Laura Wilkinson Hot and Sexy Wall papers,Melissa Wu, Alex croak, Haley ishimatsu, Eriek hulseman

2000 Olympic gold medalist Laura Wilkinson finished fifth in the women’s platform preliminaries on Wednesday night at the National Aquatics Center. Teammate Haley Ishimatsu (Seal Beach) finished 10th.

Both divers are among the 18 athletes who are advancing to Thursday morning's semifinals at the Beijing Games.

Wilkinson finished with 370.70 points, Ishimatsu, with 329.00. China’s Chen Ruolin and Wang Xin led the field with 428.80 and 420.30 points, respectively.

Wilkinson tallied 81 points on her first dive and scored more than 70 points on three of her remaining four dives. She also became the first woman to perform a back 3 ½ pike at an Olympic Games.

“I had a pretty good prelims," Wilkinson told USA Diving. "I was steady and did some good stuff. This was my last prelims ever, and I had a great time. I don’t really like prelims, but this was a great warmup for" Thursday.

Ishimatsu was in 21st place after two rounds but moved up to 16th after scoring 72 points on her reverse 3 ½ tuck in round three.

“I’m really excited," Ishimatsu told USA Diving."I just qualified, and that’s all I needed to do tonight. I was a little nervous at first, but I calmed down.”

Preliminary scores don't carry over to the semifinals and divers will compete in reverse order on Thursday from their preliminaries finish.
Laura Wilkinson, who finished the semifinal round Friday of the women’s platform diving event at the USA Diving Olympic Trials with 813.20 points, has a lead over 15-year-old Haley Ishimatsu, who at second place, finished with 757.55 points. The finals will be held Sunday at 2:30 PM, with television coverage by NBC.
Laura Wilkinson Biography

As a biography, Laura Wilkinson was born on November 17, 1977 in Texas. She was trained as a gymnast growing up, but after a growth spurt in her adolescent years, she was deemed too tall to be a gymnast. Diving caught her eye while she was swimming in a gym pool and saw a female diver training. Soon after, she took up platform diving. In 1995, she became part of the U.S. National Team.

Laura competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where she won the gold medal. It was the first gold medal for a female platform diver since 1964.

In the 2004 Summer Olympics, she did not medal, and finished in fifth place. She is well on her way to making it to her third Olympics.

Laura graduated from the University of Texas in 2001, where she majored in public relations. She married her husband, Eriek Hulseman, on September 7, 2002.

Click below for more photos and video of Laura Wilkinson!

LABELS ;- Laura Wilkinson Hot and Sexy Wall papers,Melissa Wu, Alex croak, Haley ishimatsu, Eriek hulseman