fciwomenswrestling.com article, photo via via avax.news
From 33 feet high up in the air on a stationary platform, alone, you have plenty of time to think.
There are team sports and there are individual sports.
Then there is high platform diving.
Take tennis for example.
Yes it is an individual sport but at the professional level at least you have your opponent across the net to engage in mind games with, there is the umpire in the chair to argue with if you want to buy some time from loss of conditioning and there are always the ball kids to joke with to calm your nerves.
Up on the diving platform there is only you.
You must develop nerves of steel.
Therefore when you have impressed the world at the Olympics, you truly have accomplished something incredible.
Kassidy Cook is beyond impressive but then again, many of you already knew that.
Kassidy Leigh Cook is an American diver and was a member of the United States national diving team in 2012. She missed out on competing in the Olympics by 0.4 points on June 23, 2012, but in 2016 she qualified for and competed in the 2016 Summer Olympics, placing 13th in the women’s 3 meter springboard event.
Fantastic. We’re so glad she never gave up and kept fighting for her dreams.
“Never stop fighting until you arrive at your destined place – that is, the unique you. Have an aim in life, continuously acquire knowledge, work hard, and have perseverance to realize the great life.”… A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
At nbcolympics.com they speak to her toughness. “Kassidy Cook competed in her very first Olympic event this week, when one poor semifinal dive prevented her from qualifying for the women’s individual 3m springboard final.
She and synchro partner Christina Loukas missed out on qualifying for the 2012 Games by 0.42 points. Then she sustained a 360 degree tear to her labrum and had surgery the day of the London Opening Ceremony. Four years later after qualifying for the Rio Games, Cook fell 3.90 points shy of qualifying for the final and her first chance at an Olympic medal.”
Research indicates that Kassidy trains five hours a day, six days a week. She was a child model before she started diving. The National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association (NISCA) named her the 2010 high school girl’s national champion in its diving All-American program.
That training schedule gives her plenty of time to think.
Wait a minute. There is an update.
In a May 24, 2016 interview, Kassidy stated she took off some time from her studies at Stanford to do what?
Now she trains 6-8 hours a day.
“Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears.”… Gillian Anderson
There she is not alone. She has a fantastic friend and family base. You can see that in her Olympic qualifying video. It is very moving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgu7RGpQtdc
If you thought you were already impressed, when you electronically travel with us to Kassidy’s hometown, the village that helped raise her, you can understand the platform that help launched her great success.
The Woodlands is a master-planned community and census-designated place (CDP) in the U.S. state of Texas in the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. According to The Woodlands Development Company, the population was 107,769 as of a January 2014 estimate, an increase of 93.7% over its population of 55,649 at the 2000 census.
Soon you are going to see why.
It is 28 miles north of Houston along Interstate 45.
Though it began as a suburban development and a bedroom community, it has also attracted corporations and has several corporate campuses, most notably Chevron Phillips, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Huntsman Corporation, Woodforest National Bank, Baker Hughes, CB&I, McKesson Corporation, Aon plc, Maersk Line, Safmarine, GeoSouthern Energy, ExxonMobil, and SWN or Southwestern Energy Company. It won a Special Award for Excellence in 1994 from the Urban Land Institute.
You see what we mean.
We’re talking about a beautiful community with great paying jobs and wonderful benefits.
In many parts of America, an endangered species.
The Woodlands was conceived after the oil industry investor George P. Mitchell attended a symposium by the Rouse Company subsidiary American City Corporation on how to develop HUD financed Title VII towns like Columbia, Maryland.
Houses would range from affordable to expensive and large.
It’s in a heavily forested area, and much of the community has retained trees for shade and decoration.
The Woodlands offers many entertainment venues including two movie theaters, over 150 restaurants, a publicly accessible waterway, dancing waterfalls with music, and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, summer home of the Houston Symphony and catering for many large acts (rock bands to classical). The Woodlands Waterway will eventually be more than 1/2 mile long, reaching from The Woodlands Mall around to Lake Woodlands and with wide, lighted sidewalks along both sides and Waterway Taxis.
It’s time for an official greeting.
Let’s knock on the door at thewoodlands.com. Like their master planned community, they are so professional and friendly. “Hidden within a wooded oasis, The Woodlands, one of the top master planned communities in the nation, fosters the best in family life, career opportunities and neighborhood involvement.
In The Woodlands, each village is like its own small town, complete with shopping centers, community organizations, exceptional schools, extensive recreational facilities, healthcare and welcoming places of worship. Within the villages are individual neighborhoods, each with its own charm and identity. Begun in 1974, this approach enables the villages of The Woodlands to support a wide choice of home styles and price ranges, as well as neighborhoods settings that include golf course, lakeside, greenbelt, urban and gated communities.”
You know that you come from a great hometown when you look at a list of some of the community’s famous alumni.
Drum roll. Ready?
- Danny Amendola, NFL player, New England Patriots
- George Bishop, founder and CEO, GeoSouthern Energy
- Lance Blanks, professional basketball player
- Kirby Bliss Blanton, American actress, famous for her role in the 2012 film Project X
- Greg Brenneman, Chairman, President and CEO of the private equity firm CCMP, former CEO of Burger King
- Matt Bullard, former professional basketball player
- Will Butler, brother of Win Butler and core member of Arcade Fire.
- Win Butler, brother of Will Butler front man for the Grammy Award-winning Canadian indie rock group Arcade Fire
- Hayes Carll, country musician
- Chamillionaire, rapper
- Kassidy Cook, American diver
- Jim Deshaies, former Major League Baseball pitcher; announcer for the Chicago Cubs
- Doug Drabek, MLB player
- Kyle Drabek, MLB player, Arizona Diamondbacks, son of Doug Drabek
- Arian Foster, NFL player, Miami Dolphins
- Gerald J. Gallinghouse, U.S. Attorney for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1970 to 1978; spent his later years in The Woodlands[48]
- Justin Gilbert, NFL football player for the Cleveland Browns
- Paul Goldschmidt, MLB player, Arizona Diamondbacks, former high school teammate of Kyle Drabek
- Dean Harman, financial author, former NFL football player[49]
- Chad Hedrick, retired Winter Olympian, 5 time medalist long track speed skating, most decorated inline world champion
- Jack Ingram, country musician
- Gerald Irons, NFL player for the Cleveland Browns and Oakland Raiders
- Larry Izzo, retired NFL linebacker; current assistant coach for the New York Giants
- Mark Keough, incoming District 15 Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives
- Stacy Lewis, LPGA Professional, 2011 Kraft Nabisco Champion; 2012 LPGA Player of The Year; Number 1 in LPGA Rolex Rankings March 2013 to present.
- Jeff Maggert, PGA (Senior) Tour Golfer
- Nick Mitchell, former professional wrestler
- Brad North, MLS player
- Adrian Peterson, NFL player, Minnesota Vikings
- Rusty Pierce, MLS player
- Brennan Poole, race car driver
- Roy C. Strickland, businessman and politician
- Jameson Taillon, drafted 2nd overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2010 MLB Draft
- Steve Toth, outgoing District 15 Republican state representative, 2013-2015; businessman in The Woodlands
- Laura Wilkinson, winner at the 2000 Olympics of the first gold medal for a female American platform diver since 1964
- Torrie Wilson, retired American professional wrestler, fitness competitor and model; co-owner of the fashion boutique “Officially Jaded” in Market Street
- Ellis Wyms, retired NFL Football Player
Whew!
That is an incredible list. We just want to say her name with great emphasis.
Kassidy Cook, champion American Olympic Diver.
So all alone, 33 feet up in the blue sky, what drives her? In her interview at usatoday.com she expressed, “I’m a fighter; I never gave up,” she said. “So many times I was injured I always got back up to be the best that I can be. … To overcome all of those obstacles has made me a stronger person.”
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OPENING PHOTO VIA via avax.news
Thank you very much Wikipedia for background information.
http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Diving/News/2016/July/28/Meet-Team-USA-Kassidy-Cook
http://www.teamusa.org/usa-diving/athletes/Kassidy-Cook
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/after-failing-reach-final-usas-kassidy-cook-sets-sights-2020
