Way to the Glory [Max Verstappen]

Chapter 29 - Under Pressure

Flashback (2 years ago [age 21] 24.02.2020)

The first week at university flew by and here I am having an online meeting, to talk about my training routine. The Olympic summer games are going to take part in august this year, which means I will spend about four to six days a week in a climbing gym. The problem here, my trainer is still in Monaco and cannot travel to the US in the next two months. 

So I was looking for a second trainer here, so that I have someone to climb with and who can also give me feedback or suggestions for improvement. So after doing some researches and meetings with Thomas my trainer back in Monaco, we found someone, with many qualifications. His name is Alexander Evans and he also worked together with Natalia Grossman, a member of the USA national climbing team and a good friend of me. 

She wanted to continue working with him, but the whole national team got a new trainer and so she recommended him, when I asked her. Also he is just three years older than me, which is really cool, because working with people around your age is often much more fun than with someone who has a large age gap to you. 

Also Natalia told me, that he is really kind, but she also learned a lot and made a huge progress in improving her own climbing technique. 

Today is the day I train with him for the first time. No words can describe how excited I am, from everything I have heard we should get along well. Which I hope we do, after all, if all goes well, I will be training with him for the Olympics.

[Moritz Hau as Alexander Brian Evans] 

After my big fall on that trad route, with several serve injuries, it was hard to come back into this sport. At first, it felt like I made absolutely no progress and also everyone who cared about me, was even more scared of me to get hurt again, than they were before. 

It took some time, but now I am back, with the will to fight even harder. When I entered the climbing gym, which is not far away from my university, I was already excited for all the hours I am about to spend here. The people seemed lovely and also the routes are looking nice.

"So you are the famous Angelica? It is so nice to meet you and a pleasure we two can train together, I am Alexander, but you can call me Xander, most of my friends do that." the voice behind me making me twirl around, so I could face the speaking person. "Yes I'm, you can call me Angi and it is so cool to meet you, I heard so many good things about you." "Ah that's great, then let's hope we will have some good and strenuous sessions together won't we." he told me with a soft smile and I nodded as an answer

Since it was the first time, it was a lot of talking to, so Xander could find out my strengths and expandable weaknesses. About four hours later, I was completely tired and my arms were pumped. But it was amazing to work with him, we are really getting along well and have so much fun together. It is astonishing how fun it was, although it is only our first lesson together.