We reached the Olympic Village within 15 or so minutes, it was almost 12 in the morning and I had my qualifications tomorrow, I knew that if I didn't get back soon I was done for. We rushed back to the dorms and quickly said goodnight as we both had early mornings. Tom kissed my cheek and told me goodnight, I smiled and walked into my room. Aly was of course waiting up for me to spill every little detail.
After we were done gossiping we quickly fell asleep, before I knew it it was already 7 AM which meant it was time to get ready and go make my dreams a reality. I took a quick shower and threw my hair up into a tight bun with my lucky scrunchy. I put a little makeup on my face to make myself presentable and put on our day 1 leotards,
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after I got my leo on I threw on our warmups, packed my bag and headed out the door with Aly. It was a very silent morning between all of us, this was all of ours first Olympics, and while we knew we were amazing, we also knew anything could happen at any given moment. I was particularly nervous for one reason today, Tom. Today he was coming with his diving friends to watch and cheer my team and myself on and I wasn't too sure how I felt about it. Mainly because I was competing to be apart of the All Around today, which meant I had to be nearly perfect in every apparatus. Aly and I were shoe ins for this but like I said anything can happen. We arrived at the stadium and headed inside towards the GB room while we were on the way there were thousands of people screaming and cheering for us as they made a pathway for us to walk through. It was such an emotional and overwhelming feeling.
We were aloud to sit in this room for 45 minutes and collect ourselves and get it together. I sat by myself in one of the corners with my Beats in and blaring some Rihanna and Beyonce to get myself pumped and ready for the long day ahead of me. Since my father was a coach he was allowed access to come see me and give me the same pep talk I've received for 7 years now, I could practically recite it word for word. He approached me and hugged me then said
"Mattie, today's speech wont be like every other one I've ever given you, today's will be much more meaningful and hopefully something that will stay in your head all day and carry you through this competition. Words cannot described how proud of you I am that you made this come true, I'm so blessed to have been able to get you here today and I just want you to know two things sunshine. One, that no matter what happens through out the day on those apparatuses I'm proud of you, and your country is proud of you. As long as you go out there and be the very best Mattie you can be there will be nothing more that you can do at the end of the day, don't let fear control you and your destiny." He began to tear up "Most importantly, two, your mother told me to tell you that if you ever made it to the Olympics to know that shes with you always... Every move you make she will be there guiding you to help you through it, and that she is so beyond proud of you and everything you have accomplished, and she loves you so so so much more than you know. So today when you go out there, do everything for yourself baby girl, soak it all in and most importantly have fun... I love you sunshine."
He hugged me very tightly, kissed my forehead and proceeded to dry my eyes.
"No more tears today, get focused and kick some ass. I'll see you out on the floor." He gave me one last hug and then headed out of the room. I put my beats back on my ears and turned my music back on, I was pacing back and fourth getting focused and ready for what lies ahead when I got a text from Tom saying:
Good luck today blondie!!! I know you'll do absolutely fantastic! I'll be cheering you on with some of my diving mates, we are currently sat in the front row by the beam!! You got this love, I have every little bit of faith inside me that you're going to kill it today
