Capturing The Ice Queen's Heart

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Black Swan 

Garnering the total segment score of 80.34 for the short program, I secured the 4th spot and would advance to the free skate. And I just made history by being the first female skater from the Philippines and in Southeast Asia who was one step closer to attaining the Olympic medal.

Furthermore, Paula Briny strengthened her opportunity to bag the gold medal as the top skater of the segment. Nikola ranked second and Michio came next.

Nagsisialisan na ang spectators at nasa rink na ang Zamboni nang ipatawag ang final 24 skaters sa isang private room. The purpose of this meeting was for us to take part in the final draw of the free skate. Unlike the first draw, this one was more confusing because we would be divided into four groups of six. The order of skating would be based on our placements in the short program, with the first Top 12 skaters being selected in the final two groups and would be drawn into four subgroups.

To make it simple, the 10th, 11th, and 12th-place finishers will draw for the first three start positions in the second-to-last group. The 7th, 8th, and 9th-place finishers will then draw for the last three start positions in the second-to-last group.

These are the skating orders according to the draw:

China (11th place)
South Korea (12th place)
USA (10th place)

United Kingdom (7th place)
Russia (9th place)
Australia (8th place)

Pagkatapos nilang anim, ang huling grupo na magpe-perform sa free skate ay binubuo naman ng Top 6 skaters based on the short program.

Isla Kristen Lorenzo, Philippines (4th place)
Esther Fournier, Canada (6th place)
Michelle LeBlanc, USA (5th place)

Michio Yamaguchi, Japan (3rd place)
Paula Briny, USA (1st place)
Nikola Kozlov, Russia (2nd place)

The remaining 12 skaters are divided equally into the first two groups of six based on their scores in the short program. From 13th through 18th-place finishers para sa six starting positions in the second group, and the 19th through 24th-place finishers will draw for the six starting positions in the first group.

I could see the disappointment of my peers; they looked frustrated and hopeless. After all, the skaters from the two final groups had a lot of chances to stand on the podiums and claim their victories in this tournament. Pero hindi dapat mawalan ng pag-asa lalo na at pwede namang bumawi at maraming pwedeng mangyari.

And the six skaters who didn't make it aren't allowed to go home until the closing ceremony. We felt bad, but showing them sympathy even though they already knew it would only hurt them more. We just tried to understand them and gave them the best care they needed as their seniors.

When we arrived at the Village, my coaches advised me not to use my phone if it wasn't really important. They wanted me to focus only on my routine. Dalawang tulog na lang kasi at magkaka-alaman na kung sino ang tatlong mag-uuwi ng mga medalya.

Gathering around the small table where Coach Ara put her phone, we watched the replay of the SP. We carefully assessed and studied the performances of my opponents.

"Let's focus on the Top 6. Paula Briny, Nikola Kozlov, and Michelle LeBlanc are the ones who can jump quads effortlessly. There's too much emphasis on technical elements now, so jumping quads would give them much higher scores given their high base values—it became the norm. You could tell who has a bad technique by observing their pre-rotated jumps, but they rarely mark it as 'cheat' 'cause then the technical committee would have to play it in slow-mo one by one. However, that would take a lot of time, so they just skip on that part and see if they can deduct a few points or just let it slide especially when the skater didn't fall and had a good landing."