Life-long Texans, Laura Wilkinson and Michelle Cabassol understand there might be a degree of difficulty getting folks in this football-mad state interested in another sport in August.
They're still going to take a flying leap at it.
Olympic gold medalist Wilkinson and U.S. champion Cabassol will get a chance to perform close to home when the AT&T National Diving Championships are held in College Station on Aug. 10-15.
Wilkinson grew up in Spring and attended Klein High School and the University of Texas. Cabassol is going into her senior year at Montgomery High School. The Woodlands Diving Academy stars visited Bryan-College Station on Tuesday to promote the USA championships.
National events have been common at The Woodlands, and Texas A&M has hosted Big 12 and NCAA Championships, but this is the first time for a USA Diving national championship to be held at the A&M Student Rec Center Natatorium.
"I'm really excited," Wilkinson said. "If you ask the college divers who've competed here, they love this facility. The college pools are the best facilities around the country. We're excited that it's finally going to be here."
Wilkinson, 32, won the 10-meter platform diving competition at the 2000 Olympics. She retired after the 2008 Olympics and became a motivational speaker, but Wilkinson has come out of retirement on a limited basis and will compete at nationals.
"I retired after Beijing, but I missed it," Wilkinson said. "I really wanted to get back in the water. I kind of played around with it last fall and then I stopped. This spring I just felt like I wanted to be in the water. I don't have any reason not to. I'm not doing platform -- I don't think my body would hold up to that -- but I'm doing springboard."
Two years away from competition mean Wilkinson will have to qualify for nationals by competing at a zone meet in Florida in early July. It's the first time she has had to qualify through zone competition since 1995.
"It will be good, because I'll get a meet under my belt before nationals," Wilkinson said.
The 17-year-old Cabassol has her sights on the 2012 Olympics. Her veteran teammate Wilkinson isn't sure whether she'll compete two more years.
"It's not like a full-fledged comeback right now," Wilkinson said. "I'm just kind of having fun. Since [nationals] was close, it was a nice little goal. I have no idea if I'm going to keep diving after this summer."
Cabassol won more than a dozen national titles at the junior level. She made the jump to senior competition easily, winning a U.S. championship last year and finishing third at the USA Championships last summer.
Although Cabassol won UIL state titles as a freshman and sophomore, most of her finest moments have come in national and international competitions far away from Montgomery. She looks forward to competing in a national championship meet within driving distance of her hometown.
"A lot of my school friends don't really know what I do," Cabassol said. "They know I dive, but they don't really understand and they've always wanted to come watch me dive. Of course, all of my big meets are out of state. All of them are excited about this meet being in College Station. They want to come support me and see what I do.
"If my friends come watch me and they see me do a flip, they'll probably be amazed."
Cabassol hopes to compete in the springboard and platform events at nationals. She is recovering from shoulder surgery last fall that caused her to miss five months of training and could affect her ability to handle the physical rigors of the platform event.
College coaches soon will be able to make official recruiting contact with Cabassol, who already has a list of 10-15 potential destinations. UT and A&M are among her top 10 schools.
Wilkinson said divers from Texas are a close-knit group and she doesn't expect fans from Aggieland to have trouble cheering for Longhorns at nationals.
"I think they're going to be excited because it's a big meet and there's a lot of exciting diving going on," she said. "When you get here, you're not really fighting to represent your school, you're fighting to represent the United States, to win nationals.
"It still feels kind of connected. We're from Texas, and it's almost like a state pride thing."
Wilkinson doesn't believe the state's fondness for football should prevent the national diving championships from drawing fans even when the Cowboys and Texans are at training camp and college and high school teams are going through two-a-days.
"Hopefully they'll be riled up for any kind of sport and they'll come out and watch," she said. "We want the locals, whether they know about diving or not, to come check it out. We want them to see what it's all about and be a crazy fan. We'd love that."
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