By BETH HARRIS -- Associated Press
 
 FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- Laura Wilkinson would haltingly climb up the 10-meter platform, tug on the rails, then peer at the water below before climbing back down.
 
 The usually quick trip stretched into 10 agonizing minutes. She never got wet. Wilkinson couldn't dive at all after breaking three bones in her right foot.
 
 Now, with one broken bone still wedged between two others, she's trying to make the Olympic team three months after her training time was severely reduced by the injury.
 
 "I was upset, but I don't think there was one second I didn't think I'd come here and try it," she said.
 
 Wilkinson begins her bid in the platform preliminaries Friday morning at King County Aquatic Center. She'll return that evening for the semifinals, where the top 12 advance to Saturday's finals.
 
 "I'm just happy I've gotten myself here on both feet," she said.
 
 Making the Olympic team has been Wilkinson's priority since she began diving at 16 after being a gymnast for seven years in her hometown of Spring, Texas.
 
 The 22-year-old gave up her senior year of eligibility at the University of Texas to train full time with Ken Armstrong, a three-time Olympian from Canada. His wife, Patty, will compete against Wilkinson.
 
 As a junior, Wilkinson won the NCAA platform title and finished second on 3-meter springboard, an event she skipped this week to rest her foot.
 
 "I could physically do it, but it was too painful," she said.
 
 Wilkinson won her only international title on platform at the 1998 Goodwill Games. After winning the platform championship at last year's summer nationals, Wilkinson believed she was on her way to a strong 2000.
 
 Then she broke her foot doing somersaults on dry land in March and was forced to miss the national indoor championships. It was five days before Wilkinson realized her foot was broken because there was no swelling.
 
 Then reality set in.
 
 She wore a variety of casts for 10 weeks, and doctors advised surgery that would place a pin in her foot. Another option was surgery to remove the three broken bones, with the possibility that her toes would claw in later years.
 
 "Initially, I thought we were in big trouble," said Armstrong, who couldn't sleep the first night after learning of Wilkinson's woes. "I got up at 6 a.m., drove to Laura's apartment, backed her up against the wall and said, 'We don't have time."'
 
 He offered her two options: Don't dive or stop feeling sorry for ourselves and get to work.
 
 "I was shocked he was knocking on my door that early," Wilkinson said. "He was pointing the finger. I thought I did something to make him mad."
 
 Together, they decided to go ahead. Twice a day, Wilkinson hobbled from her apartment across the street on crutches to the pool, where she did stomach crunches and mental preparation.
 
 "Ken helped me climb up on the 10-meter when I was on crutches," she said.
 
 Wilkinson decided to postpone any surgery until later this year. She walks around on a right foot with one bone cracked in half that sits between the other two broken bones.
 
 "If feels like I walk on a rock," she said.
 
 She wears a rubber kayaking shoe to protect her foot while climbing the tower. At the top, Wilkinson tosses the shoe to the ground and dives off a 33-foot tower with a reputation for inducing vertigo, fear and a fierce pounding.
 
 "Hitting the water is kind of like hitting cement," Wilkinson said.