Dream, Dive, Daley?

Chapter 6(a)

‘Welcome to Ponds Forge International Sports Center, name please’ a curly-haired lady sat behind the table and waited for me to say my name and show my identification. She kindly checked me in and said ‘Good luck, Miss Halls. We expect nothing but gold!’ I smiled and thanked her politely.

FINA Diving World Cup was about to start, and the first stop was here in Sheffield.  Continued by a stop in Mexico. The final stop was in Changzou, China. Changzou was also the place for the final medal ceremony. The points will be added together from every competition, and the person with the highest total is the winner. I could feel the adrenalin pump through my veins. I took a laminated card with the letter ‘CONTESTANT’ on and hung it over my neck. My shoulder bag wasn’t all that heavy. It consisted of a water bottle, a smoothie, a pair of flip flops, three shammies and two different women’s speedos.

If you’re in the top 10 in the European Cup, then you’ll immediately qualify to the FINA Cups. Simple as that. My biggest competition this year was the Mexican 26 year old, but I was told not to worry too much about her. If I would watch the other’s dive, I would get more pumped to get out there, which wasn’t the best case. The adrenalin will control my focus. That’s what the psychologist said four years ago.

Beep, beep… Beep, beep… I fished out my phone from my pocket. One unread message from Andre Wagner. I unlocked my phone and the text said:

‘Meet you in section B after the announcements. You’ll meet Coach Andy after you’ve talked to me. Remember, no physical contact with the other contestants and especially no eye contact. See you inside’ that reminded me of that I needed to get my sunglasses on. I pulled out my folded aviators from Ray Ban, unfolded them and put them on. It wasn’t really dark compared to the winter months of diving. Why the sunglasses you ask? Why not make eye contact? I had no clue…

I walked barefoot into section B, still carrying on everything and started to look after my agent and coach. It wasn’t much of a ‘Find Waldo’ situation. Because they were both bald, you could spot the two naked heads together.

‘Gentlemen’ I nodded and started taking of my sunglasses.

‘Keep them on’ Mr. Wagner said. I didn’t hesitate with the fact that he always knew what was best for me. So I kept them on. ‘You know what to do today, right?’ Those words were so familiar. Every pep talk started with those few words, even though he never really turned up on these events. I nodded to confirm.  

‘Good dive equals good results. Good results equal better chance of winning gold. A gold medal equals respect and fear from others. Plus, no eye or physical contact with the other contestants. Simple as that, Mr. Wagner’ He smiled and some wrinkles appeared in the corners of his eyes.

‘Do your best and make everyone proud, Sutton’ He gave me a high five and a quick pat on my back before he ran to his seat.

‘No running by the poolside!’ I heard a guard yell at my agent. Everyone knows that you’re not supposed to run by the poolside. I turned around to face Coach Andy.

‘Good. Now it’s my turn. Then you know what to do. Just make sure that you drink, eat and stretch out firmly before you go up there. Got it?’ Coach Andy was dead serious. The past two months have been leading up to this final cup. It’s one of the biggest championships before the official London Olympics in 2012. After this, we’ll have to work at least a hundred times harder.

‘Got it’ He wished me luck and sat down by his seat.

My turn wasn’t until 1 p.m. in the afternoon, so I had plenty of time to practice more.  But I didn’t want to overdo it. Every other contestant was at the warm ups. Maybe I can watch the male’s competition before I start mine. I sat down on one of the benches far away from small audience. The audience was slowly building up to a crowd. Nice, more pressure.

‘Sutton’ a super familiar voice called my name and it echoed at least a billion times in my head. My entire body froze in a weird position. No, freaking way. I was too scared to turn around and face the person who said my name. ‘Didn’t you hear me back there?’ I looked up through my shades. There he was, standing there in his team USA uniform. ‘I’ve missed you’ the guy bent down to my face level and took off my shades. I used to see those familiar brown eyes and dark hair every, single day and I still do. His jawline was slightly different from what it was back in Texas, more masculine in a way.  ‘Don’t you tell me that you haven’t missed me at all’ his southern accent was all gone, just as mine after I’d moved here. I couldn’t breathe with the thought of him being so close to me. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Shit is about to happen. Those were the only words that could describe this situation.He shook my shoulders and cupped my face in his large hands. ‘Come on talk to me, lil’ sis!’