Courtesy of Patrick Mader.
Patrick is a writer for mnathletes.com, a website dedicated to featuring Minnesota athletes in a wide range of sports. See the website here.
Now a physician’s assistant, Laura Ryan is convinced of the value athletics provide. “Although I am several years removed from elite athletics, I’ve learned the work ethic, team-based approach, and mental and physical toughness you learn as an athlete transfers well to my professional life,” says the 2014 NCAA Division I Diver of the Year.
The middle child of Gary, an engineer, and Barb Ryan, a teacher who became a stay-at-home parent, Laura exhibited early indications that she would pursue a challenging sport. “My older brother, Nick, and I would wrestle. I was a bit of a daredevil in gymnastics.” The Ryan family had lived in the Midwest before moving to Elk River, Minnesota, a city of 27,000 people located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Elk rivers 34 miles northwest of Minneapolis, when Laura was in 7th grade.
Born in 1992, Laura was enthralled by a television commercial featuring Olympic and World Champion diver Laura Wilkinson. “I told my dad I wanted to do that,” she said referring to the dives Wilkinson performed. “My dad had been a swimmer and said, ‘It’s harder than it looks.’ Six months later, I was diving! It seemed a natural fit for a gymnast and swimmer like me. I fell in love with it from the start. I became a pool rat, diving and swimming for fours a day.”
Success came at a breathtaking pace. The 12-year-old qualified for the Minnesota State High School League Swimming and Diving Championships only months after starting the sport. Her talent caught the attention of Mike Hilber, a swimming and diving coach at the University of Minnesota (U of MN) and led to practicing at the Minneapolis campus’ famed aquatics facility. As an 8th-grader, Laura placed 7th as Brittany Jumer of Andover claimed the 2005 Class AA diving title. A year later, Laura was runner-up to Jumer (later a diver at Arizona State University) and also placed in two swimming events: placing 8th in the 50-yard freestyle race and swimming the opening leg on the 6th-place finishing 200-yard relay team for the combined Elk River/Zimmerman high schools team.
As a 9th-grader, Laura won the 2007 Minnesota high school diving crown. “I then decided to focus full-time on diving with the Twin City Divers coached by Jason Baumann,” says Laura. She had also utilized her skills in track and field as a pole vaulter and captured 6th place in the 2006 state track meet as an 8th-grader, although the 10 ft 6 inch bar she cleared was the same height cleared by the 3rd-place winner.
Laura’s growth in diving continued at breakneck speed as she landed a spot on the 2009 Junior National team and earned a bronze medal at a meet in Calgary, Canada. “Success at this meet catapulted me to the next level,” she remarks. Indeed, colleges with the best diving programs in the country were recruiting the 5 ft 5 inch athlete—she had started receiving letters of interest already in 8th grade. “Indiana University had historically been a diving powerhouse. Several of their divers had gone on to the Olympics,” says Laura explaining her college choice. Laura had a splashy start in the Big Ten Conference, winning platform, taking second in the 1-meter springboard competition, and placing 3rd in the 3-meter springboard event as a freshman in the 2010-11 season. As a sophomore, Laura was making the finals at the NCAA diving championships. However, she decided to transfer to the University of Georgia (guided by coach Dan Laak) as a junior and is pleased with the results. “It was a better fit for me as a person. There was a great training environment; we had a close-knit team with a goal to win a national championship.” And the Bulldogs proceeded to do exactly that—in both 2013 and 2014.
Laura earned All-American honors as a junior with a 5th-place finish in platform diving, but it is Laura’s results at the 2014 NCAA nationals at the U of MN which are truly astonishing. Despite suffering a broken kneecap before the season, Laura won individual titles in the 1-and 3-meter springboard events and took home a bronze medal in platform diving. “It was a key moment of my career,” says Laura. “Being hosted in Minnesota, I had about thirty family members and friends watch me win two springboard championships.” It is not surprising Laura was named 2014 NCAA Diver of the Year after nearly sweeping all three events. Another strong competitor present was Maggie Keefer, a U of MN All-American and Big Ten Diver of the Year from Stillwater, who finished runner-up to Laura in the 2007 high school championships.
A member of the senior women’s national diving team since 2010, Laura won medals in international competition in 3-meter springboard synchronized diving with Amy Cozad at the 2012 Grand Prix; Meghan Hunter at the 2013 World University Games in Kazan Russia; and Olympian Abby Johnston at a Grand Prix meet in Mexico. In total, Laura has won seven national titles with various partners in synchronized diving.
While her ultimate goal of making the 2016 US Olympic team fell a bit short with a 4th-place finish in the 3-meter springboard at the trials, Laura says, “For seven years, I got to wear USA on my suits. It was a dream come true. I traveled the world and created many friendships.”
A psychology major, the 2014 University of Georgia graduate attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham to earn a physician assistant (PA) in surgery degree in 2018. Laura worked for five years at the University of Illinois Chicago for five years before accepting a position as a travel PA and currently working in Sacramento, California.
Laura and Eric Heyson, a data analyst for Libra Solutions, married in August 2024. Eric was also a diver, qualifying for the Illinois high school state meet for Naperville in 2008.
So, if you ever run into a California PA workhorse who is team-based with physical and mental toughness, check the nametag to see whether it is Laura Ryan.
