Meet A Random Cassadagan Olympian,
by Hannah Marshall, Concord Heights Times
I decided that to get a feel for what it is like to be an Olympian, I would walk into the Cassadagan section of the Olympic Village, and pick out the first olympian I saw that was not otherwise busy and get to know them. There would be no research to try and get one of our most successful athletes, or get one that one of the most “tear-jerking” stories of how they got to this point. I saw a young lady dressed in blue jeans and a “Pink Love” shirt wearing a Brattleboro Technical Institute baseball cap over long blonde hair, standing by herself as if waiting for someone, and scrolling through her phone. I had found the subject for my story just as long as she was willing to do it.
I went up to her, not to bombard her if she was busy, and introduced myself. She looked at me, knew who I was, and then realized that the man I was with would have a camera in the bag that he was carrying. She grinned, happy to be noticed, and agreed to be interviewed. I asked her to identify herself and the sport or sports that she is competing in, so that everyone would know who she is.
“Kelsey Hickey, trampoline.” She said with a smile. Another one of our gymnasts, so right then and there I had a possible direction I could go with if the interview fell flat and ask her about what she thought about Stacie Morrow and Cara Clements. In fairness, she participates in a different event within the gymnastic genre, so she might not have much of an opinion on them. So, I would look to avoid that topic, and I asked her to tell us about herself. You know, all that basic good stuff to get a feel for who we are talking too.
“I am nineteen years old and a sophomore at Brat Tech. (Brattleboro Technical Institute). I was actually born in Grande Mountain, and went to school there before college. However, Brat Tech was my dream school and somewhere I always wanted to go. I was very happy to be accepted there, and get in on a gymnastics scholarship, but obviously gymnastics is not one of those sports you can make a living on, so I major in Engineering, specifically with a medical focus.”
She had a glow in her eyes as she said that. Right then and there, I knew that I was not talking to someone who planned on making sports their life, and knew that they had to do more. That is an interesting discussion point, isn’t it? So often we hear about athletes getting college scholarships, but they are the ones in the major sports who are looking to compete professionally. For Kelsey, who is good enough at what she does to be representing Cassadaigua in the Olympics, she is well aware that she needs to hit the books in order to be successful. So I had to ask her about the balance between her studies and competing in Republica for the Olympics.
“That’s not really much of an issue, Hannah. It really just kept me from taking summer classes if I wanted too, but I didn’t want to do that anyway. It’s summer break right now, so there is no conflict. The tougher time was in the qualification events over the spring which took place during final exam time, or during mid term time. Some professors understand more then others. Some know that I am shooting for the Olympics and had a good shot at it, so I would get project extensions. Others would not allow for any exceptions.”
As I was conducting my interview, a voice came in over my earpiece to tell me that Kelsey actually has a very strong chance to win a gold medal in her event. Generally, I like it when the voices over the earpiece leave me alone and let me do my think, but this was a time where that on the spot information came in very handy. Kelsey doesn’t actually participate until day 17, so I asked her if that adds to the pressure, or makes the pressure less so.
“I am not sure, really. I mean right now, I know that I am still a long way away from competing, so I don’t feel any pressure at the moment. It allows me to enjoy the atmosphere, hang out, and just do what I like to do. I can meet a lot of the other athletes from Cassadaigua, and other countries. You can’t party so much that you get out of shape to compete, though. Right now, it’s mainly just having fun, keeping in touch with family and friends, and killing time.”
I asked her what she likes to do to kill time.
“Well, I go to Brat Tech, so I have that inner nerd,” (she laughs) “Don’t tell Stacie and Cara, but I like to play games on the internet, especially this game where you create a fake country and try to run it. Pretty cool, you have events and all that stuff and roleplay what you want to do. I am the one who has to stick a bomber in everything. You know because really, how could there ever be a story involving countries getting together without having a bomber involved.”
Yeah well, that is probably true. There is some stuff going on right now concerning other nations in that regard, but we’re here for sports.
Kelsey grinned, “Yeah, but there has to be a bomber in everything, in some capacity. How can we just talk about things and not involve massive explosions and loss of life. Otherwise, everything is just all rosy talking about peace time stuff. I feel like one of those video game nuts now in the first person shooter games. But it is reality, just look at what is going on now. If you’re not interested in that topic line, you can just ignore it, that’s why it is fun. Something for everyone.”
Looking to change the topic from the need to invoke tragedy in what should be peaceful fictitious events to the real life Olympics going on right now, I asked Kelsey about what she felt her chances of winning a medal are, and how much it would mean to her.
“I feel I have a good chance, but so do a lot of other people. I do think there can be a focus on other events within the gymnastics umbrella, but there is plenty of competition for me to overcome in my event. Winning a medal is important to me. It’s not life or death, but to be able to have the medal for the rest of my life, would be a dream come true. I’d love for it to be gold. We’re doing good winning silvers right now, and I am happy to see that. I think we have, like, the fourth most medals, out of everyone, but are not the high on the official medal board, because it’s a lot of silver.”
Just then, the person that Kelsey was waiting for in the lobby showed up. It was a young man, about her age, and he did not appear to be Cassadagan. Such is the glory and fun of the Olympic games, especially when you got a long time to wait before you actually compete.
