by Shilo Dawn Goodson

Created on: May 10, 2011   Last Updated: May 11, 2011

It felt impossible. Kelli knew there was little chance that her balance beam routine was going to be perfect. She’d only done it perfectly once before and only her coach had been watching her. Now, she felt like the eyes of the world were upon her. That wasn’t far from the truth. The eyes of people all around the world were on her as Kelli ran towards the balance beam.

Earlier, Kelli had considered changing up her routine and doing at least a simpler mount. She knew, though, that only this routine would be good enough to give her a chance of taking the all-around individual gold. Making it simpler, would make it so she would have little chance of messing up, but making it simpler would also insure that she would not get the gold medal. 

Kelli's full concentration was on making it safely onto the beam as she bounced off the springboard and onto the beam. Kelli’s feet landed neatly, and for a moment, she had internal celebration for her first victory.

Kelli continued her routine, landing perfect jumps and flips as she moved across the beam. The huge crowd around her would normally make her nervous, but she forced all thoughts of them out of her mind, concentrating only upon what she had to accomplish to make her routine perfect.

As she completed her final jump, Kelli felt her confidence rising, but she forced herself not to have a premature celebration. She still had her dismount to complete, and it was almost as difficult as her mount had been. If her whole mind was not on it, she knew that she’d mess it up.

Kelli took a deep breath, sprang into the air, flipped her body around, and landed on the ground. For a few seconds, she fought her body. Her balance was slightly off. Her legs begged for her to take that one small step backwards. She fought the urge, forcing her body to stay put. Then she heard the cheering. She glanced over at the board. Her scores were even better than she’d anticipated. Before she could fully comprehend what her scores meant, she felt herself getting mauled by her teammates. She’d done it. She was going to win the gold medal. Only then did she let her internal celebration become an external celebration. 

Learn more about this author, Shilo Dawn Goodson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.