SYDNEY Laura Wilkinson fulfilled an Olympic dream she thought had been shattered by injury when she won the women's platform diving on Sunday.
Beating the Chinese favorites, she won the title for the United States for the first time since 1964.
The 22-year-old Texan broke her right foot in three places while training in March and spent weeks in casts and walking on crutches.
"The day I broke my foot I thought my dreams were over, just to make the team," Wilkinson said after her stunning victory.
"I thought everything was lost at that moment but God moves in mysterious ways." Wilkinson, the 1998 Goodwill Games champion, was more than 20 points behind Chinese pair Li Na and Sang Xue in eighth place after the morning's four-dive semifinal and going into the five-dive final.
But, as her rivals faltered, she seized the lead from Asian games and World Cup champion Li with her third dive and held her nerve to take the gold in an extremely close three-way contest.
Canada's Anne Montminy, the 1994 Commonwealth champion, was just 0.24 points behind going into the final round, with Li a further five points adrift.
Montminy could not match Wilkinson's final effort but Li pulled out a fine last dive, scoring higher than the American for the fifth round, though not quite enough to deny her the gold.
Wilkinson won with 543.75 points. Li took the silver with 542.01 and Montminy, on 540.15, claimed Canada's first-ever Olympic highboard medal.
China had won the three preceding Olympic women's highboard titles, with Fu Mingxia completing a platform and three-meter springboard double at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Fu, who was also highboard champion at the 1992 Barcelona Games, is competing only on the three-meter springboard in Sydney.
The last U.S. Olympic highboard champion was Lesley Bush at the 1964 Tokyo Games.
(Reuter)