Make It or Break It: London 2012

Part 7

Lauren approaches the beam with sweaty palms. She can practically feel her heart beating through her chest, and the addition of the heart monitor on her leotard isn't helping anything. She glances over at Annie, Coach Mac's wife, who sits with the computer system monitoring her progress. In her right hand is a silver whistle. Lauren says a quick prayer that Annie won't blow it today.

She scans the stands for Jake; her boyfriend who she'd met while she was at the training center. He's on the wrestling team, but he'd promised to come see her. She knows he's here somewhere, but she can't find him in the sea of people. She'd give anything to be able to see him and have him help her through some breathing exercises.

"And now, Lauren Tanner from the United States on beam."

She salutes the judges and faces her favorite apparatus. She does her mount, and when she sticks it, a thrill runs down her spine. She shoots her best smile at the judges and does some sassy dance moves between her impressive new tumbling combinations that she'd recently perfected. Her D.O.D. has never been higher and she has more confidence than ever in her ability to earn a gold medal here. Her body flips seamlessly through the air, but as she lands one of her final moves, she hears a distant beep. She glances at Annie, who has the whistle lifted near her mouth. How many beeps had she missed already? Her heart hasn't given her problems in months. It can't do this now.

She takes a deep breath and nails her dismount. She throws back her head and grins at the judges, giving her final salute, before running to hug her teammates. Coach Mac, Kaylie, and Jordan congratulate her. Lauren glances at Payson hopefully, who reluctantly congratulates her as well.

As Kaylie makes her way to the beam, preparing for her routine, Jordan approaches the bars. She'd finally stuck her dismount in practice earlier, but all of the fails that came before it repeat in her mind.

Coach Mac comes up to her as she chalks her hands. "Jordan, you can do this. I know you've gotta be feeling a lot of pressure right now, but you are more than capable of landing this move. Just have fun, okay?"

Jordan smiles. "Thanks, Coach."

She brushes her hands together and watches the excess chalk fall away. Then, she prepares herself in front of the bars. Jordan shoots a fierce salute to the judges before beginning her routine.

Just like in practice, she flies between the bars with ease. Her heart races as the end of her routine draws closer and with a final push, she releases her grip. She somersaults once...twice...three times...

And lands directly on her feet; ramrod straight. Flawless.

The audience is dead silent for a minute before erupting in cheers. Her teammates and coach attack her with hugs and a huge grin spreads across Jordan's face. She nearly jumps up and down with excitement. She did it. She really did it. She almost wishes she could hear what the announcers were saying about her now that she is officially the first person to land a triple back dismount in competition.

Kaylie does her beam routine and Payson completes her bars routine without any difficulty other than initial jitters. Then the girls switch; Kaylie and Lauren on bars and Jordan and Payson on beam. Lauren nearly doesn't make it through the routine because of her heart, which causes her confidence to take a hit. Jordan wobbles a little on beam because she had been focusing so much on bars during practice, but she recovers and finishes strong.

Next is the final rotation of the day: vault and floor. As the girls walk to their spots on the floor they glance up at the scoreboard and find that, so far, they're second behind China, and only barely ahead of Russia. Each girl's heart sinks as they read the scoreboard. They'd put all they had into their routines so far, and it wasn't good enough so far. Would any of them even be able to walk out with a gold medal at all by the end? Suddenly none of them are so sure.