Page 119 of Chasing Gold, Catching Her

Alisa was in third.

And second place belonged to some young junior skater she barely even recognized. Honestly, Alisa barely remembered half the performances at all, she had been too trapped inside her own thoughts and anxiety to properly focus on anyone else’s choreography.

But none of that mattered anymore.

Alisa had made it through.

She was going to the Olympics.

“Blyat’…” Alisa whispered in disbelief. “I’m really gonna have to compete against Anfisa?”

She didn’t want to think too much about that part. Somewhere deep inside, she only hoped the Olympics wouldn’t destroy the strange, beautiful friendship they had somehow managed to build over the summer.

“You made it?” Hermann clapped loudly and immediately wrapped his arms around her in a crushing hug.

“Yes… I made it.” Alisa hugged him back tightly, still staring somewhere through space, unable to fully process it yet.

But now she understood one thing for certain.

There was no backing out anymore.

She was going to the Olympics.

Even if it cost her absolutely everything.

V

Part V

WINTER OLYMPICS, MILANO-CORTINA,

FEBRUARY 2026

Chapter 23

Alisa had finally reached this point. She was at the Olympics, and today was the opening ceremony, a grand show in Milan. They would skate here; hockey and figure skating were the main sports of this arena.

All the athletes had access to specially reserved seats in the stands, but only the Russian team was gathered together in the athletes’ room today. Once again, they were not allowed to compete under their own flag at the Olympics, and that, of course, wounded their honor and pride. There were twelve of them in total, including Alisa. Three pairs and six singles.

Alisa was worried about her performance. It was her Olympic debut, and almost no one knew her name. As usual, the judges tended to favor already recognized athletes, those with established reputations. Even though she had placed in the top three at previous championships, that did not guarantee approval here. It unsettled her, but there was nothing she could do about it. That was simply the fate of debutantes.

She pressed her lips together and nervously bit them while looking at the large clock counting down to the start of the ceremony. Today’s show was expected to be one of the most spectacular in Olympic history.

Different emotions boiled inside her, but for some reason she felt an overwhelming urge to cry.

She would be performing alone here, without Lev, for the first time in many years. Officially without him, and now it truly felt official… And not just anywhere, but at the Olympics. He was supposed to be here too. It was one of the most significant moments of her entire career — and his as well.

She sniffed, trying to push away the tears that came with the realization of everything that had happened to her, but the emotions slowly began to consume her.

She crossed her arms over her chest, subtly hugging herself, hoping her teammates would not notice. They were all watching the clock as well.

Anfisa stood next to her, just as mesmerized, looking out over the entire arena below with a smile; she almost bounced on the spot with delight, while Alisa was trembling slightly with nervousness…

There was also a junior girl here, a sixteen-year-old brilliant figure skater - Diana; if anything, she performed only quads—her entire program was built from quadruple jumps, which was generally unrealistic even for adult figure skaters, although the boys in men’s singles also had full programs composed entirely of quads, so many athletes were aiming for medals at this Olympics, or at least that was the mindset everyone seemed to carry.

Among the everyone in the VIP box for athletes were Ivan, Slava, and Arseny; all of them watched the performance unfolding below with raised chins and serious expressions.

And there were also three pairs, all of them actively chatting about something.