11. Camden #2
Luke finished chalking his hands and saluted the judges. He grabbed a pommel with each hand and readied himself to start. Christ, I was nervous for him. I hadn’t felt like this a few minutes ago, but here I was. He didn’t even need to do well. The other three had done well enough for the team.
And he was up. I knew his routine pretty well by now. He was about to go into the first of two handstands before transitioning into the required scissors element. And he did both seamlessly. Yay!
The experts consider pommel horse to be the hardest event, since for most of the routine, you’re supported by one arm, and you can’t stop or pause during the routine at all. If you messed up, there was no resetting. You had to hope you stayed on the horse and had enough momentum to keep going.
Luke was about to do his only cross support travel, moving forward over the entire length of the horse.
He hadn’t mastered the same thing backwards yet.
I hadn’t figured out either way. In Luke’s case, it was a bonus move, and I admired his courage.
Oh shit. He slipped and lost his rhythm for a second. It was almost time for the dismount.
Please nail it please nail it please nail it.
And he finished with what should be only a few small deductions. The guys and I cheered and applauded. It was really nice that Tyler and the twins were so supportive. It made Luke and I’s first Olympics that much easier.
And just like that, our first event was over. Luke jogged over to Shane, who was congratulating him. “You did great. Forget that slip. It was a solid routine.”
Luke waved him off. I knew exactly how he felt. Luke knew what happened and didn’t need it explained or sugarcoated. We waited for the score.
14.400.
Alright. It wasn’t as good as Tyler’s, who likely qualified for the event final, but it was better than Graham’s and exceptional for someone so new to the event.
I was sitting next to Luke’s bag.
“What’d you think?” he asked.
“You did awesome, and you’ll get better.”
He laughed. “I hope so.”
“And I bet that’s better than I’ll do on the rings.”
“I’m not sure. Your arms are bigger than mine. You don’t give yourself enough credit, Cam.”
“I guess we’re about to find out.”
Yuck. They were my experiment, as much as the horse was for Luke.
We gathered all our stuff and got ready to head to the rings.
We had to wait for each team to clear the other events, and then we would all rotate together.
The scores were continuously cycling on several digital screens in the arena.
I didn’t like to look at the numbers. Instead, I asked Noah, “How’s it looking so far? ”
“Well, Russia didn’t do great on rings, so that’s good. But, I know you know it’s too early to tell much of anything else.”
Well, Russia not doing great was something.
Tyler had already gone, and Graham was in the middle of what was easily the best rings routine of his life, when I started to psych myself out. I couldn’t stop shaking my knee. Luke must’ve noticed, because he was at my side the second I was about to text him.
“Hey, you okay?” he asked.
“Uh...freaking out actually.”
“Want me to get Noah?”
“Uh...sure.” What is wrong with me?
Luke came back with Noah. They flanked me.
“GRANT SHEA. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.”
Shit, I was next.
“Cam, focus!” I heard Noah saying.
I turned to look at him and tried to focus.
“Hey, hey, you’re fine. You can do this.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “You’re sweating, dry yourself off, Cam.”
He tossed a towel on my lap, covering my left side, the side closest to Luke. What the fuck? I'm not sweating.
It wasn’t until I felt Luke’s fingers tangle with mine I realized what Noah had done. And I smiled, first at Luke, and then at Noah. “Thank you.”
“Lean back. Close your eyes and breathe. In and out.” He repeated, “In and out.”
Luke squeezed my hand. “You’re going to do great.”
“How are you so calm right now?” I asked Luke.
“Honestly? My parents have put me under this kind of pressure for years. As much as it sucks to admit, it’s almost easier that they’re not here. If that makes sense.”
It was my turn to squeeze his hand.
“I’m sorry it’s like that.”
“Meh, if it makes it easier, that’s what matters. Anything I can do for you right now?”
“Not much with...you know, everyone else here. This is pretty good, though. Thank you. To both of you.”
I let go of Luke’s hand and stood up. Grant had fallen on his landing. Fuck. That was a one point automatic deduction. I needed to do better than Grant if I wanted to help the team.
I tossed my warm-up jacket onto my bag and started loosening up again. I knew Grant well enough to say nothing. He was heading straight for his brother, anyway.
“Good luck, Cam,” Grant said on the way by.
“Thanks.”
And then it was happening.
“CAMDEN KANE. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.”
I had already chalked my hands. Noah had lifted me up onto the rings and stepped back. This was it. My first Olympic performance. I was totally fine.
Don’t fuck it up don’t fuck it up don’t fuck it up
And I started.
Anyone at home probably thought it was ring-shaped monkey bars, like playing on a playground for fun, but holy fuck, they were wrong.
My arms were already burning, and I was just finishing my first strength element, the cross, holding my body completely still with my arms fully extended and perpendicular to my torso.
The key to getting a good score on the rings was combining strength moves together.
I had a swing to a handstand next, followed by my favorite hold, a Deltchev B.
No one did that anymore, but I loved it.
I front-flipped out of it into a Maltese cross, holding it for two seconds as required, and I was into the home stretch.
A few more easy strength moves, begrudgingly done.
I could almost feel myself grimacing. And breathe.
Only the dismount left. A double back layout. And my feet hit the ground and stuck.
I fucking did it.
I was so happy. I saluted the judges and then bounded off into Noah’s arms.
“You did great. We need to talk about your face, but you nailed the routine.”
“What about my face?”
Tyler walked up to me with this weird grimace.
“I did that?”
“Something like that, bro. You need to relax.”
“It’s fine, Cam. The elements were all great, but you will need to work on some of the little things,” Noah said.
“You’re the coach,” I said. I was just happy to be done with it.
14.900.
“That’s my guy!” Noah exclaimed, patting me on the back.
One tenth behind Graham. Not too shabby.
“I hate that me doing good helps you with whatever you have going on with Shane,” I said to Noah, trying to pull some focus off me.
“Hey, do not throw away your chance at the Olympics for an asinine bet.” He got serious real quick. Interesting.
“Don’t worry about me. It just piqued my curiosity.”
“It has nothing to do with you. I’m still pissed he brought it up. Please, try to forget about it.”
“Hey, it’s your business. I won’t mention it again.” Not.
It seemed like things were looking up. Russia continued to not do well.
We had a solid lead in our division after the first two events.
I was excited as we made our way to the next one - the vault - my best event.
I was hoping to qualify for the finals, so I had to do two vaults in order to do that.
My first vault was the hard one. The reach.
A Yurchenko stretched with three and half twists.
If I could pull it off, even with a rough landing, I would get a great score solely because of the difficulty.
As far as I knew, it had the highest difficulty score of anyone at the Olympics.
It was the vault that gave me the gold at Worlds.
I had done it before. I just needed to do it again.
“You ready, kiddo?”
I nodded, glancing over at Luke. He gave me a thumbs up and smiled.
I can do this.