Pursuit of Gold with Laura Wilkinson

Due to the winter storm that hit Texas recently, and the ensuing power outage, Laura has had to postpone some of the fantastic interviews she had lined up for the podcast. However, today’s episode proves equally fascinating as she delves into something which we all experience, and about which she is asked all the time: fear. While no one is immune from it, there are ways to manage it rather than l...

Randy McIlvoy, Sports Director and anchor of KPRC 2 Television in Houston, is Laura’s very special guest on the podcast this week. A four-time Emmy winner, Randy has received numerous additional nominations, as well as honors from the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters Association. He and Laura have known each other for quite some time, but this is the first time that she has had the opportunity...

Today’s episode is a little different as Laura doesn’t interview a guest, but instead addresses head-on an issue that is impacting athletes throughout the world. There is a sense of weariness and exhaustion that Laura is observing in many athletes as they deal with postponements, cancellations, and what feels like an eternal holding pattern in their lives as this pandemic drags on. With her vast a...

Today you will be treated to an ‘extreme’ episode as World Champion High Diver, Gary Hunt, joins Laura for an absolutely fascinating conversation. A legend in the high diving world, Gary is actually a 2-time World Champion and an 8-time winner of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. Before he took on the daredevil world of high diving, Gary competed in 10-meter platform diving, and, in fact, to...

Laura’s longtime friend, Gabi Chereches, joins her for a very special episode this week. Currently a coach at The Woodlands Diving Academy, where he and Laura first met almost 30 years ago, Gabi’s many diving accomplishments include 3 Olympic Games, and 9 NCAA All-American honors. As a coach, he has guided athletes to both Junior and Senior titles and at numerous World Championships, and he was na...

Everyone is in for an extra special treat as speedskating legend, Bonnie Blair, joins Laura for this week’s episode. The first American woman to win five Olympic gold medals at the Olympic Winter Games, Bonnie dominated the sprint events of long track speedskating across three Games. At the time of her induction into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, she was the most decorated female U.S. Winter Olym...

Joining Laura on today’s episode is the incredibly inspiring American Paralympic champion, Allysa Seely. Diagnosed with a combination of brain, spinal and connectivity disorders which eventually led to the amputation of her left leg below the knee, Allysa responded by going on to become a 3-time World Champion and a Paralympic Gold Medalist. Despite the challenges presented by her ongoing medical...

Laura is very excited to welcome two-time Olympic swimmer, Cammile Adams, to the podcast today. Originally from Houston, Cammile started swimming at four years old, and went on to specialize in the 200m butterfly, eventually becoming a two-time NCAA Champion and seven-time NCAA All-American. She also competed for Team USA at the World Championships, earning a silver medal in 2015, and also represe...

Dr. Benjamin Houltberg, VP of Research and Practice at Search Institute, is Laura’s very special guest on today’s episode. Ben is a developmental scientist, and an experienced licensed marriage and family therapist, as well as a former elite athlete. He is widely published in topics such as the socialization of adolescent emotion regulation, promoting resilience through adversity, character, and i...

Laura is absolutely thrilled to welcome Olympic champion swimmer Nathan Adrian to the podcast today. Nathan is an eight-time Olympic medalist who has played key roles in some of the fastest relay teams in history. From 2008 to 2019, he won gold at World Championships, Pan Pacific Championships, or the Olympics every year but one. He has 16 World Championships medals (LCM) to his name, and has serv...

Joining Laura on the podcast this week is elite Olympic weightlifter, Kristi Brewer. K Mighty, as she is known, didn’t even start weightlifting until her mid-30’s, and in her relatively short career so far, she has earned the title of Master World Champion and Master Worlds Best Lifter, and in the process broken 12 world records. She competes for the USA on a national and international platform, a...

This week’s episode is a little different, because today is Laura’s birthday! And to celebrate, she has a very special guest who will be asking the questions – her oldest daughter, Arella. Many of the questions that Arella will be asking Laura have been submitted by listeners, and she has also added a few of her own. Towards the end of the podcast, Laura turns the tables and asks Arella a couple q...

Laura’s guests on the podcast today are Olympic runner, Abbey Cooper, and her sport psychologist husband, Jacob. Abbey’s impressive college career includes being seven-time national champion, 16-time Ivy League champion and 12-time All-American. In 2012, she became the first Dartmouth woman to win a national title, and in 2013 she became the first Ivy League student-athlete to win the cross-countr...

The world’s greatest athlete, Trey Hardee, is Laura’s special guest on the podcast today. Trey’s many accomplishments as a decathlete include being the 2005 NCAA Outdoor champion, the 2006 NCAA Division I Men's Indoor Field Athlete of the Year, and the 2010 World Indoor heptathlon silver medalist. He is also a two-time Olympian, winning silver in London, and is only the third decathlete to ever wi...

Olympic shot put gold medalist, Michelle Carter, is Laura’s very special guest on the podcast today. Michelle is a three-time Olympian and a World Championship gold medalist who has excelled at the national and international level over the past two decades. In addition to capturing eight Texas State U.I.L. titles in shot put and discus as well as two national girls’ shot put records and the Texas...

Laura welcomes professional golfer, Tracy Hanson, to the podcast today. After enjoying a successful All-American College golf career, Tracy went on to enjoy even more success on the Professional Ladies Golf Tour for 15 seasons before retiring in 2009. Within a year of her retirement, she embarked on a new journey, which included unpacking the truth about the harm and abuse she experienced as a chi...

Laura’s guest on the podcast this week is World Championship gold medalist swimmer, Michael Andrew. Turning pro at 14, Michael broke numerous National Age Group Records in his teens, and over the course of his career, he has broken Junior World Records. Along the way, however, he and his parents have also received a lot of backlash for the choices that they made throughout this stellar career. In...

Olympic high jumper, and Laura’s newly declared BFF, Chaunte Lowe, is her very special guest on the podcast this week. Chaunte is a 4-time Olympian, 3-Time World Championship medalist, and 12 times US National Champion, who is always a crowd favorite with her impossibly defined abs, dramatic dance moves, and occasional backflips. She is also a mother of 3 and a breast cancer survivor who is curren...

The gymnast in Laura is geeking out more than a little bit this week as she welcomes six-time World medalist and Olympic Silver medalist, Chellsie Memmel, to the podcast today. In addition to being only the third U.S. woman to achieve World all-around gold, Chellsie led Team USA to its first-ever World team gold medal in 2003, earned the all-around silver medal at the 2011 CoverGirl Classic, and h...

The one and only Apolo Ohno is Laura’s very special guest on the podcast today. After claiming his first major speed skating title at the US Championships at the age of 14, Apolo went from kid prodigy to the most decorated US Winter Olympian in history—a title he still holds—earning eight Olympic medals in short-track speed skating across the 2002, 2006, and 2010 Winter Games. Many of you will rem...

Laura’s guest on the podcast this week is three-time Olympic medalist bobsledder, Elana Meyers Taylor. In addition to her Olympic achievements, Elana is also a four-time World Champion, eight-time World Championship medalist, and she has made history by being the first woman to earn a spot on the US National Team competing with men. On top of all of this, Elana became a mom for the first time earl...

Laura is so honored to welcome Amy Dixon, a visually impaired professional triathlete and member of the USA Paratriathlon National Team, to the podcast today. Amy lost 98% of her vision to a rare autoimmune disease and now serves as a patient advocate and President of the Glaucoma Eyes international non-profit. She is also the reigning Aquathlon World Champion, US National Champion triathlete, USA...

Laura is very excited to welcome four-time Israeli National Champion in skeleton, AJ Edelman, to the podcast today. AJ is an American-Israeli who, by competing for Israel at the 2018 Winter Olympics, became the first Orthodox Jew to compete in the Winter Olympics, and the first Orthodox Jewish male to compete in either Olympic iteration. He has since retired from skeleton, intends to compete in th...

This week marks one year out from the 2021 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, and Laura is deeply honored to welcome Gold Medal Paralympian, Brad Snyder, to the podcast today. A highly experienced competitive swimmer, Brad graduated from the US Naval Academy and was deployed to Iraq and later to Afghanistan as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Officer. After six months in Afghanistan, Brad sustained co...

Today’s episode is the second part of Laura’s interview with Kaillie Humphries, two-time Olympic Women’s Bobsled Champion, first female bobsledder to defend her Olympic title, and the most successful Canadian bobsledder in history. In part one, Kaillie shared the exciting story of her epic gold medal win on her home soil, and this week the conversation picks up right at that historic point in her...