We were at the airport and I was freaking out. The past month had flown by and I was about to be on my way to Sochi.
“Just to think in a matter of days I’ll be competing!” I exclaim loudly. People were already snapping pictures of me Sidney and me standing here in the airport.

“It sucks I won’t be there for slopestyle but I’ll definitely be cheering from in front of the TV,” he says looking down at me. His flight left the day after my first competition. “I’ll have all the guy’s over.”

“Make sure Beau doesn’t break another lamp,” I say smiling. He laughs and I hear that my flight is now being boarded. “Well that’s me.” He kisses me for a long time before pulling away.

“I’ll see you in Russia.”

“See you in Russia,” I reply. I board my plane and get ready for the 12-hour journey.

---

I landed in Sochi and everything seemed so busy. I had spent my trip memorizing useful phrases and I was able to navigate myself into getting a cab. I made my way to the athlete’s village where I’m greeted by tons of friendly people. I’m guided to the Swedish residence and a huge wave of relief rolls over me. I go inside where I meet members of the Swedish Olympic Committee. They give me all the things I’d need to wear to the opening ceremony and information packages on schedules and what not. I go to my room and recognize a girl with dark hair sitting on one of the beds.

“Hey I know you,” I say in Swedish.

“Yeah hi, I’m Emma. You must be Phoenix?” she replies. I nod and shake her hand.

“What are you in?” I ask.

“Freestyle skiing. Slopestyle. What about you?”

“Snowboarding. Halfpipe and slopestyle.”

“Wow. Two events. Good luck,” she smiles.

“Thanks. Are you excited for the opening ceremony?” I ask.

“Yeah it’ll be really cool. Though I’m not sure about the jackets,” she laughs. I put the jacket on and go to the mirror.

“They’re much better than the ones in Vancouver”

“This is my first Olympics,” she says quietly.

“The trick is not to dwell on the whole Olympic part. Just remember you came here to do the sport you love doing.” I say smiling. We become fast friends and soon head towards the arena for the opening ceremonies.

The opening ceremonies are amazing. There’s nothing like proudly walking with your country, ready to represent your nation in the upcoming weeks. I wait with Emma and soon find my fellow Swedish snowboarder Sven.

“Hey you must be Phoenix. I’m Henrik,” a short guy with dreads says in Swedish, holding out his hand. I shake it and smile.

“You’re a freestyle skier, right?” I ask

“Wow she knows who I am!” he says shocked. “It’s just you’re a pretty big deal in Sweden.”

“Thanks?” I say, unsure.

“Rumour has it you’re going for 2 medals. That’s wild yo. I have no doubt in my mind you’ll do awesome.”

“Much appreciated Henrik. Good luck to you,” I laugh. He walks away and jumps on a random guy.

“He’s so weird,” Emma says rolling her eyes.

“I thought he was cool,” I laugh. Soon they tell us it’s our turn to walk and we walk out of the tunnel. The voice over the speaker announces Sweden and we start our lap, waving to the crowd. I hold my phone up recording everything so I can send it to Carl and Sidney later. Our lap soon ends and we wait for the ceremony to end.

Me and Emma get back to our room and immediately call Sidney.

“Hello?” he answers groggily.

“Oh shit. I forgot about the time difference. Sorry,” I say apologetically.

“It’s okay. I should be getting up anyway. How was the ceremony?”

“It was incredible. I recorded our lap. I’ll send it to you later. Do you have practice today?”

“No I just gotta go and get all my sticks and gear ready.”

“Oh right. Well I should probably get some sleep. Have a good day, I love you.”

“Have a good sleep,” he laughs. “I love you too.” I hang up and stare up at the moon. Crazy to think he’s so far away that he’ll be looking up at the sun soon. I crawl into bed and Emma comes out of the bathroom.

“Boyfriend?” she asks.

“Fiancé,” I say proudly.

“Oh cool. Is he coming to watch you?”

“Actually he’s coming here to compete himself. He plays hockey for Team Canada.”

“Oh wow that’s really cool.” Jet lag affecting both of us, we stay up all night talking about Sweden and our sports.

Two day later it’s the day of the slopestyle competition and I’m extremely nervous. I get all my stuff ready and realize I have to pee. I go to the bathroom and check my watch. I have to compete in just over an hour. I wash my hands and try to open the door but it doesn’t budge. I shake the handle and begin panicking. This cannot be happening. I pull the door with everything I have in me but it doesn’t give. I check my pockets for my phone but I remember it’s on the nightstand. I look at the window and look down. It’s a seven-story drop and I would surely break my legs. I start yelling and banging against the door for a half hour. I crumple in a ball on the floor and start angrily crying. I can’t believe I’m going to miss my chance to compete because I’m stuck in a bathroom. I sit there for another fifteen minutes before I hear someone distantly rapping. I stand up and begin banging and screaming again.
“Hello?” I hear a familiar voice ask on the other side of the door.

“Oh my god Henrik! It’s me Phoenix! You have to help me, I have to compete in 15 minutes and I’m stuck in here!” I yell frantically.

“Okay I’ll try!” he replies. I hear him pushing but nothing is happening. He takes a running start but still nothing happens. “Phoenix it’s not budging, I’m going to have to go find someone or something. I’ll hurry I promise.” I hear him run out of the room and I start to lose hope. They won’t let me compete if I’m late. I hear heavy footsteps running back,

“Okay I found an axe. You should step back.” I do what he says and he begins to hack away at the door. He makes a hole just begin enough for me to fit through and I finally escape. I hug him tightly and he laughs.

“If you hurry you might still make it,”

“Thank you so much!” I say, grabbing my stuff and running out of the room. I find a taxi and tell him to take me to the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. I pay him extra and he floors it. I get there in record time and I talk to an official. I explain my situation and he looks skeptical but let’s me through anyway. I get my bib and they send me on my way.
I’m headed up the mountain about to compete. I haven’t slept since I’ve been here and my nerves have been shot since today’s bathroom incident. I get to the athlete’s tent at the top and I recognize most of the girls competing but there are a few new faces. I’m so happy Coach made the trip; I don’t know what I’d do without him.

“Where have you been?!” he yells, drawing attention to us. I explain my situation and he looks at me in disbelief. The first girl drops in and I can’t even watch the TV monitor. This was the first time slopestyle was in the Olympics and it was the first event in Sochi so I knew a lot of people were watching. Sidney had even texted me to tell me the entire team and the wags would be watching from our theatre room. I was never this nervous and I knew it was going to affect me. They call my name and I grab my board and head out.
“Look. Focus. Just land a clean run, nothing fancy okay?” He says in my ear. I stand there looking down at the course and try to focus all of my energy. The official nods and Bud pats my back.

“Let’s go champ, you got this!” He yells. I drop in hit the first rail steadily. The second rail comes and I try to spin and end up wiping out. Fuck. I get up and ride the rest of the way down with my head down. I wait for my score. I get a 15.76 and I get on the snowmobile and head up for my second run. At the top I find an empty chair in the back corner away from the monitor. Watching the other girl’s runs was just making me more stressed out. Bud comes and finds me and crouches down in front of me.

“Hey, look at me. You gotta get out of here,” he says tapping my head. I almost feel like breaking down right here in front of him. “This is suppose to be fun remember? It’s just you and me in Sochi, doing what we love to do. Just to think if you nail this run and win, you’ll be the first person in history to win gold in slopestyle at the Olympics. I know you didn’t travel across the world to let a mental block get in way.” He’s right. This was supposed to be fun and I was ruining it for myself. I hear them call my name and I take a deep breath. “So what do you say, you ready to make history today kid?” I smile and jump up. We walk to the top of the course and I snap my board on. The official nods and me and Bud do our pre run handshake. I take a deep breath and drop in. I clear the first rail fine and cleanly spin over the second. I try something new on the third rail and I land steadily on my feet. Just the jumps left. I pull out a cab 720 tail grab and stomp it. I feed off the last trick and try a switch backside 540 and land a perfect frontside 720 on the final jump. I get to the bottom and I hear the crowd start cheering. I impatiently await my score. Finally a 95.25 shows up on the screen and just like that I’m bumped into gold medal position. I smile but quickly realize that there’s still one rider left and she could easily knock me into silver medal position. I watch her run closely and she lands a very clean run. It’s gotta be a 90 run at least. She stands at the bottom with me and we both wait for her score. The suspense is so immense I’m not sure I can wait much longer. I’m holding my breath and my stomach is in knots. Finally her score comes in and it’s a 93.64. I lift my board in the air and start screaming. I just won gold. I quickly hug the girl and a woman with a microphone approaches me.

“Wow Phoenix Hagelin you just won the first gold medal of this Olympics. How do you feel?” she asks

“Honestly I can’t believe it. It’s so surreal. I’m just proud I could make Sweden proud.” I manage to get out.

“Well done Phoenix, go celebrate.” I head over to the podium and get my medal. I look down at it and I still can’t believe it. I spend the next hour doing interviews and eventually find a bathroom so I can have I moment to myself. I do a victory dance in the stall and burst out laughing. I take my phone out and see that it has blown up. I take a selfie of me biting my medal and caption it ‘better than any steak I’ve ever had’. I post it to instagram and immediately call Sid.

“Oh my god Phoenix!” He yells. I hear a million voices yelling.

“I won!!!” I scream into the phone.

“You’re on speaker!” I hear Beau yell.

“Nice insta!” James yells louder.

“Congrats sis I knew you’d fucking win!” Carl yells. I hear a million people tell me congratulations and I can’t help but laugh at the chaos.

“I’m so proud!” Geno yells.

“Thanks everyone. I got to go though! Sidney I’ll call you later!”
I hear everyone say bye and I hang up. I sit down on toilet seat and let the moment sink in.

---

“They’re very nice,” Emma says in Swedish, examining my medal.

“Yeah I really like the look of them,” I reply.

“So how do you feel, you must be so happy.”

“It’s all so crazy! But no I’m so happy. I keep forgetting I have to compete in 3 days!”

“I still can’t believe you got trapped in there,” she says pointing to our destroyed door.

“It’s quite the story,” I say laughing. I look at the clock and decide to call Sidney.

“Hey baby,” he says sleepily.

“I’m sorry I know it’s like 3 am there, I just had to hear your voice.” I say guiltily.

“You just won gold babe, you can call me anytime of day you want.”

“Did you watch it?” I ask eagerly.

“The whole team and their significant others all watched it. It got so intense waiting for that other girl’s score, you could hear a pin drop. I can’t imagine what that must have felt like for you.”

“It seriously aged me ten years.” I laugh.

“Has it been hectic there for you?

“Very. You’ll never believe what happening to me though.”

“What?”

“I almost didn’t compete because I got trapped in my bathroom. Some skier had to get an axe and free me.”

“Are you serious? That’s crazy!” he exclaims.

“It was pretty wild. This whole day has been wild. I ended up escaping to a bathroom afterwards to get some alone time with my medal.”

“What I wouldn’t do to get you alone in a bathroom right now.”

“Oh?” I say intrigued.

“I’d make you take off all your clothes so you’re wearing nothing but that medal.” I suddenly feel a sensation south of my waistline.

“You know I would reciprocate but I have a roommate.”

“That’s too bad. Now I guess I’ll just finish myself off.” He was torturing me. I head to the bathroom and close the door.

“Just think of all the shenanigans we can get up to when you get here,”

“That’s true. I leave tomorrow. So technically I only have a wait a day.”

“3 days,” I correct him.

“3 days?” he says confused.

“No sex before a competition. It’s a rule.”

“I think it’s weird that a middle aged man controls your sex life.”

“Hey that middle aged man is the reason I won today. Him and the skier that freed me” I say defensively.

“Haha okay.”

“Well I should go, think of me riding your dick with TWO medals around my neck,”

“You really know how to make a guy frustrated.”

“You love it. Just like I love you. Bye fiancé.”

“Hey Nix before you go. I wanted to say I really am proud of you.”

“Thank you babe. Bye.” I hang up and head to bed.


I wake up late the next day when I get a text.

Sidney: I’m here. I wanna see you

Me: Where are you?

Sidney: Canada residence

I get dressed and head to the Canada residence. I walk in and a bunch of guys are sitting on couches in the common area.

“Hey you must be Phoenix. Come over here!” I hear someone yell. I awkwardly walk over but don’t see Sidney anywhere.

“Sidney will probably be down in a minute,” Shea Weber tells me.

“Hey congrats on the medal. Do you have it?” Roberto Luongo asks. I take it out from my sweater and they pass it around.

“I don’t normally watch snowboarding but when they said Sid’s fiancé was competing I had to check it out,” Jonathan Toews adds. I feel an arm wrap around me and I look up and see Sidney.

“Phoenix what’s a babe like you doing with Crosby?” PK Subban asks and Sidney’s face goes red.

“I don’t know. I guess I’m a sucker for Canadian’s.” I reply. Everyone looks shocked at my answer.

“Who are you cheering for?” John Tavares asks.

“Sweden.” The guys all make sour faces. “But you guys are #2 in my heart.”

“Sid already told us you said we were going to win,” Matt Duchene says.

“Doesn’t mean I want you to. I would look like a traitor if I cheered for you guys.” I say defensively.

“Okay we gotta go, see you guys later,” Sidney says dragging me from the group.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“It’s a surprise.” He replies. I decide to not ask any question and follow him to a quaint little restaurant. We walk inside and my jaw falls to the floor. Inside at a table at the back are Sidney’s family and my dad and brothers.

“I can’t believe you’re all here!” I exclaim, taking the time to hug each person individually. I notice that my mother is the only person missing. I was happy Sidney’s family and mine had a chance to meet before the wedding.

“I see mom couldn’t make it,” I say sitting down.

“She wanted to buddy but she couldn’t get work off,” my dad says consolingly.

“I can’t believe you’re competing the day after tomorrow. I’m so stoked to watch you get another gold,” Bobbie says, stuffing his face with food.

“Personally I’m excited to watch hockey,” I reply.

“Sweden and Canada are both looking like really good teams,” Troy adds. We spend the rest of lunch talking about hockey and snowboarding and I get a group photo to remember the day.

Notes

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