, we're revisiting some of our most meaningful conversations - stories of hope, healing, and life-changing collisions with Jesus that continue to encourage women year after year.

This episode originally aired in September 2019 and we're grateful to share it again with you.

Whether you're listening for the first time or returning to it again, we pray it meets you right where you are and reminds you of God's faithfulness, grace, and redeeming love.

What if the biggest obstacle between you and your calling isn't failure, but fear?

Olympic gold medalist Laura Wilkinson shares the incredible true story behind one of the greatest comeback victories in Olympic history. From a devastating injury just months before the Olympics to standing atop the podium, Laura reveals how God met her in uncertainty, strengthened her through suffering, and taught her that faith isn't about certainty—it's about taking the leap.

Episode Summary

Olympic Gold Medalist Laura Wilkinson knows what it feels like to stand at the edge of impossible.

Just months before the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Laura shattered her foot and was told her Olympic dreams were all but over. Instead of giving up, she spent weeks visualizing every dive, trusting God through disappointment, and preparing for what seemed impossible.

Against every expectation, Laura went from 8th place to Olympic Gold, completing one of the greatest comeback stories in Olympic diving history.

But this conversation isn't really about winning medals.

It's about learning how to trust God when life doesn't go according to plan.

Laura shares the lessons she learned through injury, disappointment, fear, motherhood, retirement, and stepping back into the unknown after God called her out of retirement to pursue another Olympic dream.

If you've ever wondered whether God can still use your setbacks, this conversation will encourage you to keep taking the next faithful step.

In This Episode You'll Learn

• How to trust God when your dreams seem impossible
• Why perseverance is built through pain—not comfort
• What Laura learned after nearly losing her Olympic dream
• Why your identity must be rooted in Christ—not your accomplishments
• Why obedience often requires jumping before you know how you'll land
• How God uses setbacks to prepare us for His greater purpose
• What it means to find purpose beyond performance

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Welcome to the Collide Podcast. We're a growing community of everyday chicks colliding with Jesus in our mess, our pain, our joy, and our stories.

We value showing up as we truly are, so that's what you'll find here. Walls and masks being torn down so that we can allow Jesus to meet us where we truly are and hear about other women doing the same.

We can't wait to collide with.

You can't dip your toe in to see if the water feels nice. You have to jump in with both feet. And that's what commitment is like. That's what commitment in our life is. You have to jump in.

And let me tell you, jumping off 10 meter is scary because you don't know how you're gonna land.

You don't know if it's gonna be fun, if it's gonna be terrifying, if you're gonna land straight up and down and it's gonna feel good, or if it's gonna hurt or if you're gonna end up getting sucked out to the other side of the pool or something. You know what I mean? You have. There's so many unknowns and it's scary.

Welcome to the Collide podcast.

She has a parenting blog and she also hosts the Hope Sports podcast where she talks with elite and professional athletes about finding purpose beyond performance. Laura is a motivational speaker, so you need to check her out.

She's been a broadcaster for NBC and Laura's story is one about pushing through pain, fighting hard and coming out victorious. We can learn so much from this woman. So, Laura, thank you so much for being on the WeekLife podcast today.

Thanks for having me. That was quite an introduction. I hope I live up to it.

It's all true. You've already lived up to it, but thank you for taking the time to hang out with us.

I'm really curious to hear how you got into this crazy diving world in the first place.

And I realized at about 13 that I wasn't going to be Mary Lou Retton. So I. But I still had this desire to go to the Olympics and to be an Olympic athlete.

And so I kept trying different sports until I finally found diving. And it was, you know, like gymnastics into the water. It was this perfect fit. I loved it.

That's awesome. I have a 13 year old daughter, by the way, who does gymnastics like 20 hours a week. And it's a lot, it requires a lot.

To make that shift from going from a gymnast over to a diver. Had to have been a major transition.

Is it true that a teacher told you that you were too old to start a, a new sport and then later you were kicked off your high school team because they thought you were a waste of space? That's what I read. Yeah.

Yeah, you probably read that on my site. I wrote it. I had a drill team instructor. I did drill team my freshman year in high school because I was still kind of, I love to dance.

I was part of like, you know, in my gymnastics world. And so I did that my freshman year while I was still pursuing other things. And I loved it.

But when I told her I found this diving thing, she told me I was too old to start something new, you know, and I was just 15, you know, but I didn't listen. I decided I wanted to do this and kept going. And a year later I was on my high school diving team and I got kicked off for being a waste of space.

But let it be known, he really just didn't like divers. He just really liked swimmers. And I actually showed up every day and he didn't like that. So it was just kind of a rough beginning.

I don't have fond high school memories because of that, but I had a really strong club team and a coach and I was really close with my teammates and that really kind of kept me going. And what those people said really kind of became fuel for my fire.

Because I was just gonna ask you. Words have so much power.

And I was wondering how you chose to not let those kinds of words have a negative power over your life, but you just used them for fuel.

Yeah, it was so hard. Especially when it's like a coach, some like an authority figure telling you that you can't or you're not measuring up somehow.

Like that is really defeating. And it did really hurt. I'm not saying I wasn't hurt at all.

And I was like, it's not like I had some, you know, superhero plate and the bullets were just bouncing off my chest. It wasn't like that. Like, I definitely felt this sting and the pain of the words.

Um, but after dwelling on it and thinking about it, because I'm also very stubborn, I said, no, I want to do this, and I think I can do this. And, you know, I kind of just kept going. And fortunately, because my club coach is. He's so phenomenal.

And I think I was just really blessed to have found him so early on, too.

But he was just very encouraging and probably the first person who I really think believed in my crazy dreams of, like, wanting to go to the Olympics and wanting to be this amazing athlete.

Hmm. When you think about that coach, what are some words that had more power in your life that he used to encourage you?

I mean, a lot of this stuff was really simple. You know, he would. I mean, he would actually make me tell him what my goals were.

And to me, that was really hard and awkward because I was a very, I don't know, internal. I'm a very, like, naturally introverted person. I have learned to be extroverted when I need to be, but I'm.

I'm naturally very introverted and I process things internally a lot. And so I had always kept goals and wrote goals out since I was a little gymnast. Like, what scores I'm gonna do, what skills I wanted to learn.

Like, I was always a huge goal setter, but I kept them to myself and I never shared them with people because I was embarrassed. Like, I didn't want to put it out there, but he would ask me up front, like, what do you want to do? And I was so embarrassed.

I was like, I got to tell this guy because he's asking me and, you know, I'm this like 15 year old kid starting a brand new sport, and I'm like, I want to go to the Olympics, you know, And I felt so dumb when those words came out of my mouth and I, like, heard them out loud. And he just looked at me and he said, okay, well, if you want to do that, this is what it's going to take. Like, he was not even phased by it.

And I didn't feel stupid for saying it. Like, he. He just made it. He made me feel like I was okay to have those dreams.

It was okay to have these big crazy goals, you know, but he also said, well, in order to do that, you have to do all these things. You're gonna. You know what I Mean, and you still might not make it, but it's a goal worth pursuing if that's what you really want.

But it was great because he could also call me out later down the line when I wasn't doing maybe what I was supposed to. It's like, well, if your goal is really to do this, then you need to look at what you're doing right now. So it was good on a lot of levels.

And I think he just often used things that I would say or things he would get me to say to come back to me, you know what I mean? And to remind me. But he was just always so supportive, and he got to know each of his athletes, and he still does this. I mean, he's still my coach.

He's still coaching. He gets to know each of his athletes so well individually and to know how to push them appropriately and, like, when to pull back.

And I think that is really what makes him so awesome at what he does. He just really cares, you know, there's.

Something so vulnerable about having to verbalize our dreams. Right, and he invited you to do that and then didn't laugh at you.

I think we're afraid if we really tell people what we dream to do, they're going to laugh at us. Like, oh, yeah, right, you're not going to do that.

And when you told him what you wanted to do, it kind of invited this accountability, which is what we need to accomplish our dreams. Right. We need people to remind us of our dreams and then call us to get there, which then becomes not only vulnerable, but hard work. How.

How many years has this man coached you? Now you're going to give your age away.

And he coaches me now today because I'm crazy. And I started diving again.

Wow.

So it's been a long time. Yeah.

What an incredible influence on your life. Was there a moment you remember when.

When you kind of went all in with diving, like, where it wasn't just going to be a fun sport replacing gymnastics, but where you decided, I want to. I want to put everything into this day one.

I'm. Yeah, I'm just. That's my personality. I'm a very, like, all or nothing person, which is good and bad.

You know, it definitely has its pros and cons, but I was like that gymnast. I was like that with everything I tried Like I threw myself full throttle into it until I discovered it wasn't for me or it wasn't the right fit.

But I would put my whole self in there. And I did that from the first day. I mean, I just loved it. Gymnastics into the water. We were outside, the radios blaring.

I had ex gymnasts that had just started, you know, right before me. So I had this group of like minded athletes. It was just. Yeah, I was like, this is, this is where I belong. It just felt so right.

That's amazing. And is it true that you put college off to pursue the Olympics?

Well, sort of. So I did get a scholarship to University of Texas. Hook em for any Longhorns that might be out there. And I loved it. I did really well in college.

And so I knew like my shot was coming up because I was one of the best platform divers at that point. And I knew like, if I've got a shot, like this is my shot.

Because back then, you know, I thought you only get one shot, you know, you definitely might only get one shot at this. Like you've got to really make it count.

And it was kind of this hard choice because back then they didn't have Olympic waivers that they have today where you can say, hey, I'm going to train for a year, but stay at school and they can hold your scholarship. It wasn't really like that. You could do medical red shirts and that was about it. And they could try and do some things to hold my scholarship.

But the Olympics were at a weird time. They were in October or in September. Sorry, because it was in Sydney and the other hemisphere, the southern hemisphere.

And so to know if I didn't make the Olympic team, do I want to keep diving? If I do make the Olympic team, I'll have to come back at the end of the fall and go right into a collegiate season.

Like either way, I didn't really think I wanted to do that. I had already accomplished everything that I wanted to in college. I had won everything you could win. You know, just.

Just adding more titles to that wasn't fulfilling to me. But trying to make the Olympic Team was.

And I knew I was going to have to just completely, you know, devote myself without the distraction of school and other competitions and stuff like that. And so I chose, with the blessing of my parents and then talking to my college coach, I chose to leave.

Leave the last year of my scholarship and go home with my coach, Kenny, who I started with, and train for the Olympics. So it was a hard. It was a really hard decision, you know, because it was like everything good and right in my world was there at school.

You know, I changed my major, like, five or six times, and I finally figured it out, you know, and all my friends were there. Like, I was winning stuff. Like, it was going great, but the Olympics to. Was what I was made for. It's what I wanted to do.

It was, you know, it would be my life's dream. And I knew if this is my only shot, like, I had to try. You know what I mean? And so it was a very scary step of faith, like a leap of faith.

But that was kind of really the first big one I felt like I took.

When you look back all the way across the years to that point, what sacrifices have you had to make over the years to pursue your Olympic dreams?

Well, when I look at it from an outside perspective, there's. I mean, there's a ton of them.

But when it's all you want to do, when it's what you're passionate about and what you know you're made for, it doesn't feel like a sacrifice because it's all you want to do. You know what I mean?

So people kept saying, oh, you haven't done this, and you haven't had spring break, and you haven't gone to this place or gone to this party. And it was like, well, this is what I want to do, though. You know what I mean? And so it didn't feel so much of a sacrifice to me.

Now, I would say it's a little different because they're not just affecting me. It's not just about what I want to do.

Like, now, every decision that I make or sacrifice in quotes, air quotes, every sacrifice that I make now affects me and my husband and four children. So it definitely. I feel it more today than I did when I was younger.

Have you ever had moments along the way where you thought about quitting or giving up, where it got hard, too hard?

Oh, yeah. That's just life. Yeah, I'm for sure. I mean, there's. There's been a lot of times where it's just emotionally hard or physically Painful or just.

You're just so filled with doubt, you know what I mean? Like that. I feel like those are just rolling seasons. That's just kind of part of the uphill journey and battle that you take.

But every time you get to that, that moment where it's hard and you just think, this is it, you know, it's either taken usually at that point, either I've got somebody else like coming up to me saying, you can't stop now, or I'm on my knees going, God, take this cup for me, you know what I mean? But he doesn't always say yes. Usually it's no. This is the path I've laid out for you and I need you to walk it. And that's not easy.

But I take joy in the fact that Jesus asked the same thing. It's okay to feel that way. I know that's not. Sometimes we just feel bad for feeling bad, you know what I mean?

Like, we should, we should feel great all the time. And if this is what we're made for, it should always be great and we should be full of joy and happiness and all this stuff. And that's just not real.

You know, even Jesus came to a moment where he said, God, take this cup from me, but your will, not mine. And I think that's the part we have to remember. It's like, this is so hard and I don't think I can do it.

But if this is the path you have for me to travel, then I'm going to trust you in it and I'm going to walk through it however it turns out, you know, and that's kind of, that's really how I go into those moments now with that kind of frame of mind and that, that perspective.

It sounds like you've had this almost like this, it's a gift of this certainty that you've always known this is where I belong. This is what I made to do. So you could always count on that and grasp onto that in order to push through all the obstacles.

Like you were never questioning whether or not this was your path.

When I was younger. No, I just, I just knew when I was younger.

Now this, this side of things, now that I've decided as a 41 year old mom of Ford to, to compete and train again, it's been totally, a totally different road.

And so I have a lot more of the doubt and the questions and I have a thousand reasons why I shouldn't be doing this and why it's maybe not the best idea for, for our family. But, you know, God keeps confirming that I'm. I'm exactly where I need to be.

And so I have to walk this knowing that I don't know how it's going to end. You know, like, I sometimes I like to compare it to. Because I'm a very visual person.

And I love sports references because they're just easy to understand sports analogies. And we all love a good parable, right? That's how God talks to us.

So I think the first time, the first time I jumped off 10 meter, I was terrified because when you look up from the ground, you think 10 meter, oh, it doesn't look too bad, you know. So you run up there and when you get to the top and you look down, it's no longer like 33ft. It looks like it's about a thousand feet down.

And you're just thinking about the 20 different ways you're probably going to die when you hit the water. So the first time I was up there, I was absolutely terrified. And all my friends and teammates were down there watching me. You know what I mean?

So there's no way I can chicken out. But I'm looking over the edge like, oh my gosh, I'm just going to die. What have I done? What have I committed to?

But I knew before I ever stepped foot on that ladder that I was jumping off. That was my goal and that's what I wanted to do. And I feel like that's kind of how life is.

Like a lot of times we say, oh, I'm gonna try and be all that God wants me to be. I want to try and do what the Bible says. I'm gonna try all these things.

But that's really a total cop out because you can't try and jump off a 10 meter. You can't dip your toe in to see if the water feels nice. You have to jump in with both feet. And that's what commitment is like.

That's what commitment in our life is. You have to jump in. And let me tell you, jumping off 10 meter is scary because you don't know how you're gonna land.

You don't know if it's going to be fun, if it's going to be terrifying, if you're going to land straight up and down and it's going to feel good, or if it's going to hurt or if you're going to end up getting sucked out to the other side of the pool or something. You know what I mean? You have. There's so many unknowns and it's scary.

Oh, man. I wouldn't even climb the ladder. I wouldn't even get on that ladder.

That's a whole other issue. But, like. But once you commit to it and you take that first jump and it's terrifying, but you know you're going to be okay the next time.

It's still scary. And. But you know that God's going to catch you. You know that it's going to.

It may not work out the way you want it to, and it may not feel great, but God is in control of it and he's going to do something with it. You know, he's not just going to bring you and leave you in this mess. Like, he is going to make something of it when you trust him with it.

But that's the key, is you have to trust him with it.

How are you fighting those voices that you talked about, those voices of doubt this time around? How are you battling those?

Well, I mean, a lot of prayer. A whole lot of prayer. I mean, that's the first place I go.

You know, I don't know who else could really understand what I'm going through better than the one who's going through it with me. And, you know, just reminding myself of a lot of scripture.

Like, I feel like there's different scripture that God has taken me through in different periods of my life, and. And I just cling to them and there.

Because there's just, you know, sometimes there's ones that just mean so much more, and they're so deep and profound, and I just hang on to them, you know, And I've had quite a few at this point in my life that have been very profound.

But the one that I'm really clinging to now and actually tattooed it on my foot is from 2nd Corinthians 12, 9, when he says, my grace is sufficient for you. You know, my strength is made perfect in weakness.

It wasn't how we planned on it. And my husband wasn't real keen on adopting in the beginning. And so I really realized at some point that, like, I may not get to be a mom.

And other than diving, that was the only thing I knew I wanted to do with my life. And here I was thinking that that was being taken away, too, and I didn't know who I was or what I was supposed to do without that.

And I realized, because God brought me to the Scripture, and I realized that I couldn't reconcile that verse, like, my grace is sufficient. And I was like, no, it's not. Your grace is not sufficient for me right now.

Like, I realized that I wanted to be a mom more than I wanted what God had planned for me. Because if his plan was for me to not be a mom, I wasn't okay with that. And I recognized that that was a struggle.

And so I sat there in that scripture all summer and I grieved.

And I realized that, like, his plan may not be for me to be a mom, and I have to learn to be okay with that, because his plans are better even if I don't like them and I don't like the way that looks.

His plans are better not because of what he's going to give me or what he's going to do with it, but because of who he is and what he's already done for me. And I have to trust him with that.

And it was a long summer of grieving and walking through that, but I finally realized that, yes, his grace is sufficient. His plan is right for me. He is enough for me, no matter what else happens. And that's the one I really hang on to right now.

That one's really powerful for me right now because his strength is made perfect in my weakness and my goodness and my week.

Well, we all are. As you're talking, though, I. I'm recalling the scripture in the New Testament where the Bible says God wants to confound people with your life.

And I think about, you know, you're sharing very openly about battling the doubts and of being a 41 year old. Right. You said 41 headed to the Olympics. And God wants to confound people with that. And I can't wait to see what happens when you talk about prayer.

I've also read that you have a visualization technique that you practice to help get you to Sydney. What is that?

And obviously easy to say in hindsight, but walking through that time was tough. But I knew, like, kind of like I said earlier, this might be my only shot at the Olympics.

And I didn't want to look back in five years and say, what if? Could I have?

I'd rather go up there, drag myself up there with one foot and fail miserably, but at least no, I tried, than to always wonder and not know. And so my coach and I committed to thinking outside the box, and he helped me get really creative.

And one of the things I did was this really, a lot of visualization, a lot of mental preparation, and, like, I studied video a lot, and I would listen to, like, my favorite sports songs when I watched the videos. Then anytime I heard the songs, the dives were on, like, instant replay in my mind.

And then when I was supposed to be in the workout training, I obviously couldn't get in the water because I had this huge purple cast on, and my coach would hold my crutches, and I would literally hop all the way up the ladder to the 10 meter on my one good foot and, like, hobble out to the end. And I would go through all the actions of my dive, and I wouldn't just do the actions, but I would really feel the things I would feel.

I would see what I would see, and I would go through it just, like, as if I was doing it. And, you know, after, like, 10 weeks of doing that, it gets a little old.

And you wonder how pretending to dive is going to get you to the Olympics, you know,.

Pretending to dive. There's a book title for you, right?

But it was kind of cool because you were talking about, like, he will confound people. And it was.

That was the time where I kind of did want to give up, because I thought, this is dumb, and what am I doing here and how is this going to help?

And I remember my teammates, and these are little teammates, like 8 to 18 years old, were coming up to me, seeing what I had been doing for 10 weeks, and telling me, don't give up. You can do this. They had started believing in this crazy thing that we were doing.

And so I knew in that time, like, I couldn't give up because I'm not alone in this anymore.

And it was really cool because I got to a point where I would do a pretend entry on the 10 meter, and they'd be on the other side of the pool clapping and cheering, like, yeah, I didn't see a drop of water. I'd give it a 10, you know, and. And it really. It really changed everything. You Know, made me feel like I was part of practice.

It made me feel like I wasn't crazy anymore. Like, God used me to rile them up and in turn use them to bring me back. Like, it was really a cool, like, circle. You.

How many days before the Olympics did you get the boot off and were you able to practice with without it?

So I got it off, like, two to three weeks before the Olympic trials. So not very long. But because I had been on 10 meter every single day going through the dives in my mind, it really builds up a lot of muscle memory.

And I was able to get my dives back off and consistent really quickly, and I actually won the trials by a really large margin. And then it was another three months until the Olympics.

But the way I had broken my foot, I kind of like, it looks like the knuckles in your hand, like, on your foot, and I. The middle three bones, I basically broke all three knuckles off, and the middle one lodged itself underneath and had calcified to the two bones.

And so it was like. Like standing on a rock. And they couldn't do surgery because that would have taken me out. Recovery would have taken me out of trials.

And so they casted it the way it was.

And so even though I had the boot off, it was like walking on a rock and standing on the ball of your feet, which is half of your dives, and pushing, putting all your weight on it was very painful. I couldn't. I had to wear a shoe up the tower and then throw it down when I got to the top. Like, it was.

It was excruciatingly painful through the Olympic Games. So it was. It was, yeah. Six, seven months of kind of agony. Yeah.

And how did you get this injury? Was it from doing something awesome, or was it something really like you tripped.

At target somewhere in between the two?

Adventure story. I know.

Maybe I should make one up.

But we were just doing, like, a normal dry land workout where we do flips onto a mat, and I came out early and hit my feet off the block of wood that we were jumping off of. So, yeah, not real fun.

Before we get to what happened at the Olympics, I'm just dying to know, right? Like, I'm the girl who's watching you on tv.

I, you know, I have no idea what it's like, but I'm picturing you're readying yourself for the Olympics the day or two before. I don't know, you fly over.

There's all the hype and the travel and the hopes and the pressure and all the trainings behind you and all the pretend trainings behind you, what in those last couple days were you doing to stay mentally focused and strong?

Well, I mean, once you get to the Olympic Games, I mean, it's. That's just a whole crazy thing of itself. You know, it's like this whole carnival kind of almost atmosphere. But we were there, like, a month early.

So, you know, you're there for quite a while, and it's overwhelming and exciting in the beginning, but that can really drain you emotionally. And so, fortunately, we were there for a couple weeks, and then we actually took a little break to kind of get out.

We went to Melbourne for a couple days, and then we came back. And so that was really helpful just to get out of the environment and to, you know, just kind of readjust that way.

But, I mean, the whole time, I would. I would make sure to take time by myself.

Like, I would take, like, some small walks, or I'd go sit in the park by myself and journal or, you know, I would just.

I just had to go be alone, you know what I mean, and kind of just process things and listen to music and have prayer time and, you know, I think that was really necessary for me to do every day. And I think the closer I got to it, the longer those periods of time were, you know.

Right, right. I have to ask you, what's. What was on your. I'm gonna get the gold playlist. Like, was there one song that was. Like, this was my jam.

Oh, my gosh. So many. Yeah. Probably my favorite was Van Halen's Right Now. I mean, epic sports song, right? Just epic. Yes.

Yes. That's awesome. That's awesome.

I was in a boot camp once with a guy who was running a marathon, and I asked him what his playlist was, and he said it was Van Halen jump over again on repeat for 26 miles.

Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Yeah. Hey. I guess so. I guess so. So at one point in Sydney, you were in eighth place. What happened that turned things around for you?

Um, well, yeah, the way the points were. I started in eighth place. After two dives, I was in fifth, but it was the third. So in the finals, you do five dives total.

So it was in the third round, like that middle round, where I was seated fifth place. So I would go, and then the top four girls would go after me. And in that round, I did what was one of my best dives.

I had gotten tens on at the trials and tens on it at nationals. So I Knew I could do it really well. But ironically. Well, not ironically. Total plan, I'm sure, from God, but he's funny like that.

My batteries to my awesome gold medal playlist died. Because back then, we didn't have cool. We didn't have cool charge it in the wall kind of devices. We had Disc.

Discman, you know, so your batteries die, and you don't bring an extra pair, your batteries are dead. So I'm listening right now.

What are you talking about? They have no idea.

I know I'm that old. I'm just. I'm just spilling it all. But so people.

You put it in a disc, man. Press play.

I know. So I'm getting ready. I'm getting ready for this dive that I know I can hit really well.

So of course I'm gonna put my headphones on, I'm gonna listen to these songs that bring back all that great visualization, and they're not there. And so I did what any sane person would do. I freaked out. Like, totally panicked. Like, how am I supposed to do this?

I know I could do this, but how am I supposed to do it? You know?

But it was really cool because in my moments of panic, I remember, like, for some reason, my hand went forward, and I looked down at my hand and I remembered this random thing from, like, 8th grade or something where it was like a sermon, I think I had watched or something. And I imagined this little mustard seed in my hand because I remember hearing this sermon on mustard seed faith.

And I remember they showed us how big, like, a mustard tree was or whatever, and then how tiny the seed was. And I remember I had gotten a little pack of mustard seeds from the store so I could just see that and see what it.

Like, visually have it and know that, oh, that little amount of faith can move mountains, you know?

And so I remember being in that moment, for some reason that just hit me, and I looked at my hand, and I remembered how tiny that little seed was, and that that's all I needed. And I was like, surely I've got that much faith.

I'm freaking out right now, but surely I've got that little, tiny mustard seed amount of faith, because that's tiny. I was like, surely I have that amongst all my doubts, I have that much belief.

And it was cool because as I realized that and as I realized I didn't have my headphones when I'm in the middle of the meet, doing the dive, I didn't have them at the trials. I didn't have them at the Nationals. When I'm on 10 meter doing my dive, I can hit this dive.

And I think it was so cool because by the time I actually got up there to do my dive, I was probably more confident than I would have been had I had headphones on, you know what I mean? Because I had to talk to myself about this.

I had to walk through it and process it and remember what this was about, you know, my faith and why I'm here and what God's plan is. For me, it's about trusting him, and surely I have that much. And I nailed that dive and felt really good, but I was still so far behind everybody.

Like, you know, it was like, okay, at least that felt good. I got two more dives, but as I got back up to wait for my next round, I started hearing really low scores.

And I got confused because the four girls that were going after me were, like, amazing, and they were like machines. They never missed. So I thought the round had started over with, like, the 12th place girl. So I thought, oh, did I stay in the hot tub too long?

Like, what's going on? So I listened to see who is next up, and I realized it was the third place girl. And I was like, oh, that's weird. Somebody just really blew a dive.

And then I heard more low scores, and I was like, wow, this is really strange. I can't worry about it. I got to think about my dive. I got to think about my dive.

And then, sure enough, every other single person that was in front of me blew their dive. And I'm not talking a little miss. Like, they blew it big time. What I didn't realize.

So I knew in that moment I didn't want to know, but I knew in that moment that I had caught up. But I didn't know that I had taken the lead. I knew.

I knew I had to have at least been in striking distance at this point, because I kind of knew loosely where the scores were, but I had no idea I had taken the lead by, like, a point.

I have so much going on in my head about this story. I mean.

Well, first of all, just for those who maybe don't know that mustard seed reference in the Bible, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you're talking about the scripture that says, if you have faith that smells a mustard seed, you can say that this mountain move, and it will move.

And it is so incredible to me, like, to pause and think about how the influence that the faith that was passed on to you as an 8th grader like as a 13 year old would come back someday, whoever you know, whether it was your parents or your Sunday school teacher or your pastor, I have no idea.

And I'm sure you know, but the fact that those words and those teachings would be used in this, this moment, this grand moment of your life is so interesting to me.

Well, I think that's why, that's why God tells you to hide the Word in your heart, too. Because a lot of times when you're in the moments when you need the Word the most, you don't have a Bible on your hand.

Like, I don't have one up on the 10 meter. You know, you have to have that written on your heart. And like, I had no idea that lesson was buried so deep in there.

But when it's in there, God can pull it out when he needs to. You know what I mean? He pulls it out. In that time, he was like, I'm.

Not going to use Van Halen. I'm going to use my word.

We're going to have faith right now. We'll use both.

You thought your playlist was going to do the trick. Let's do this.

I know, right?

Oh, my gosh. Okay, so get us to where, to where you were in the story.

But I had to point that out because I think so often as parents and people who are trying to pass on faith to the younger generation, sometimes you feel like you don't see the fruit. You don't know if it's doing anything. You don't know how it's impacting lives.

And I love that for you, something that, that you were taught years before came back and actually God used it to do something amazing. I just love that. Yeah, but catch us up.

Oh, so, okay. Yeah. So the fourth round, you know, I was like, okay, calm down, we've got two more dives to go.

But I was really nervous for the fourth round because it's the same action I broke my foot on. So it was, it was a scary dive for me because my foot had to come really close to the platform in order to do it correctly.

And that obviously is scary. So I didn't want to rebreak it. I didn't want the pain.

But it also was very painful because I had to stand on the ball of my feet and put all my weight into it to throw at the platform. So it's like painful and terrifying all wrapped into one, you know, awesome, awesome dive.

So I'd been struggling with it, obviously, since I had come back. Like, that was my one kind of nemesis Dive. And so I'm a little anxious about this one. And I have no headphones to calm me down.

And for some reason, the mustard seed faith has gone out the window. I've forgotten all about that. At this point, I'm just, like, freaking out because I'm doing well, and it's the Olympic Games, you know?

So I go over to my coach, and I'm thinking he's just gonna. Because he always knows what to say. He pushes the buttons the right way, and, like, he just knows how to do it.

So I go over there to, like, see what he's gonna tell me. And he looks me in the face and he says, do it for Hillary.

And he walks off, and I'm just staring at the back of his head for a few minutes, not sure what he's talking about, because Hillary was a really good friend and teammate of mine that had died in a car accident three years before. It really affected our team because she was one of the ex gymnasts. We were all really close, and it kind of devastated us.

And so when he said that, I'm thinking, why, in the most important, crucial moment of my life, you are trying to make me cry. Like, I don't understand this button you're pushing. But at the same time, I trusted him, and I knew he knew what kind of buttons to push.

And so I went there, and he never looked back. You know? And so I started walking up the platform. I'm like, I got to think about her.

I don't know what exactly I'm supposed to do with this, but I've got to think about her. And I started thinking about some of the last conversations we had. And I remember because she was a really good gymnast.

So I was always asking her stuff about the Olympics or about trials and what's that? Like, would you want to do it again?

And I remember this one conversation we had over dinner where I asked her, if you make the Olympic trials and diving, will you go to the Olympic trials and try to make the team? And I remember her saying, like, I don't. I just don't know. I don't know if I could come that close again and not make it.

Like, I'm not sure if I'm ready for that. She goes, but if anybody on our team is going to do it, Laura, it's going to be you.

And it really, like, that moment resonated in me, because then I started thinking about all those kids who were cheering me on when I was pretending to dive on the 10 meter and who are so ecstatic when I actually made the Olympic team. I just started to realize that this dream wasn't just one that God gave me.

It was probably a dream all of them had, and it was a dream Hillary had had, and they might not have the opportunity to do this. Like, I am probably their opportunity.

And I know maybe that sounds like a crazy amount of pressure to put on yourself, but to me, it was more like a power behind me. Like, I wasn't doing this alone anymore. Like, God had given me.

Like, I may be alone up on the platform, but God had given me this entire, like, village of people to be behind me and support me and get me there. And I realized that it wasn't just about me. Like, I don't. You know, it's not just about me and the pain I'm going through or what I'm dealing.

Like, it. About all of them, too. And that's more important. It's bigger than me.

And I remember when I got up to do that dive, I put my arms up and, like, the fear wasn't there anymore, and I didn't even care about the pain. It was like, this is it. This is the moment. You got to give it everything you have. And that dive was the best one I had done since I broke my foot.

And it kept me in the lead by a very small margin, but that was, to me, really, like the next mountain, and the one that really kind of solidified the gold medal.

Wow. I have goosebumps all over my arms while I'm sitting in a small podcast by myself.

You're welcome. Yeah. Olympics are crazy stuff, man. I mean, all of the stuff comes out, but it's just so beautiful because it's these. These crazy, intense moments.

But, like, I think God uses it in such a powerful way that, like, when. When you let him, you know what I mean? When we're trying to control it and we're trying to steer and we're trying to do everything our way, like.

Like, you know, we just don't always get it done. But when we open up and we let him guide us, he takes us to totally different places, you know what I mean?

And makes it so much more memorable and so much more epic than you could have ever dreamed up on your own, you know? And that's. That's what I get to take with me. Like, when I got up for my last dive, I remember looking over the crowd.

I still didn't know I was in the lead, but I knew I had a shot at the metal at that point, but it didn't even matter. All I knew was, I am living out this dream that I've had. How lucky am I to get to be living it?

No matter if I end up first or fifth after this, I'm in this moment. And I was so thankful for that.

And I knew at that point that, like, yes, it may be great to stand on the podium, but these are the things that matter. Like, this is what makes you who you are. A gold medal. Gold medal doesn't suddenly give you character and make you this awesome, great person.

Like, it's the suffering that produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character hope.

And that hope doesn't disappoint because it's poured out by the Holy Spirit, you know, and that's exactly what God does in those moments when we trust, trust him with it.

And I love that this story is you doing the Olympics with Jesus. It isn't like, oh, you prayed along the way and then you got there and you did your thing with Van Halen.

Like, there were moments, spiritual conversations that were happening with each dive where God was challenging you or putting you in a place or using someone else to say something to you. That was just what you needed. And it.

And it just seems like you're a part of this greater story where everyone was sort of watching God's destiny in your life unfold last in real time.

You know, a lot of times that stuff's scary because you're. You're having to let go of doing things the way you want to do them, and you're having to trust God and the way he's doing it. And it's.

It kind of comes back to, like, that jump off 10 meter. Like, I've been in some really scary situations that God has worked out for his good, but I'm like, oh, thank you for getting me through that.

But I don't really don't want to do that again. You know what I mean? And then it'll put me in another one. And I'm like, oh, that was really fun.

But, like, I don't.

I don't want to do that again. And then down the road now, I, like, miss that, and I crave that.

And I'm like, I want to be in that situation where I have absolutely no choice but to be dependent on you, because when I'm in control, it is not nearly as amazing. As when I'm struggling and I have to trust you and you just make masterpieces out of my mess, you know?

Yeah. That's awesome. So tell us about the last dive.

So, I mean, it wasn't spectacular. It wasn't some like, amazing dive. It was just good enough to kind of stay ahead. And I, I couldn't see the scoreboard.

I still had no idea I was in the lead.

That after the last girl went and she didn't get the score she needed, my coach came running over and picked me up and he kept saying, we did it, we did it. And at first I kind of thought like, oh, we got a medal, like, great. But he kept just saying, no, we did it, we did it.

And I was like, no way, no way. Like, it was so surreal, you know, and being up on the award stand, like, I always wondered, would I sing the national anthem? Would I not?

Like, how would that go? And.

And by the time they were like, I don't know, two stanzas and I had no idea where they were because I was too busy trying to find my family in the crowd, it was just so I just stood there and tried to soak it in and then it was over. I mean, it was over so fast. I worked my whole life and dreamed about that my whole life, and it was over in a heartbeat, you know?

So, like, those moments are amazing and they're worth fighting for and they're worth chasing after, but it's because it will change your life in different ways in the pursuit of it. Like, that moment is special, but that's not the most epic part to me. That's not the most memorable thing to me.

You know what I mean?

And I. It's easy to say that, but it's another thing when you live it and you start to realize that. You know what I mean?

So let me, let me tell you that now. Like, those moments are great and have those as your goals and fight for them.

But know that that moment is not actually what you are, what's going to change you. It's the build up to that. The climbing of the mountain. Not just the view of the top is great, but the climb up there is what makes you who you are.

That's a good word. Hey, I've never done this before on a podcast, but I. I'd like to listen to the audio of this unbelievable moment. Will you?

You just listen to it with me and everyone else gets to listen to it.

Okay?

While Laura Wilkinson is in eighth place, the lone American to final, she's well.

Out of metal contention, Laura Wilkinson has moved up three spots to fifth.

Laura Wilkinson shoots to the top. It was really good. The scores were. Wilkinson.

Laura Wilkinson, in one of the most improbable diving competitions in Olympic history, has just won Olympic gold.

Laura, I know that you have probably watched that a thousand times, maybe not, but I imagine that you watched that several times. But this moment in time was so amazing for you personally, I know that, and your team and your coach and all these people.

But for us to even watch this story and know the background of it, what do you see in yourself when you watch that moment back?

Ah, man, that's hard to describe. Sorry, I'm like, totally crying over here. It's still. I mean, I've seen it a million times, but it's still. It's still so close.

Even though, I mean, it's almost 20 years now. It's 19 years ago, but it's still so powerful, you know what I mean?

And I think, obviously, because I know what happened in there, but I know the struggle and I know the pain, and I know how we got through it. And it's always been such a good reminder for me. And it's taught me so much of how to live my life outside of the pool, too. And, yeah, it's just.

It's always going to be special, you know, And I'm not diving again. I'm not trying to recreate that. Like, it's just a journey that I know I'm on. But that will always be a super special, special time.

That, yes, makes me break down in tears. Because, you know, those things, like emotions just come back so quickly. You just never lose those. When you.

Gosh, that's a tough question.

Definitely the perseverance and just, like, knowing that it's worth it, you know, And I didn't really even know that at the time, but I knew it had to be, you know what I mean?

And remembering that when now I'm like, I'm tired and it hurts and trying to keep going, like, remembering that this journey, and I'm not talking about a gold medal, but the purpose that God has set out before you, like, it's worth it. It's worth all of it. You know what I mean?

And that's what I have to, I think, kind of remind myself and be determin to fight for, because it is worth a fight. Like, Jesus didn't just, you know, get dragged to the cross. Like, he fought his way to get to the cross and to die for us.

And, like, I think these battles and these journeys that we take, we have to fight for them. And remembering, like, that it's worth it.

And having that, like, determination and that kind of not stubbornness, but that just steel mind of, like, I'm going forward because this is where I'm, where I need to be.

That's such good advice for people right now who are listening, who have a circumstance in life where they have to push through pain or grief or depression or some major hurdle. Is there any other advice that you would have for them as they're listening to your story?

I think just Jesus tells us, like, life is full of tribulation. You know, he says these words, I have spoken to you so that me will have peace. You know, in life, you will have tribulation.

I have learned that is not an if you will have tribulation, but best but in the Bible, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. Jesus is a very big God, a very big savior that we can trust with anything we face. He conquered death itself. He can conquer anything that we face.

He knows exactly what we're going through. We are not doing this alone. We are never alone. And he is big enough to handle it. His grace is sufficient.

I'm going to switch gears on us after this amazing story and just invite people into what you're up to now. You sound so bored. Laura, you have a blog, a podcast, motivational speaking.

I mean, your co founder of Anchorage, and you're training for the Olympics. Like, maybe just some things you're excited about and ways that people can check out what you're up to and follow you.

Okay, well, we started the Hope Sports podcast earlier this year in January, and I love it. It is an absolute passion of mine. I get to talk to different elite athletes every single week.

And we don't just talk about the fun, you know, mountaintop moments. Like, we get. We get into the hard stuff and how they got through it and how they found purpose beyond their performance, knowing.

Because elite athletes and anybody actually who you know, that you.

You have something that you kind of get absorbed in, you begin to find your identity in it, whether it's your job or your sport or school or something, that a lot of times our identity gets wrapped up in what we're doing and not who we are. And we begin to place our value on our score or, you know, our raise or on how people are critiquing us, you know, when we.

We don't put our value in who we are and our worth as a child of God. And so I love the Hope Sports podcast because we really kind of get into that and it's not. Not every athlete we interview are Christians.

Like, we interview a lot of people who found purpose beyond their performance in other ways. But a lot of it is very reminiscent to, like, biblical characteristics. And it's just great. It's inspiring, it's motivating.

And you find that people in every single sport out there, from NASCAR to the super bowl, the cliff divers to Olympic champions, like, they have all been through something. You know, they've been at the top of the mountain, they've been at the bottom of the valley, and they've all gotten through it in different ways.

But there's kind of these strings that are, you know, kind of reminiscent in all of them. And it's just really, really cool to listen to and very encouraging. So I love it. Hope Sports podcast, I'm the host of that, so it's great.

And then I actually started a course this year. This is really cool. So let me back up a little bit.

But then the next year was a little crazy because we were trying to bring our fourth home child, our fourth child home from Ethiopia, and it was like a really difficult battle with the international kind of fiascos going on and stuff. We finally got her home, but then we had some adjustments there.

And then as I was getting back in to compete again, discovered that I had a really bad neck injury. And so I had to have a surgery to fuse two levels of my neck in December, the day after Christmas.

And so as I was recovering from this, you know, and initially the Hope, obviously is to dive again and to be up on platform and competing next year. But I was told I had to have this just to be a mom, to not get into a bad accident and become like a quadriplegic.

So I'm like, okay, let's be safe there first. But. But I have been cleared. I've been back on the water for a couple months now, and I'm working my way back up to the high, high platform.

And so that's been a really fun and painful and difficult journey all of its own. But I knew that walking through this recovery, I knew it was going to be long.

And so as I'm recovering and I'm in this neck brace, you know, like trying to recover, I was writing down all these things that I had learned and kind of mapping it all out. And I created a course that I could then teach other athletes how to do these things. And so I'm about to launch it for the second time.

It's been really fun.

It's called Confident Competitor and it's really about the mental skills that you need not just in sports but in life to, to kind of become confident, you know what I mean? Become a confident competitor. And so that's been kind of my bab. I love it. We've had a really great success on our first launch. So that's been fun.

The anchored and where can people find.

This, find these classes?

So that's pretty new. If you go to Laura wilkinson.com right now there's a wait list. It'll be opening up again in July.

I'm kind of doing some launches and then it will will turn into something you can buy anytime in a little while. But I'm still kind of in the beginning stages so.

Laura wilkinson.com youm can either sign up for my email list and you'll get all the information there or there's definitely a wait list that you can sign up for to be like get a discount when I open it up the next time. So Laura wilkinson.com yeah, and I love it. That's been really fun.

And the Anchored in Hope retreat that you mentioned earlier started with a few moms in the area that we all foster or adopted and kind of just knew there was something needed in our area to encourage moms and become a resource for moms. So it's a definitely a Christian based retreat for moms. So no kids are allowed. It's definitely like moms need to get away.

They need some space to worship, to meet other moms in the same place, to learn, to grow all of the things. And it's been wonderful because we budgeted in downtime.

Like I know when you go to a lot of conferences it, you're just, you're so busy you almost need a vacation from the conference. It's like overwhelming. And so we like intentionally budget in downtime and we make the quiet time room available 24 hours a day. And it's set up.

We can go to different stations and discover different ways to do your quiet time and connect with God. And it's just really powerful. It's been a great resource and we're really excited about that. And that's.

I believe it's anchored in hoperetreat.weebly.com so that's been really fun. We're doing it kind of every year and a half now because we are all moms doing it. So we need a little bit longer of a break between our retreats.

But we really loving. That's been very encouraging.

That's amazing. All while training for the Olympics. No big deal though. No big deal.

And being a mom, that's full time job in and of itself.

So true. Laura, your career highlight reel is. I mean, where do I even start?

I mean, I can go on, on and on, but we'll be here all night because your highlight reel goes and goes and goes. At the end of your life, what will you say was the greatest highlight?

Probably nothing to do with diving. You know, I mean, if you're looking at like what you want to be remembered for. I just, I want people to feel like I love them.

I want, I want the people who I know to feel like they were loved because not everybody gets that and I think they need to be. So I am really trying to be diligent and let people know that I love them and that I care about them.

And that's what I hope people remember is the way they felt.

That's beautiful. Laura, you are an inspiration and your life points us toward Jesus and invites us to keep colliding with him. Thank you so much for that.

The platform because we know you'll be there.

We believe in what God's doing and know, Laura, that He wants to use your life to co confound the world and point people towards Him. So thank you for who you are and what you're doing.

Thanks for tuning in to keep up with us.

You can find us on Instagram @we.collide on Facebook as Collide Women, and you can also visit our website at wecollide.net to find our blog, resources, event information, and more. More One last thing. If you enjoyed this episode, would you take a few seconds and leave us a review?

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