Figure Skating Pairs Free Skate
Schimpol Indoor Centre, Liventia
Even as they finished their last Ina Bauer, Lois managed to whisper to her partner Deukalion, "This is good!"
They skated their conclusion, a death spiral into a final choreographed set, then stood as the crowd roared and applauded. Deukalion waited until they took their bows to reply to Lois. "It was fluid, very fluid. Let's hope the judges agree." Smiling at each other and waving to the crowd, they made their way off the ice.
At the edge of the rink, Coach Ari surprised them both by pulling them into a bear hug. "Beautiful, absolutely beautiful! You guys made the triple Axel throw look easy! It was... it was so good, it was like you were just playing around!
"Don't read too much into this guys, but--!" He kissed each of them on both cheeks.
Deukalion stood blinking, unable to think of a reply; Lois gave Ari a hug in return. "I remember you once said you'd give any of us a kiss for perfection. So we're doubly perfect!" She giggled and grinned.
"You are! You guys heard the crowd at the end of your routine. You wowed them, and I think the judges will agree. Technical niggles here and there, but oh! So beautiful!" Deukalion gave up looking for words, and stood there smiling, soaking in Ari's praise.
The three of them found their seats, and barely had their teammates started to congratulate them when their score went up. "155.24! Oh. My. God!" Lois just managed to get the words out before being overwhelmed by tears of joy. Theano, sitting behind her and off to her right, leaned forward to give her a hug. Ari grinned and beamed: "This is all a coach can ask for: a hair's-breadth of perfection!" Hippon congratulated Deukalion, patting his shoulder and shaking his hand. "Great performance!"
The team watched as the other scores came in: some of the other pairs were good, but only one or two as good, and none of them had done as well in the short program. Ari got out his laptop. "Only seven pairs were ahead of us, and one just missed staying ahead of us."
As the number of pairs in contention shrunk, Lois and Deukalion alternated white-knuckling their seats with thumbs-up and cheering, though they both winced when Keidar stumbled during their teammates' routine, knocking them out of contention.
Deukalion couldn't help cheering when the Vilitan pair bumped into each other during a tight step sequence; both kept their feet, but the judges wouldn't like that. He was quickly silenced, but he was right: the leading team was out of medal territory.
A few routines later, Ari leaned forward to whisper, "That's it! You've got a medal, it's just a question of what kind!" Quietly, Deukalion exclaimed, "Yessss!"; Lois squeezed his arm, warming to the realization of her second figure skating medal.
Minutes later, Deukalion beat Ari to the punch. "Silver! We've got silver!" He turned to his partner. grinning like a madman. "I guess we're going to have settle for second best in the world!"
"Until the next Games!" Lois' smile could have lit up the whole stadium.
Nina Mandarić + all athletes + stuff members
