It's Too Bad I Hate You

Short track speed skating is said to be the Winter Olympic's most unpredictable sport. This is true. But most people only see what happens on the ice. There's alot more behind it. One word. Drama.

I had heard about them so much. One could represent the Greek God of the sun, and the other...just some Filipino kid who has never been to the Philippines. Nonetheless, they were both, in my book at least, really cool people. Though I thought they were cool, I sort of hated them. I mean how can someone be under such intense pressure and still have such a happy smile on their face. My answer was: a huge ego. No matter how much I looked up to these two, it was also a fact that I hated them. So, if i were to meet them at these upcoming Olympics I would make that known.

The Truth is, I'm just an average soon-to-be Olympic short track speed skater. Well, I'm not sure if you can put the words 'average' and 'Olympics' in the same sentence, but from my point of view they go together perfectly.

Then the day of September 12Th came rolling in. Olympic trials were coming to an end. Of course I watched my two 'favorite' skaters. One moment shocked me. I was sitting in the bleachers.

"Damn it! Celski!" I yelled. the rest of the crowd was yelling as well. Paramedics rushed to the blood covered ice.

I swear, if he wouldn't have recovered in time and made it to the Olympics, I would hate him even more than I do now. The conclusion would have been that he let all the fame get to him head and made his ego even bigger.

But of course, the more experienced of the two came out of the trials without a scratch...I said without a scratch. However, his journey didn't come without a few falls. And mine was sorta the same. You see most people say that short track is the most unpredictable sport in the Winter Olympics, and that's almost a fact. Yes, almost, the only predictable part is who's going to place.

I'll give you an example:

OK, you have four speed skaters: Apolo Ohno, Jordan Malone, J.R Celski, and Simon Cho.

Now who do you think are the three that are going to place? If you said Ohno, Malone, and Cho then you're correct. Believe me, I'm not saying that Celski isn't a talented boy, but compared to the other three, he's a puppy in a kennel full of mature male dogs....yeah not a good analogy....but you get the point, right?

January 12Th, 2010:

So now it was exactly a month until the Olympics in Vancouver, and we were going to be under intense training. I was on my way to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Great, this was the first time I was going to meet the ego heads!

I was hanging out with my friends Allison Baver and Katherine Reutter near the rink. We were there early and waiting for the others to show up. The others included the ego heads.

"So what are you guys doing after practice?" I asked not really caring. Allison smiled. "You know it's my younger brother's birthday. We were planning on going out to eat. You guys can come if you want. I'm inviting the whole team."

"That sounds cool. I'm defiantly going." Katherine laughed. She looked towards me. "What about you Grace?" I sighed. "Your brother...Brian?"

Allison gave me a sympathetic look. "Please Grace, he's really sorry about what happened before. And he still has feelings for you. It would make his day if you showed up." I sighed yet again. "OK, fine I'll come."

Allison smiled widely. "Thank you so much! We'll be at the Olive Garden down the street." She hugged me and then went to talk to everyone else, probably to invite them.

Katherine gave me a strange look. "What happened with you and Brian?" I shook my head. "I don't really wanna talk about it."

Losing my innocence over beer wasn't the best thing. But I guess that was something I had to live with for the rest of my life. Katherine nudged me and signaled me to look to the right. Oh hell no! The ego heads had arrived. I turned around and started to put my skates on.

Before I stepped into the ice I turned towards Katherine. "Turn on the stadium to my station and turn up the volume." She nodded. I was glad she understood what I meant, we've been friends for so long.

I stood on the ice without a motion. My eyes were closed and I didn't say a word. Then I started to hear the music. "Haven't Met You Yet" By Michael Buble. Then I smiled and started to skate. Faster. Faster. Until finally I was down in the signature speed skating position. At this point I was going anywhere from 35 to 40 miles per hour.

I was totally immersed in the skating. As many would say I was in the zone. But what I didn't notice is that I had an audience.