U.S. diver Alison Gibson looks to make ‘impact beyond Paris’
Written by G Njuguna on August 9, 2024
Alison Gibson was getting ready for the final of the women’s 3m springboard at the U.S. Olympic diving trials, but her mind was thinking about something else.
Months prior, she met Mary Kamau on a plane, and Kamau told her about the organization she started called Missions of Hope International (MOHI), which builds schools and hospitals in Kenya.
Gibson sponsored a student at the Pangani school through MOHI, but still wanted to do more. And she knew more would be possible if she made the Olympic diving team.
“I’m not even going to lie to you, I was at Olympic trials going into that final for the 3m event and I was like, I have to do this,” Gibson said in a phone interview with NBCOlympics.com. “I have to make the Olympics because if I do, it would give me more of an opportunity and more of a platform to change lives and be a good role model. That means more to me than just about anything.”
Gibson placed eighth in the synchronized springboard event at the Tokyo Olympics. Since then, she’s gone back to school and finished her master’s degree in marketing and advertising, and begun working at a marketing firm, all while keeping up with her training.
The 25-year-old placed second at the U.S. Olympic trials and will compete in the 3m springboard in Paris. She’s been blogging about her training and time in the Olympic Village, and recently made a post laying out her Olympic mission. She started a personal initiative she’s calling “Impact Beyond Paris,” to try to spread the word about MOHI and get support for all 240 of the Pangani school’s unsponsored students.
Gibson said she ultimately wanted to do more with her Olympic platform.
I recognize people are going to forget my name. They’re not going to know I’m an Olympian. So my purpose is, how can I do something right now using the platform I have right now that actually has an impact beyond my time here in Paris and hopefully across generations.
Her goal is to have all students sponsored by the end of the Olympics.
“Even if it’s only 10 children that get sponsored,” she said, “those are 10 lives that are going to be changed, and that means more to me than just about anything.”
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