Laura Wilkinson survived a scare at the U.S. Diving Trials yesterday in St. Peters, Mo., and earned a chance to defend her gold medal at the Olympics.

Wilkinson went to the final round with a scant 5.37-point lead over high schooler Brittany Viola, the daughter of former major league pitcher Frank Viola.

Wilkinson had marks of mostly 9s broken up by one 8.5, giving her a total of 878.85 points. The precarious lead became a comfortable victory over Viola, who settled for second with 836.40.

Because of IOC rules limiting the number of spots for each country, Viola won't be on the Olympic team. The second spot in platform will go to the highest-scoring member of the winning synchro team, Sara Hildebrand.

More Olympics

Susan Williams and Victor Plata claimed the final women's and men's spots on the U.S. Olympic Triathlon team. American Hunter Kemper and Great Britain's Liz Blatchford won their races in an international triathlon at Bloedel Donovan Park in Bellingham, Wash.

Williams, 34, finished third, less than a minute behind Blatchford's winning time of 2 hours, 6 minutes, 46 seconds. Plata, 31, was seventh, beating out three other Americans vying for the last berth. Kemper won in 1:55.16.

In a shift that could significantly hurt Olympic champion Marion Jones and other athletes under investigation for possible drug violations, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency plans to start using a less-stringent burden of proof in doping cases. The Associated Press obtained a copy of a USADA memorandum calling for such a change, which was dated June 1 and written by USADA Director of Legal Affairs Travis Tygart. The existence of the memo was first reported yesterday by The Washington Post. USADA spokesman Rich Wanninger said he could not comment.