28. Camden #2
I shrugged, knowing cameras were right in my face. “Didn’t get enough power.” Keeping my voice low, I asked. “You think the judges are going to care that much? What did I even do anyway?”
“Either something new and cool that they’ll name the Kane, or they’ll just deduct a few for not doing the full twist? I’m betting on the latter.”
The score came back relatively quickly, and it was pretty good for missing an element.
14.433.
The crowd reacted because it put me ahead of Riku and Inácio, which was technically first place, but there were still five more gymnasts to go. I wasn’t optimistic.
“Well, it could’ve been worse,” Luke said. “I think I might need to watch the tape again and somehow purchase a print of your face when you landed,” he added, which made me laugh.
“That comical?”
“You forgot to smile, despite sticking the landing. You looked confused.”
“Well, I was confused.”
I heard my ringtone going off in my bag, so I pulled it out.
“Hi, Mom!”
“Why was your score so low? You were wonderful!”
I glanced up at the stands to see if anyone she was sitting near could tell her why.
“I didn’t do what I was supposed to on the landing. Ask Noah. He can explain it better than I can.”
“Getting rid of me already?”
“You know that’s not it. I’ve got to support all the athletes competing today. I can’t be on the phone the whole time.”
“Alright, alright. I get it. Good luck on the vault, sweetie. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
It was like my performance was a jinx for everyone but Orion, who did remarkably well and scored higher than me. But the others...
Etienne lost his grip half-way through his routine and had to restart.
Alessandro didn’t hold a few of the strength skills long enough and was too shaky on his handstands.
Hiruto took three stumbling steps on his landing, taking him out of bounds and putting him on his stomach, causing the crowd to gasp.
After some applause when he stood back up, the arena was eerily silent.
“I think you’ve got another medal, Cam,” Luke whispered next to me.
“I can’t believe it.”
In another minute, Luke’s words became a reality.
Hiruto’s score was posted and Orion and I were still at the top of the leaderboard with only Ihsan to compete.
I couldn’t hide the happiness, but it wasn’t the right moment to jump up and down.
The cameras had never left me, and I noticed a few more now were pointed my way.
After Orion had finished, he and Woodward made their way over to us, so we could watch the rest of the event together. I could tell Woodward was pleased. It’s not that he never looked unhappy, but his face was usually neutral.
Not right now.
Even the usually stoic Orion was smiling.
Ihsan wasn’t necessarily a specialist, but he certainly wasn’t an all-arounder. Watching him make his way onto the podium, his neck, back, and arms were noticeably larger than anyone on Team USA.
Whatever curse had been cast on the other athletes was disintegrated by Ihsan.
It would go on to be called the most beautiful rings routine of all time.
There was zero movement when he was holding a position.
When he went up into a handstand, the rings were motionless.
In between each skill, the movements were fluid.
I was happy to have been there to see it, and was left wondering why I hadn’t heard of him before today.
An hour later, and it was a completely different atmosphere. Tension, stress, pressure.
Every gymnast on the vault was apparently doing their best work today, including Ezra. And since I placed first in qualifying, I was the last to go.
“I’m going to have to get a personal best at the rate this is going.”
“Stop looking at the scores, Cam.”
“I don’t need to look! They announce them after every routine!”
“You know how many ‘King of the Vault’ signs I can see right now?” Luke asked, but didn’t wait for me to answer.
“At least seven. Etienne doesn’t have a sign.
Maksims doesn’t have a sign. Nobody else does, and you know why?
Because you’re the best at this. No one has come up with anything new on the vault since the Kane because there’s nothing more difficult they’ll declare safe. Until you did with the Kane II.”
That was true. A few had tried, but had injured themselves. The FIG wasn’t going to let gymnasts become permanently injured trying to outdo each other. There was a limit.
“You’re that confident in me?” I glanced over at him.
“It’s your event, Cam.” Luke grabbed both my hands, forcing me to turn to look at him. “I wish you could see what I see when you launch off the springboard. You’re magnificent.”
“But the photos-”
“Okay, photos of any gymnast look terrible. Our mouths, faces and muscles are doing who knows what to get us where we need to be. I meant the movement, watching you in person. It’s like Apollo has come down from Olympus to shower his gift upon you for every vault.”
“Okay, I like where that is going. I definitely want Apollo showering me or showering with me. Let’s make that a reality.”
Luke dropped my hands. “You’re impossible.”
I gave him a quick kiss. “I know what you’re doing, and thank you.”
With the last score posted, Jo?o Paulo Matos was now in the lead, pushing Ezra and Etienne down a position. Somehow, Ezra was in contention for a medal.
“It’s time,” Luke said, standing up.
I followed suit and dropped my jacket on the seat. I checked my phone quickly, flicking through messages from my mom, Ty, Orion, Miles, Noah, and the twins, though I hadn’t seen either in a year or two.
“We all believe in you, Cam.”
My shoes and pants came off next. “Love you.”
“Love you more, handsome.” Luke gave me one last kiss and I headed for the podium.
My mind was racing with thoughts. This was my second-to-last Olympics event, likely ever.
I had one more event final tomorrow, the high bar with Miles.
Miles was doing great for someone his age, though Ezra was younger.
Miles and Orion were the same age, actually.
Was I wearing my lucky jockstrap? It’d be kind of hard to check now.
Focus!
I heard my name announced, so I only had a thirty-second window to vault.
A helpful monitor nearby provided the countdown.
I ran down the approach to loosen up, then came back to chalk my hands.
I was doing my no-fault vault - the theoretical sure-thing - a Li Xiaopeng, named after the titan of Chinese gymnastics.
Instead of launching straight off the springboard, I did a front handspring first, using that to gain extra height instead of distance.
After saluting the judges, I was off and running. I pumped my arms, hit the spot before the springboard with my hands and in less than two seconds, I had landed with no hop. I just needed to slide my ankles together.
Luke congratulated me after my salute with a half bear hug. “It was that good?” I asked.
“It was that good. The original Kane for the next one?”
“You know it.”
I took a sip of water from the bottle he offered and trotted back down to the start to await the score.
16.233.
I did some quick math. I’d need higher than that to surpass Jo?o’s score. I re-chalked my feet and hands, clapped off the extra, cracked my neck on each side and had fifteen seconds to go.
You’ve done this a hundred times. Just do it once more. Nothin’ to it.
A few cheers echoed through the arena, but it was mostly silent. As soon as I took off sprinting, I couldn’t hear anything but my heart pumping. My sole focus was the springboard and all the muscles of my body. One more breath.
Springboard.
Table.
Air.
Mat.
The roar of the crowd came back to me. Instinctively, I saluted the judges and smiled. I had stuck the second landing as well.
“You fucking did it! I know you did!” Luke said, running over to me before I got off the podium. He followed me down and over to my stuff. “You need a 16.14 or better, by the way.”
“For the gold?” I asked, hopping on one leg, attempting to pull my pants up and over my wispy shorts.
“Yeah.”
It seemed like I did the math wrong, but it was over. The score would be what it was.
I tried to seem like I didn’t care, but what Luke said felt right. It was my event. This one meant more to me than the others because of all the work I put into the skill. I couldn’t help but notice the other athletes fidgeting. My score, the last score, would determine where everyone else ranked.
16.400.
The relief dropped from my head through my stomach and Luke wrapped his good arm around me. “I’m so fucking proud of you.”
I felt someone jump on my back, but Luke and I took the extra weight as if it were nothing. After they screamed ‘You did it’, I knew it was Ezra.
“You did it too, buddy,” I replied.
Eventually, Ezra climbed off me and Luke, and the others came over, including Jo?o and Etienne, to congratulate us. In less than fifteen minutes, I was on the podium, gold medal around my neck, crying like a baby to the Star-Spangled Banner.