After chasing an Olympic dream for 19 years, one BYU student realized that dream this past summer in Athens, but it ended in bittersweet fashion.

Former BYU diver Justin Wilcock competed for the United States at the 2004 Olympics, fulfilling a goal he held since he was five years old.

“I always wanted to be a gymnast in the Olympics,” Wilcock said. “Then when I switched over to diving that carried over with me.”

That switched happened when Wilcock was 12 years old. Wilcock attended a diving camp because he had seen diving on TV. He continued doing gymnastics and diving for the rest of the summer, but then he said he realized that diving was the way to go for him. And as they say, “the rest is history.”

After returning from a mission in Belgium, Wilcock decided he wanted to start training seriously for a shot at the Olympics. In 2002, he moved to Texas to begin training with an Olympic coach, where he would train for six to eight hours a day, six days a week.

“I knew that if I wanted to make it, then I had to be down there with that coach,” Wilcock said.

He dove for two years in Texas in preparation for the Olympic Trials in June of this year. Wilcock competed against 23 other divers for two spots to represent the U.S. at the Olympics.

“There was so much pressure,” Wilcock said. “You have this goal to go to the Olympics, but you still have to get there.”

Wilcock may have felt the pressure, but he didn’t wilt under it. He stepped up and had one of the best performances of his life.

“I was definitely nervous,” Wilcock said. “But I was able to keep my cool and do the dives like I can and had one of my best scores.”

However, it was shortly after the trials when trouble began for Wilcock. During practice right after the trials, he began noticing a pain in his back. He was forced to take four weeks off. He began feeling better and was able to make the trip to Athens for the games.

Wilcock said the atmosphere in Athens was awesome

“It’s hard to describe,” he said. “Being there with all the different athletes from all the different countries, it was just so cool. There were like 10,000 athletes there in the [Olympic] village. Greece did a great job.”

Wilcock said the fans were friendly, supportive and provided an electric atmosphere. The night the Greeks won the synchronized diving event was especially entertaining.

“The crowd was just going nuts,” Wilcock said. “It was fun.”

With all the worry about security surrounding these Olympics, Wilcock said that being safe was never much of a concern.

“There weren’t any problems,” Wilcock said. “It was fine.”

However, he recalled that during one of their events, a man wearing a tutu ran out of the stands, bounced around on the diving board, and then jumped into the pool and swam around for several minutes before security was able to get a hold of him.

Despite the atmosphere and the excitement of the games, everything wasn’t well for Wilcock. About four days before he competed, the pain in his back came back a lot worse than it had been before.

“I couldn’t even move hardly,” Wilcock said. “So I couldn’t do much training.”

After training for so many years to get to this point, the fact he wouldn’t be able to compete at his top-level was disappointing for Wilcock.

“Initially, it was really hard,” Wilcock said, “because I had put in all that effort to get there.”

Despite his injury and his coach’s recommendation to withdraw from the event, Wilcock still competed. Wilcock finished last in the 3-meter springboard event, and the pain could be seen on his face throughout the competition. Even though his finish wasn’t spectacular, his reaction and attitude about his difficulties were.

Wilcock didn’t complain or even get angry about his bad luck. He looked at it as a growing experience and learned valuable life lessons for himself.

“Even though it didn’t turn out how I wanted, there have been a lot of good things to come from that,” Wilcock said. “There are always lessons to learn. You have to rely on the Lord a lot. You never know why or what’s going to happen, but I’ve had some good experiences.”

With the Olympics over, Wilcock returned to BYU to finish his horticulture degree. He is also teaching a beginning diving class this fall. He plans on graduating in April and then moving back to Texas to continue diving and work on a master’s degree in business.

So what are Wilcock’s plans for Beijing in 2008?

“Gold medal,” Wilcock said with a grin. “All the way.”



Copyright Brigham Young University 13 Oct 2004