Page 69 of The Favorites
Francesca Gaskell:That year was my first time competing at senior Nationals. I didn’t expect to medal, I was just excited to share the ice with all those skaters I admired. Like Kat.
Katarina doesn’t slow down. Frannie and Evan have to flatten themselves against the wall to avoid a collision. Garrett looks back at them with an apologetic wince. Katarina keeps going.
Ellis Dean:Kat had always been intense, but this was a whole new level. She was a shark moving across the ice. (He jokingly hums theJawstheme.) Get in her way, and you were chum.
Jane Currer:Olympic team slots are allocated based on each nation’s performance at the previous Worlds. Although Ms. Shaw and Mr. Lin won the world title, since no other American team ranked highly, the United States could only send two ice dance teams to the Games that year.
Ellis Dean:No official decisions about the Olympic team are made until after the National Championships. But we all knew, barring some bizarro act of God, one of those Olympic spots was going to Shaw and Lin, and the other to Lin and Rocha.
Kirk Lockwood:The first two events were held on the same day. Shaw and Lin won the compulsory, and it looked like they would increase their lead in the original. Until the final moments of their program.
Katarina and Garrett skate their original dance—a fast-paced Latin combination program to the music of Shakira—at 2006 Nationals. Partway through an intricate step sequence to the song “Ojos Así,” Katarina mixes up a few steps, getting out of sync with Garrett.
Garrett Lin:Ideally, before a major competition, you want to taper off your training, so you have enough left in the tank to skate your absolute best on the day.
Ellis Dean:Kat kept pushing. It was bound to bite her in the ass eventually.
Bella Lin and Heath Rocha skate their Latin combination original dance at Nationals: a slower, more sensual number to a trip hop–inflected version of “Bésame Mucho.”
Garrett Lin:We did well. But Bella and Heath, they did better.
Kirk Lockwood:Lin and Rocha pulled ahead by a point.
Katarina and Garrett do a rink-side interview immediately following the original dance. They’re both in their Latin dance costumes, faces shining with sweat.
“I’m happy for my sister,” Garrett says. “And for Heath. They’ve been working hard, and they were fantastic out there today.”
“Is it difficult, facing off against your former skating partners? Especially considering th—”
Garrett cuts the reporter off with a good-natured grin. “Oh, Bella and I have been competing since the womb. Our mother wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Laughter from the crowd. Garrett slips his arm around Katarina. She keeps staring straight ahead, posture stiff and face expressionless.
The reporter turns to her, sticking the microphone in her face. “So Kat, tell me: what’s your plan going into the free dance tomorrow?”
Katarina gives him a blank look. “My ‘plan’?”
Garrett shifts nervously, tightening his hold on her shoulders.
“My plan,” she says, “is to win.”
Chapter 38
The worst thing about figure skating competitions isn’t the pressure.
It’s how much time you have to sit around and wait.
The 2006 U.S. National Championships was worse than most in that regard. After busting our asses doing back-to-back programs on our first day of competition, we had two full days off before the ice dance final. Some skaters attended other events. Some took advantage of the unseasonable warmth in St. Louis and went sightseeing, riding to the top of the Gateway Arch or touring the Anheuser-Busch stables. In the evening, anyone old enough to drink (and even a few who weren’t) descended on the bar at the official headquarters hotel to gossip the night away.
Not me. Sheila had booked us accommodations at the Chase Park Plaza, a luxury hotel a few miles from the whirlwind of the competition venue, and aside from scheduled practice sessions, I didn’t leave my room.
I stretched to keep my muscles limber. I ordered room service meals full of balanced proteins. And most of all, I visualized: not only the details of our free dance program, but everything that would come after our victory. I lay starfished on the king-sized bed with my eyes closed and repeated it over and over, a movie in my mind.
By the time I arrived at the Savvis Center for the free dance, my fantasies felt so real, it was if they’d already transpired. In the dressingroom, the other girls steered clear, like I had a force field surrounding my body. Nothing could rattle me.
Not even Heath and Bella. When I emerged in full costume and makeup, they were still in their warm-up clothes, getting a pep talk from Sheila.
I didn’t need a pep talk. I didn’t need anything, except to get out there and win. The technical base value of our free dance was higher than theirs; when we performed it perfectly, the way I’d been picturing for days, we would triumph.
