The Favorites: A Novel(81)
At that last question, Katarina flinches, but she doesn’t break her stride.
Garrett Lin: Lee’s death was a tragedy, but it wasn’t her fault.
Ellis Dean: It wasn’t anyone’s fault. He was an addict. He overdosed.
Inez Acton: By all accounts, Kat’s brother was an abusive piece of shit. Why did people expect her to be grief-stricken by his death?
Francesca Gaskell: She did seem to move on awfully fast. But I guess we all grieve in our own ways, right? Besides, with the Olympics coming up, there was no time to waste.
Aerial stock footage of a snow-covered alpine mountain range.
Jane Currer: In the summer of 2009, Katarina and Heath relocated to Germany, to train with Lena Müller, a former ladies champion who’d coached several Olympians during the 1990s.
Photographs of Müller, first from her competition days, then covering her coaching career. She’s a stern woman with a strong jaw and a shock of white hair.
Kirk Lockwood: I knew they were serious when they started working with Lena. She wasn’t an ice dance specialist, but they didn’t need help with their dance skills. They needed someone who was going to kick their asses every day and refuse to put up with any bullshit. That was Frau Müller. People didn’t call her “The Valkyrie of Old Bavaria” for nothing!
Garrett Lin: Müller’s training center seemed like a good fit for them. Quiet, remote, no distractions. We didn’t see Kat and Heath again until the Grand Prix Final, but the difference in their skating was clear. They seemed more focused. Not that they totally avoided controversy…
Practice footage of Katarina and Heath working on their free dance: they’re both in striking red and black costumes, and Katarina wears a choker with beads that look like blood dripping from her throat. Their music is from the score of the 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Kirk Lockwood: The vampire program? It was memorable, I’ll give ’em that.
Jane Currer: For an exhibition, fine. But for the Olympic season?
Ellis Dean: I loved it, personally. What are the Olympic Games if not a giant theatrical production where the whole world pretends to get along for two weeks?
Garrett Lin: The fans loved it—and the technical level was so high, even if the more old-school judges docked a few presentation points, Kat and Heath were still tough to beat.
At a ceremony following the 2010 U.S. National Championships in Spokane, Washington, Shaw/Rocha and Lin/Lin are named to the Olympic team. The bronze medalists, Frannie Gaskell and Evan Kovalenko, are relegated to the alternate spot again, in favor of more experienced skaters Tanya Fischer and Danny Chan, who finished in fourth place.
Francesca Gaskell: I’m not gonna lie: we were disappointed. But those other teams—it was supposed to be their last-ever chance to go to the Games, you know?
Kirk Lockwood: It had been years since the U.S. had legitimate ice dance medal hopes at the Olympics. Now we had two teams in serious contention. We had to capitalize on that.
A television spot for the 2010 Winter Olympics: “Shaw and Rocha. Lin and Lin. Two teams, but only one gold medal. Don’t miss the ultimate showdown of America’s ice dance superstars!”
Garrett Lin: They made it look like we were about to go head-to-head in a boxing match.
Ellis Dean: Oh, the rivalry was delicious. I even made T-shirts: Team Katarina or Team Bella. The Bella ones sold the most, but I think some Twilight fans might’ve skewed the results.
Garrett Lin: It made me uncomfortable. We had enough pressure from the Russians.
Flashing back to the medal ceremony at 2009 Worlds in Los Angeles, where Shaw and Rocha get the gold; Volkova and Kipriyanov, the silver; and Canadians Pelletier and McClory, the bronze.
Veronika Volkova: Yelena came down with a terrible flu before that free dance.
Close-up of Yelena on the Worlds podium with glazed eyes and a sweat-sheened forehead.
Veronika Volkova: She skated with a 101 degree fever, and still she and Dmitri only lost the gold by two points. Had she been healthy, they would have defeated the Americans.
Kirk Lockwood: Pelletier and McClory were looking strong too. They’d just come off their fifth Canadian title, and with the Games in Vancouver, they had a hometown advantage. But there was zero doubt in my mind: Shaw and Rocha were the gold medal favorites.
Veronika Volkova: Perhaps it was better for everyone to assume Shaw and Rocha would take the gold. After all, when you are on top, you have nowhere to go but down.
Chapter 56
All my life, the Olympic Games had been my dream—but those first few days in Vancouver, I felt like I was sleepwalking. We marched in the opening ceremony, sweating through our Ralph Lauren reindeer sweaters and ski pants, waving at the crowd until our arms were sore. We marveled at the simulated snowfall, the looming lit-up bear puppet, the flurry of fake maple leaves, the fireworks. We posed in front of the Olympic flag, the Olympic rings, the chain-link fence surrounding the frosted-glass Olympic cauldron, smiling in our matching Team USA clothing, Heath’s arm tight around my waist.
I wanted to savor every moment. Instead, I stood outside myself, evaluating. Did I look happy? Did I look confident? Did I look like an Olympian? Did Heath and I look madly in love even though we hadn’t slept together in months?
Our room in the Olympic Village had a pair of twin beds, but even on the king-sized mattress in the cozy private chalet we’d been renting in Germany, most nights we rolled to the outer edges like repelling magnets.