“I only bring it up because I’m jealous. I want a Wheaties box. This is my second Olympics. Everyone’s all Jake Mirakovitch, he’s the one to beat this year, but I’m terrified. I’ve been nailing every one of my routines in practice, but I did four years ago too, and we all know how that went.” He shook his head.
“I don’t know how that went,” Isaac said.
Jake grimaced. “Probably best not to relive it. Let’s just say, the team was a mess. First place going into the team final, and then we all choked. Me especially. I fell off the pommel horse. Whiffed one of my release moves on the high bar. Tenths of deductions here and there add up if you make enough mistakes. We were the gold-medal favorites, but we came in sixth. Sixth!”
“I’m sorry.” Isaac knew well what the weight of all that pressure felt like.
“Qualifiers tomorrow, and I want to make at least two event finals and qualify for the all-around. Because the women’s team has been raking in medals for years, but the men’s team is a joke.”
Isaac laughed softly. “Aren’t you supposed to be all ‘We’re the best! We’re gonna win gold!’”
“Publicly, sure. But you get it, right?”
“I do. Nothing you can do, man, but your best.”
“Yeah. How do you prepare for a race?”
“What do you mean?” Isaac glanced at the TV. Dancers with colorful flags pranced around the arena. He looked back at Jake, who was clearly not asking about Isaac’s workout regimen.
“I mean, how do you keep from choking when the spotlight is shining on you?”
Isaac wasn’t really in the mood for a philosophical discussion. He pulled his blanket tighter around him. “It helps when everyone has low expectations.”
Jake scoffed. “When has anyone had low expectations of you?”
Now, Isaac wanted to say, but he shrugged and said, “Fair. But swimming isn’t a team sport. I’m only letting myself down.”
“But what about swim relays? That’s a team thing.”
“I don’t know. I mean, it’s different. There’s some strategy, but at the end of the day, it’s about who swam the fastest. If I’m doing a relay, I push as hard as I can for my team. What else can I do?”
Jake nodded. “Sure. Gymnastics is an individual sport too, but we have this team vibe. We got through the last couple of years of competition and injuries and Olympic Trials together, like we’re brothers-in-arms, you know? I don’t want to let them down. I guess it adds to the pressure.”
Isaac let out a breath. “I don’t know what to tell you. It’s the Olympics. This is the pinnacle, right? I mean, there are world cups, national championships, all that, but the Olympics is the thing everyone watches. Instead of letting that pressure get to you, you need to focus on yourself. It’s not about proving yourself or whatever. It’s about pushing your body to the limit of what it can do. Right? If I’m in a final, I push as hard as I can. I move my arms faster, harder. I put my all into it until it feels like my body is on fire and I have to throw up. I race until I can’t breathe anymore. Because it’s not about being safe and comfortable—it’s about doing the absolute best that you can.”
And that really summed up the whole philosophy of why Isaac came here. It was how he’d won all the races he had in his career. Because when the time came to race, all of the other bullshit fell away. He didn’t think about the pressure, about where he’d get his next drink, or even much about gold medals. His singular focus was on swimming as fast as he fucking could.
Jake nodded. He seemed thoughtful now. “Okay.”
So Isaac pushed on. “I don’t know a lot about gymnastics, but the whole evolution of the sport is figuring out what the human body can do, right? Each Olympics, the sport advances. Sixty years ago, maybe you could win a gold medal by doing a cartwheel over the vault horse. Now you gotta flip in the air three times, right? You want to win, of course you do, but the thing to focus on is your training, your practice, doing the best you can within your ability. If you’re nailing those routines in practice, they’re yours. You know you can do them. So you don’t blink, you don’t falter, you push the nerves aside. It’s a big stage,