12. Camden
Camden
I checked my phone again, remembering Luke’s cute texts during Brisbane that reassured me I’d do fine.
He hadn’t sent one.
I’d have to make do with sharing his coin.
At least Luke was on board with that. I had texts, however, from Erika, my mom, and Grant, the last of which was a pleasant surprise.
I knew his brother was in London, though I hadn’t seen him yet.
Grant had stayed in the states. He wished me luck and attached a photo of him on set.
Soon after Brisbane, he retired from full-time gymnastics and pursued his childhood dream of becoming an actor.
He went back to college for drama, but dropped out when one of his auditions panned out.
He was cast in a recurring role on The Academy, a Netflix series about a high school for magicians.
I watched it. He played the broody jock very well.
It had already been renewed, and I was excited for the next season.
“You ready?” I glanced over at Noah and nodded. “You better loosen up. We’ll start soon.”
It was pretty clear Austin’s text had a positive effect on Orion.
He scored a personal best on the floor routine.
It was even better than my score. And Alex seemed to be on a mission to redeem himself after failing to qualify for the all-around finals.
Colton proved why he made the pommel horse finals, too.
Luke and I kind of just let them do their thing.
We were second, but within reach of Japan.
But four other teams were all within one point of us with three events left. Every medal was still up for grabs.
We were just waiting for the signal to move to the next apparatus.
It was the vault, time for my big moment.
If I landed it, it would be named after me forever.
This moment was two years in the making for me and Noah.
It was his idea to try it, adding another half twist to the hardest Tsukahara that had been done.
I could do it in pike or tucked, but chose tuck for tonight.
I had tried full, but there was no way I could generate enough force to get my body around.
Besides the obvious balance to stick the landing and the skill to do the move, a successful vault resulted from the correct running speed and the height generated from the springboard.
Noah and I had tweaked this vault so many times that we knew I had the maximum height from the board.
The trick was to land as close to the end as possible to get the highest arch.
I trained my muscle memory to stick my feet within an inch of the end of the board.
We watched the tapes. No one was as close as that because it carried a tremendous risk.
A risk I hoped would pay off today. Our team needed a boost to push us ahead.
An insanely difficult vault would do just that and put my name in the record books at the same time.
“Is this where we finally see the Kane?” Ty asked, as we walked to our next zone.
I nodded.
“You’re finally going to do it?” Luke asked quietly.
“Yup,” I answered. I watched as a huge grin broke out on his face.
“That’s amazing, Cam. I know you don’t need it, but we agreed,” he said, holding out his hand. The coin was in it.
As my fingertips brushed the palm of his hand, a touch of excitement tittered through my body.
Even with our hugs two days prior, I hadn’t felt like this since we bumped into each other in the locker room.
And even though we weren’t even close to being naked, I felt the same stirring in my groin.
I inwardly cursed myself. Every time my mind got a handle on the Luke situation, my dick betrayed me.
“This is it, Cam. Get ready.”
“CAMDEN KANE. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.”
It never got old hearing that over the loudspeaker.
I heard the cheers from the American section of the arena.
Knowing my mom, Erika, Graham and anyone else from Team USA was there to support me meant a lot, but I couldn’t focus on that now.
I had to focus on my body, and doing a vault no one had ever seen at a competition before. One I had done countless times.
I jogged back and forth twice down the runway to loosen up a bit. Walking over to the chalk bag, I crouched and chalked my hands. This was it. It would be over in a matter of seconds. I was ready, waiting for the judges’ signal.
With the signal given, I glanced towards my team at the last minute.
Noah and Coach were side by side, standing.
All the guys but Luke were also standing.
He had his head bowed with his hands clasped in front of him.
I knew he wasn’t praying. He was just worried for me.
Whatever nerves I had disappeared. Somehow, I just knew it would work out.
I saluted the judges, stepped over the runway trim and stared down the one hundred fifteen feet between me and destiny.
It always happened so fast. I never remembered it until it was over and I could watch the replay.
The sounds of the arena had disappeared.
I only heard my feet pounding on the runway.
The time came to start my round-off with a half twist, so I lunged forward, hands reaching for the floor just before the board.
My feet pushed off the board and after another half twist, my hands pushed off and up.
The muscles I added in the last four years helped me gain the height I needed.
And then I was airborne, and I unleashed all the momentum I had built up in my sprint.
The Kane, as it was to be called, was the most difficult vault a man had attempted at the Olympics. I couldn’t see the floor as I landed. My body had to be perfectly placed in mid-air, so that when my feet came down, my center of gravity was exact. Falling over would mean it wouldn’t count.
I was still in shock when I landed, but autopilot kicked in and I saluted the judges again.
It was only then that the roar of the crowd crept back into my ears and I started to hear again.
I noticed all the events had stopped and the other teams were clapping for me.
Noah and Coach were there to hug me as I came down the stairs.
“You did it, Cam. It was perfect.” Noah squeezed hard, then let go.
Coach put his arm around me. “I have never seen a new move in person. That was incredible. Thank you, Camden.”
Colton was jumping up and down as I trotted over to the team bench. Everyone gave me a hug. When Luke had his arms around me, he said, “I knew you could do it. You were incredible.”
He whispered it right into my ear. I couldn’t help the smile that came across my face.
My teammates were already looking at the scoreboard.
Amidst the sounds and cheers of the arena, I heard it faintly at first, but in less than a minute, the sound of it filled the entire arena. My team was helping, of course.
“Kane! Kane! Kane! Kane!”
I had never felt anything like this before. When I won the national championship, sure, that was amazing, but I didn’t have people chanting my name. I had never seen it happen to anyone else before, either. I didn’t know what to do but smile. And blush.
Fuck, it was a lot of attention.
“Smile, Cam. Everyone’s lookin’ at ya,” Colton teased.
I playfully shoved him away and tried to hold back tears. I swiped my hand across my brow and risked a glance at the screen again. Still nothing.
Come on!
The Kane cheer suddenly stopped and screams and cheers erupted instead.
16.366.
The guys surrounded me again to celebrate. I saw Noah come up behind them. “Highest score of the night!”
I don’t know how their coaches fired them up so much, but after my vault, Japan roared back.
We were still in second going into the last event.
But the Brits were on our asses. Despite the Kane cheer anomaly, which I credited to Erika, the home crowd was louder for their own men, and it was helping.
“Cam, Luke, Alex. You can do this. High bar is one of our best events as a team. Alex proved that at qualifications. I know you want to go for the gold and do something crazy, but if Japan stays their course, I just don’t know if it’s possible.
Just do your best and we’ll see where we end up.
Anywhere on the podium works for me, though I know you want the gold as much as I do. ”
Not quite the fiery speech one would expect, but Coach was a realist. He didn’t bullshit us and it had gotten us this far.
Alex went first and almost matched his score from qualifications.
We kept a close eye on Japan at the rings and Great Britain on the floor, just one apparatus ahead of us.
Since everyone did about the same, the rankings didn’t change.
And then it was Luke’s turn. I saw him give the coin a kiss and stick it in his jacket pocket.
I gave it back to him for his vault and he kept it for the parallel bars since I didn’t do that event.
He and Cassandra had a brief conversation, and then I stood with the rest of the team and we watched him climb up to the bar.
Cassandra was too short to help him reach it and instead of using a springboard, Ford followed him out there to boost him into place.
I held my breath every time he released the bar. Luke’s routine was pretty difficult, with four full releases, including the one that he missed in Brisbane. I could feel my heartbeat in my fingers. I was squeezing them so tight.
“Breathe, Cam. You look like you’re gonna pass out,” Colton whispered.
I did what he said and took a few breaths, but I was too nervous and held it for the last twenty seconds. It wasn’t until he landed that I unclenched my hands. Cassandra was there to congratulate him at the stairs, and he bro-hugged each of us on the way over to his seat. Noah walked over to me.
“This is it, Cam. No pressure, but you’re the last routine.”
“Gee, thanks. Easy peasy.”