13. Lucas #2
I pulled out my phone and typed his name into the search bar. The first headline said something about him qualifying for the finals and I breathed a sigh of relief. I skimmed the article and it looked good. He qualified for both the three meter and ten meter events.
Luke: Give my congrats to Jake. I fell asleep after dinner lol.
Graham: Will do.
“Let’s go, Lucas. Breakfast is ready.”
I was laser-focused. Cassandra beating my ass into the floor was apparently good for me psychologically.
I didn’t have time to worry yesterday and today felt like every other day.
Breakfast, stretching and down time, a small lunch and then we were on our way to the arena.
We were already through the fourth event and I was in second place. Cam was in fourth.
We were grouped by our placement in the qualifications.
I was in the first group, Cam was in the second, meaning he started an apparatus ahead of me.
So, in essence, I was following him. It certainly felt like that.
I was just going through my events because I saw him as a light at the end of the tunnel.
I just had to get through this and then we could talk.
At least that’s what I was telling myself.
“Whatever you’re doing, Lucas, keep doing it,” Cassandra directed.
I nodded in agreement, fiddling with the coin in my pocket, waiting for us to rotate.
Inácio was in Cam’s group as well as Hadeon Mazur.
I had the top two Japanese men, Hiruto Uchida and Riku Nimora, as well as Great Britain’s Jack Davies, China’s Sheng Jiang, and Russia’s Vadim Davidov in mine.
Jack was friendly and chatty, but the other four were very quiet.
Their coaches seemed as strict as Cassandra and they didn’t really interact with anyone, with the exception of the two from Japan.
They spoke quietly together at each event.
Parallel bars was arguably my best event. My routine was the most difficult and I executed it flawlessly. Again, I was on autopilot. I just did it. I tuned everything out and focused on one thing. Well, two things. The coin and Cam. Every now and then he would glance my way and smile.
I heard the crowd gasp and turned to look at the parallel bars. Riku had fallen off. He pulled himself back up onto the bars and finished his routine, but I couldn’t help but remain shocked. I was in second place now. The fall had dropped Riku to third.
I saw Cam walk up to the high bar and Noah gave him a boost. What followed was the most beautiful routine I’d ever see Cam do.
He had combinations I hadn’t seen him do before and it must’ve been another one of those things that he and Noah had worked on like the Kane.
I knew it was going to be a good score when he was finished.
Cassandra was talking to me, but I ignored her and just watched the scoreboard.
Yes!
Cam was now third. Riku had been pushed to fourth.
I heard the Japanese coach before I saw him.
He was not pleased and Riku looked on the verge of tears.
Hiruto was sitting next to Riku and had yet to go, so it didn’t make much sense to me for the coach to be yelling, especially since Hiruto was still in first. I felt for the guys, but it was certainly not my place to step in.
A few minutes later, Hiruto was on the parallel bars. He didn’t fall off them, but I could tell he was shaken. It wasn’t his best performance.
And where there was drama, there were cameras.
We were the top men, so some were expected, but as the event wore on, it was clear who the frontrunners were.
A side effect of that was that Cam, Hiruto, Riku and I had cameras on us the entire time.
They were a little hard to tune out, but I had gotten used to it over time, especially at the last Olympics.
At least the camera people did their best to stay a good distance away especially when the competition was still undecided.
With one apparatus left, there was less than half a point between me and first place.
Cam and I made eye contact and smiled. We were on the same side of the arena about fifty feet apart.
I mouthed, ‘Good luck,’ and he mouthed back, ‘You too.’ I was about to head to his spot, and he was about to go to the floor, one of his better events.
I could feel the energy shift inside of me. We were so close.
The first group of men went in reverse order based on placement in the qualifications, so Hiruto as the first place seed would go last. As fourth out of the sixth, I would go third.
Jack and Vadim were already out of contention.
It seemed like the home crowd advantage didn’t translate to the all-around finals for Jack.
Vadim just had a bad day. Sheng was in the mix, Hiruto was going to try to hold onto first and I was guessing Riku was going to do his best to come back, but if there was one thing that was true in gymnastics, it was that it was harder to come from behind than stay ahead.
I told Cassandra I had this and to let me be, and she listened for once.
I shoved my earbuds in and found Ricky Martin’s Cup of Life.
The lyrics said it all. I really wanted it.
Not the cup of life, but a gold medal would suffice.
We didn’t do our routines with music during competitions, but I had done it in practice and loved it.
Although I didn’t participate in the gala last Olympics, I was planning to do so this time around. I just had to find the right song.
By the time it was my turn, I was on cloud nine.
It was the same routine from Brisbane with one added release.
Cassandra had drilled this routine into my head, so I could probably do it with my eyes closed.
Instead, I had them wide open as I hummed Cup of Life throughout the routine.
When I stuck the landing, I knew it was great and the crowd’s reaction proved it, as did the number of cameras I counted on me.
There were only three men left on the high bar, and Cam, Inácio and Hadeon for his group on the floor. Cam was last to go in his group, so it would likely come down to Hiruto and Cam.
My score came in and Cassandra actually hugged me.
92.690.
I couldn’t help but smile, but my eyes were trying to find Cam.
He was smiling, but focused on something else.
I expected that, I guess. The all-around was weird like that.
I had a teammate, but we weren’t a team.
Kind of like I used to have a boyfriend, but we weren’t even friends anymore. I hoped that would change soon.
Riku fell on the high bar too and his coach looked livid, but calmed slightly when it looked like Riku was hurt.
I wondered if he pulled something on the parallel bars.
With a second fall, he was out of contention.
I felt bad, but I knew the kind of stress my body was under for this.
We were all a torn ligament or tendon away from it being over.
It happened to Ty three years ago. That’s why he became a coach.
I could feel Inácio’s tenacity on the floor. The kid was precise and could tumble. After his routine, he was right behind me on the scoreboard.
90.432.
The next five minutes felt like an hour. Cam’s routine was flawless. You would’ve thought he and I had been granted superpowers for an evening. We were that good tonight.
With Riku’s injury, I could tell Hiruto was shaken.
His high bar routine was not good. He didn’t fall off, but he almost lost his grip once and he lost momentum twice and had to restart those series.
My adrenalin was bursting and the arena was practically silent awaiting the results.
There were other athletes still competing, but it was statistically impossible for them to medal.
Cam’s score came first.
91.031.
Fuck yes! At the very least, he and I would be on the podium together.
It was just a matter of which color our medals would be.
I could see Noah and Cam hugging. I was pacing.
Cassandra was pacing. This was a big deal for US men’s gymnastics.
We hadn’t had an all-around medalist since the eighties.
And it was likely we would have two in London.
Hiruto’s score posted.
90.698.
Holy.
Shit.
I just won a gold medal.