Finding Our Balance Page 12

  “Look at Maddy,” Ruby sniggers. “She’s totes the new queen bee and she is loving it.”

  “Enough idiocy,” Natasha retorts. She’ll brief us as we stretch. Sergei the manwhore is at her side.

  “As usual, this is a structured training. Team warm-up and general stretch will last a half hour, then each rotation group moves to their first event…that’s bars for you guys. It’s a half hour on each event, and we take turns with the other girls in our rotation.”

  She continues with our training goals for the day.

  “On bars and beam, you’ll want to get at least four turns each. We’ll start out working a couple of skills, then you’ll do the first half of your routine, then the second, then the whole thing twice. If there’s time – and there definitely will be – we’ll work any problem skills. For vault, I want to see three Yurchenko layouts, then a 1.5, then the Amanar, twice. For floor, you’ll work your tumbling separately first and then each of you will get a chance to perform with the music. For today, just do a dance through. Sergei, anything to add?”

  “Yeah, keep your turn in the rotation order in mind. You need to be quick – in place to start the second the girl before she finishes – but don’t just stand around waiting to go. Chalk up in your down time at bars, and when you’re on deck, stand in your position to mount so you’re ready as soon as the last girl gets off. During beam, work your acro on the side, and during floor, work dance elements. Vault…there’s not much you can do without the table, so just stay warm and on your toes.”

  Warm-ups officially begin with a quick jog around the floor exercise mat, and we make our way through the national team workout before going through some leaps and light tumbling…tucks, handsprings, nothing killer. We eventually begin to disperse around the gym to finish things up using the different apparatuses, like bars for pull-ups, the beam for press handstands, and the vault table for plyometrics.

  The real fun starts when it’s time to get into our rotation groups. 31 girls are competing this weekend. We’re split into four groups, three with eight girls and one with seven.

  In my group, it’s me, Emerson, and Ruby, obviously, some girls named Elise Connor and Madison Kerr (neither was invited to national team camp and I don’t know them at all), and then the twins, Amaya and Nalani Logan, both 17. The Logan twins got lots of international assignments as juniors but didn’t really improve enough to make a splash when they joined the senior ranks. But if I have a chance at a team spot, anyone does.

  The seven of us crowd around the chalk bowl to begin prepping our hands for our start on bars. This will be our rotation group all weekend, and I’m smack in the middle of the lineup, between Nalani and Ruby.

  A few people chat at the chalk bowl. Emerson isn’t one of them, preferring to stay in her own world. She’s not competing on bars this weekend but needs to put in the training hours so she doesn’t regress.

  I find out Elise and Madison train together and it’s their first year attempting elite. When Emerson goes up, they both stare in awe, completely forgetting about their own preparation.

  “Oh man,” Madison breathes. “I remember watching her bars the first time she went to nationals and being like, oh my God I want to be her.”

  “I used to have her posters on my wall,” I confess. “Like, very, very recently.”

  “Doesn’t it feel insane to actually be here with her?”

  Everything feels insane. “Yes,” I smile, aggressively rubbing chalk over my hands, occasionally giving them a spray from the water bottle. Gotta get the consistency of this nasty paste juuuuust right.

  When Nalani mounts the uneven bars I move in front of the low bar, preparing for my own mount. I thought I’d be nervous, but as I stand there I realize as intense as this is, it doesn’t feel any different than a regular practice. Even being on a podium in front of thousands of seats, I’m just going to work the bars the way I always do. I have zero reason to freak out.

  Nalani hops off after a few giants on the high bar and it’s my turn. I glide kip on, cast into a handstand, work a few toe-on handstands, jump to the high bar, swing through a few giants, and go in for a layout fly-away dismount, all basic, no problemo, skills I’ve been doing for a thousand years.

  “Your toe point was fantastic,” Natasha says as I head back to the chalk bowl. She puts her arm around my shoulder and speaks quietly, as if we’re guarding a national secret. “Work it like that in your routine and the judges will eat it up.”

  “Thanks. I’ll keep it in mind.” I loosen my grips and then tighten them again out of habit. “Anything else?”

  “Your handstands were a little short…nothing drastic, only a tenth off here and there, but still costly. You’re not doing much on this event…other girls have start values close to 7.0 and you’re only at 5.9 or 6.0 so you really need to maximize every possible tenth in execution.”

  I nod. Nothing new there. I feel like I’m just hanging out in the gym, like if I walk through the arena doors right this second, my locker will be right outside.

  “When you go up next time, start your routine like normal, go up to the Gienger, and then drop off.”

  I nod again, and turn back to the chalk bowl for a touch up just in time to see Ruby bust out a Tkachev pretty much right off the bat.

  “Show off,” Emerson grunts. Again, it’s just like home.

  ***

  “You ladies were excellent,” Natasha says in the van back to the hotel. “Very productive day.”

  “Compete like this on Saturday and you’ll sweep every event,” Sergei chimes in. “Really, I think we could definitely end up with the top scores across the board. Amalia, you’re gunning for that all-around title…there are probably three girls who can beat you and their training was nowhere as tidy.”

  I grit my teeth, not letting his praise take away from the fact that he is a disgusting animal. “Thanks.”

  “And Ruby, damn, you look kickass even on your weak event. For real, those bars are getting to the point where they’re pretty on par with everything else. That’s unbelievable…you’re a true all-around talent.”

  My eyes are going, going, gone, rolling all the way into my skull. I think I see my brain.

  Okay, so here’s my beef. Ruby has worked her ass off to get to where she is now. The last thing she needs is a distraction, and yet here one is, in the form of a 26-year-old former Olympic champion-turned-Dancing with the Stars disco ball winner. He’s hot and everything – like in a ridiculous way – but is hooking up with a hot older man worth missing the Olympics again?

  Watch, and like, he’s totally not even really interested in her. Why would he be? His girlfriend in Chicago – oh right, he has a girlfriend – is a model. He’s a carbon copy of Max. All men are the worst. He probably isn’t even a real coach…I bet Emerson hired him just to take Ruby down.

  Okay, okay, I’m a conspiracy theorist. But for real, I seriously question Ruby’s life decisions right about now. We have less than three months left. You’ve gone this long without a guy in your life…why start now, right when everything is finally happening for you?

  I haven’t been paying attention to the conversation in the van at all, but snap back in when I hear Natasha mention media day. Crap. Tomorrow.

  “I can’t decide if I want you to go all-out in front of the press or hold back and keep them guessing,” she ponders, tapping her iPad in between typing out notes. “It would be awesome to just walk right out, do full routines, stick Amanars, the whole nine yards, because can you imagine the write-up? But then the pressure we’d be under on competition day will be insane. Expectations would be way too high.”

  “I’m all for giving people the absolute lowest impression possible,” Ruby shrugs. “I’d even be up to falling on purpose multiple times throughout the day so I can blow everyone’s minds on Saturday.”

  “Yeah,” Natasha thinks for a second. “I tend to agree that seems like the best way to go. Minus the falling. We can train the bigger skills
in the practice gym in the afternoon, and then just do basics for the media. A few skills but no full routines.”

  “You really want to risk not getting in enough full routines on the podium just to keep the press at bay?” Emerson sounds like she’s ready to battle this one.

  “We still have the afternoon practice, and then Friday morning. It’s not like you’re not getting enough training time.”

  “Well, I’m doing full routines. People’s expectations of me are already high.”

  Ruby snorts. “Em, we get it, you do what you want when you want. There’s no need for a humblebrag. Chill.”

  “So it’s settled then,” Emerson retorts. “You two can look like you don’t know what you’re doing and I’ll look prepared. Good strategy.”

  I’m actually on Team Emerson here, but don’t say it out loud. It’s not missing the extra full routine practice that bugs me, but the chance to get my name out there. If the press at media day can see me doing big skills, I’ll get attention going into the meet…pressure, sure, but I can handle pressure.

  Without some pre-meet attention, I’ll be the one on the broadcast they’ll refer to as MGMA’s third wheel, sitting in Ruby and Emerson’s shadows. They’ll air a clip of me stumbling on floor or something, and they’ll be like, “we don’t know much about Amalia Blanchard, but we do know she isn’t ready for this level of competition.”

  “Oh, and don’t forget, one-on-one interviews happen right after training,” Natasha remembers to add. “You’ll have a few minutes to cool down after training, but not enough time to change. Just put your warm-ups on so you look more professional, less sweaty and gross.”

  We pull in front of the hotel and decide to grab dinner at the restaurant on the ground floor. After we eat, we go our separate ways, leaving Ruby and I alone for the first time all day. I want to ask her about Sergei but I don’t want her to think I’m prying or being a dick.

  “You want first shower?” she asks, rifling through her gym bag. “Crap, I think I left my pre-wrap at the arena.”

  “Yeah, thanks.” Under the hot water I think about what I’d say if I bring it up, and I almost work myself up into actually doing it, but when I head back into the bedroom Ruby’s already passed out. It’ll have to wait.

  Thursday, May 12, 2016

  85 days left

  “What is it like training with two of the best gymnasts in the world?”

  I bite the inside of my cheek. This is the fifth reporter to ask this question in the past ten minutes. They also ask how I thought my training went today, and then they leave to talk to someone more interesting. Fun.

  They all want sound bites like, “Ruby and Emerson are such an inspiration and make me want to be a better gymnast,” which is exactly what I say. I’m incredibly bored and would rather be doing ten pressure sets on beam in front of Vera.

  Emerson and Ruby both have at least five reporters crowded around them. We’re in something called the mixed zone, each of us in a chair with our names on placards over our heads. It’s basically a three-ring circus of journalists shoving iPhones in our faces so we can talk into their voice recorder apps, though there’s also the occasional old-school reporter armed with nothing but a notebook and pen.

  I’ve had more one-on-one stuff, usually reporters who want to talk to my teammates but can’t get close enough, so they hang with me until they can sneak on in. In between interviews, I play Trivia Crack.

  Finally, a younger woman with a digital camera walks up. “Is it okay if I film you?” she asks.

  “Uh, sure.”

  She smiles. “Great. I’m Anna Young.” She fiddles with the buttons, a red light flashes, and she points the camera at me. “I’m with the Seattle Times and we’re going to be following you and your teammates this summer, putting together a little video documentary as part of our online coverage. How was your trip out here?”

  “Great. You?”

  “Not bad, thanks. So you’re coming out here a relative unknown but really have a chance at winning the all-around tomorrow. Can you tell me where you are mentally?”

  “Um…honestly fine. I don’t think it’s really hit me yet. We’ll see how it feels when I walk out on the competition floor Saturday night and see the people, the judges…but right now I feel like it’s just practice.”

  “That’s good. Do you consider anyone here your competition for the title?”

  “I mean, I’m really not even thinking about the all-around title…I’m more concerned about just getting a good enough all-around score to qualify to nationals. Obviously I want to win, but beam is my thing and my biggest goal is to win that title. There are so many top girls here doing the all-around, I think there are like ten who could win it if everyone hits. Maddy Zhang and Irina Borovskaya could definitely do it…and then probably Zara Morgan? She looked really good at training camp. Oh, and Bailey Dawson and Charlotte Kessler, and probably the Logan twins too.”

  “You said your goal is to win beam. Who is your competition there?”

  “Oh man, so many…Irina, definitely. She’s probably number one. Maddy and Irina again, Sophia Harper, maybe Olivia Nguyen, and then Ruby…I’d also say Emerson but she’s not competing beam this weekend, lucky for me!”

  “How badly do you want a spot on this year’s Olympic team?”

  “Are you kidding? It’s something I’ve dreamed about since I was four. Pipe dream, I mean…I didn’t think it was even a possibility until a year ago, and even then it was still really far-fetched. Now that it’s something I can actually achieve? I don’t think there’s anything I could ever possibly want this badly.”

  “Be honest, no sugar-coating. Do you think you can do it?”

  “Honestly? The odds of it happening are definitely low, and I am a pretty realistic person. I know my place on the team, I know what I’m good at, and I know that it might not be something the team needs. I think if I show that I’m the most consistent person on beam in this country and can also hit good scores on my other events, it can happen. But there are other girls who have good beam routines and they’re stronger than me on other events. I have as much of a chance as any of them, so it’ll come down to how we all do and then obviously what Vera needs the most.”

  “Is there anyone you think is a lock for the team?”

  “My own teammates, Ruby and Emerson. They’re the best all-arounders in the country. That aside, it’s anyone’s game.”

  “Aside from your teammates, you said Maddy, Irina, and Sophia are your biggest competition for beam, right? You seem like you have a great analytical mind. Can you compare your shot with theirs?”

  “Well…they all went to worlds and have major international experience. That’s a big edge over me. Sophia only trains two events, so that could be bad for her. Vera always says she likes when girls can do the all-around because even if they never go up on like, floor or whatever, they can still be backup in case someone gets hurt. Irina…she does the all-around and she won gold on bars at Worlds last year, so like, why wouldn’t you take her? She’s probably the one who worries me the most. At camp I beat her in the all-around by two tenths, but she looks incredible on bars and I don’t have a second event that’s as good as her bars. Like, my vault gets a high score because I do the Amanar, but like, vault is basically everyone’s best event so it’s not like they really need it. Maddy’s similar…she won vault last year, beat me in the all-around at camp…it’s hard to ignore her.”

  “Great. That’s all excellent. Thanks so much, Amalia, and best of luck this weekend.”

  “Thanks!”

  I breathe a sigh of relief. That was way easier than I thought. I probably look ridiculous on camera…I never know where to look. But I think – hope – I sounded smart.

  Natasha gives me a thumbs up from the other side of the press zone. A few people have interviewed her, too, but more casually.