Page 70 of The Favorites
Finally, it was time for the last group, the top five couples in the competition. Gaskell and Kovalenko. Hayworth and Dean. Fischer and Chan, a solid but unremarkable pair who trained near Detroit. Garrett and me. Heath and Bella.
So what if they got to skate in the coveted final spot? That just meant all eyes would be on them when they got their scores in the kiss and cry and realized they’d lost.
The clock started for the group warm-up, and I took off so fast, Garrett had to scurry to catch up.
“You good?” he asked once he got ahold of my hand.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
I didn’t even look at him. We had our warm-up routine down to a science: stroking two full laps of the rink side by side, forward and backward progressives switching between several different dance holds, then running through a few of our trickier program elements to make sure we were completely in sync.
“You seem…” Garrett leaned down. “Distracted.”
Distracted?Ridiculous. I’d never been more focused in my life. Distracted was what I’d been before, when I was still letting Heath’s machinations get to me, but I was finished with that. I had wanted to go to the Olympics since before I even knew Heath Rochaexisted.
Out of the corner of my eye, a swirl of emerald silk—Bella and Heath whizzing past, close enough for the flare of her skirt to brush my leg.
Garrett tugged me closer, keeping me clear of their path. My temper flared. They should be the ones getting out ofourway.
Two minutes left in the warm-up. We ran through our midline stepsequence and moved on to the twizzles. I cued up my mental movie again, zipping through it on fast-forward.
First, every step of our free dance, flawless, even better than we’d done it in San Diego.
Garrett and I standing on top of the podium, the national anthem heralding our fourth consecutive U.S. title. Heath and Bella an inconsequential blur on the silver medal step.
Then the Olympic team announcement. The flight to Italy. Our arrival in Torino. Walking in the opening ceremony in our Team USA uniforms. Everything up to the moment when we had those golds around our necks. Shaw and Lin, the first Americans to win Olympic medals in ice dance since Lin and Lockwood in 1988.
As I entered the final turn of the twizzle sequence, I was smiling. I was so close. Soon it would all be mine. The gold, the fame, the security. Everything I’d longed for since I was four years old, and more.
I reached for Garrett. He reached back. Behind him, a flash of green and black.
And then blinding white, rushing toward me.
Garrett Lin:Of course it was an accident.
Ellis Dean:That bitch did it on purpose.
Katarina Shaw and Bella Lin collide during the warm-up at the 2006 U.S. Nationals free dance. Katarina attempts to brace with her hands but reacts too slowly. Her head smacks into the ice.
Jane Currer:Ms. Shaw should have paid more attention to where she was going. Sometimes she seemed to forget she wasn’t the only skater on the rink.
Garrett crouches down to check on his partner. Katarina gets back up on her own. Her balance wavers, and Garrett catches her by the arm to steady her. There’s no audio, but Bella skates closer, seeming to ask if Katarina is all right. Heath stands slightly apart from the others, watching the whole interaction. His face is difficult to read.
Veronika Volkova:I would not care to speculate. I have never paid much attention to what happens at the Americans’ little championship.
Katarina brushes past Bella with a blatant shoulder check on the way to the boards. Garrett follows Katarina off the ice. Heath stares after them, until Bella grabs his hand.
Ellis Dean:I’m telling you. Watch the video.
A slow-motion replay of the collision shows the moment Bella and Heath skate toward Katarina and Garrett. It looks as if the two couples have enough room to maneuver past, but at the last second, Bella and Katarina crash into each other.
Ellis Dean:The way Bella glances over her shoulder, then shifts her heel? It’ssoobvious.
The slo-mo replay again, this time zoomed in on Bella’s face. At the moment of impact, she’s looking right at Katarina with a resolute expression.
Garrett Lin:She and Heath had the lead. And she could have been injured too, you know.
Medical staff intercepts Katarina to examine her, though she tries to wave them off. The camera follows until a medic leads her into a private room and shuts the door behind them.
