Road to Rio

Chapter 8: Olympic Training

Ragan's POV
Today Bailie and I are leaving for the olympics. We have to be there two weeks before the Olympics starts. The doctor told Bailie she could do some knee exercises while we are out of the country. We arrive at the airport and get on the plane. A few hours later, we arrived. We met up with the team at our hotel and got our rooms. Bailie roomed with me. Whitney, Annie, and Maile, the alternates, roomed together. Emma and Katie roomed together. Sydney and Konnor roomed together. We all met in coach's room and she told us, "Girls in 1 hour we will go to the training center to work on bars and floor." Emma, Katie, and I sighed because we thought she was going to say beam. Beam used to be my best and favorite event, but I tore my ACL when I was 19 and only did bars for a long time and it grew to be second favorite event. My favorite event is floor. Bailie and I watched tv in our room for about 30 minutes. I started getting ready by putting on my leotard. This is the leotard we all wore:

I put my hair in a high messy bun with a pink headband. I check my bag and make sure that I have tape, water, and my wrist supports for vault. I check the clock and I have to be there in 20 minutes. I quickly put on my USA jacket and shorts and head to practice. I was so lucky! I made it there 10 minutes early. I grabbed my white tape out of my bag and taped my right ankle. I sprained it two weeks ago at trials. I head over to floor with Emma and Katie. Konnor and Sydney went to bars. The alternates worked on vault and beam. I kept my floor routine from 2016 but I had improved my tumbling so the routine is almost perfect. We had fans vote out of all my routines I've done since 2013 to see which one I do at the Olympics. Obviously the 2016-17 routine won. "Ragan are you strong enough to do the double layouts? I know your ankle isn't 100%." Coach asked me. "I feel strong enough to do it." I said. "Ok then lets see it!" She beamed.

"Good job Ragan!" Katie told me while I grabbed my water. "That was great Ray!" Emma told me. "Well now it's your turn to be great!" I told both of them. "I'll watch both of your routines and then we can go to bars together" I told them. "Ok!" They both said. I went to grab my grip bag. I put on my grips while Emma did her floor routine. Not long after that it was Katie's turn. Emma went to get her water and grips out of her bag. Katie put hers on and we went to bars and chalked up. "Good luck on floor!" We told Syd and Konnor. "Good luck on bars! The bars are brutal today!" Syd told me. "Oh great! Just what I need!" I laughed. I put chalk on my hands and got ready to do bars. I jumped and I my hands grabbed the high bar.

I got a rip during my bar routine on my right hand. I grabbed some paper towels and cleaned up the blood. I grabbed some tape and wrapped it around my hand. After all of us finished our training we got to stretch and go back to the hotel to rest. We were told that tomorrow we will be doing vault and beam. Ugh! I hate those events! I walk into the room to see Bailie sleeping. Her phone dings and I see who it is. It was her doctor. He texted her several times with exercises for her to do. It was late at night, but because I'm a good girlfriend, I woke her up and helped her do them. "Hey baby wake up." I whispered. "Is it morning?" She asked. "No silly! I just got back from training and the doctor texted you exercises to do for your knee." I said. "What time is it?" She asked. "10:00 pm but you can go back to sleep when we're done." I told her. "Ugh! Ok I'm getting up!" She said unhappily. We did her exercises and that took 20 minutes. I helped her back into bed and she fell asleep right away. I grabbed some shorts and a t-shirt and took my leotard off. I turned the light off and turned the tv volume down. I kept my hair in a bun and took off my headband. I climbed into bed. "Good night babe! I love you!" I whispered to Bailie and kissed her forehead. I pull the blanket over my head and went to sleep.