Page 74 of Chasing Gold, Catching Her

“We need to show an incredible program at the internal qualifiers, because you’re performing there, did you know that? Did Arkadiy already tell you?”

Alisa nodded nervously, because yes, she knew that Arkadiy wanted to send her to the qualifiers, but until today it had still seemed to her that maybe it would not happen…

“I’m not doing perfect quads yet,” she said quietly.

“Then we’ll do triples for now,” Dana answered immediately, as if there was nothing terrible about it at all. “You’re good at triples, aren’t you?”

Alisa nodded again.

“That’s great, then look.”

Alisa sat down in one of the judges’ seats and looked at the ice, at the huge half empty rink under the cold white light, and then the music began to play.

The first notes of Hans Zimmer filled the almost empty arena beautifully, and something inside Alisa immediately clenched, because she loved this music too much, because it sounded like fear and hope at the same time, like falling into darkness and still continuing to move forward.

Chapter 15

August 2025, Internal Qualifiers, Saint-Petersburg, Russia

Alisa stood in the athletes’ area, watching the internal qualifiers for the men’s singles skaters, while all the girls had been gathered here today specifically to look at possible candidates for the qualifying tournament in Beijing, and at the same time simply to watch the guys’ programs and choreographies for an inspiration, to create at least some kind of crowd, some noise, some support from the stands.

The girls shouted, applauded and actively supported the guys from the VIP box, although everyone understood perfectly well that Beijing was essentially the last chance, unless, of course, we were talking about the qualification for the team event, but Alisa knew too well that if she did not get selected here and was not sent to Beijing, then she was unlikely to be sent to Japan either, to the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Nagoya, the last competition where athletes could still score points for qualification to the team event.

Alisa sat in her seat and breathed slowly, looking at everything from the VIP lodge where eleven athletes were already sitting, and she was the twelfth.

The Russian internal championships were held almost like real international competitions. Today there were six well-known singles skaters here, Alisa herself, still almost new to singles, four very young juniors, and Anfisa, the main favorite from Alyona Turmeric’s group.

Everyone sat silently, immersed in their own thoughts, staring at the ice with such concentration as if their entire lives depended on it.

They still did not know how the groups would be distributed. The men had only just finished skating, and only one of them had been selected for the qualifiers in Beijing… and apparently only one girl would be selected too.

The competition was terrifying. Especially when Alisa looked at the juniors.

They were so young and so reckless in the way they jumped, as if from the first second of their lives they had not cried, but immediately gone into a quadruple toe loop, and not spent years learning to skate from the age of three like everyone else.

Alisa watched the boys’ performances below, watched the their mistakes and those smiles after the music ended, because today was the last day, the free program, the final day of scoring.

And they had chosen him – Slava. He was from Arkadiy’s team, and Arkadiy looked happy and proud, with that rare expression on his face that appeared only when one of his students proved that he had not wasted years on them.

However, Alisa was hardly looking at the ice anymore, she was staring at Lev with gnawing regret. He was sitting a little lower in the stands among the athletes who had not competed today, among those who had simply come to support their friends, because these championships were open to everyone, even skaters from Moscow had come here.

Lev sat with a serious face, leaning his elbows on his knees, not even pretending to be interested in anything except what was happening on the ice, although sometimes he would raise his eyes and look at her.

And every time their gazes met, Alisa felt something inside her chest painfully clench. But Lev immediately looked away. They had not spoken since their fight.

“What are you so worried about?” Anfisa whispered suddenly beside her, and Alisa flinched in her chair as if someone had yanked her violently out of those thoughts about how terrible everything had become between her and Lev.

“Well… maybe a little…” Alisa answered quietly, looking only at Anfisa.

Anfisa’s brown eyes sparkled with excitement, apparently even she had been carried away by the guys’ programs, and honestly, Alisa understood her perfectly, because every time one of them flew into a jump or suddenly did some beautiful, difficult element that fit perfectly into the choreography, her own heart began to beat faster too.

She had always loved the free skate more.

“Oh, come on, baby, everything will work out, you restored your triples in just two months, and now you’re already jumping them almost perfectly! And there’s still a whole month before Beijing… there’s every chance to win.”

“Maybe to win,” Alisa muttered, lowering her eyes to her hands, “but there are so many strong skaters here now, so many people who want this quota just as much as I do… and you know, even if they send me there, which is already unlikely enough… they still might not take me to the Olympics after that.”

“Baby, now you’re upsetting me,” Anfisa said immediately, frowning as if Alisa had said something completely absurd. “Of course they’ll take you! How could they not take someone like you? You work harder than all of us put together, probably… at least these last few months, I swear I have not seen anyone train like that in a very long time, through so much pain and tears! And that terrifying look on your face every time something doesn’t work, and still you come back the next day and do it all over again… and now look at you, you’re here, you’re about to fight for a place at the Olympics.”