A/N: Competition time!
"Good evening, and welcome to the 2013 Secret US Classic! I'm Al Trautwig, surrounded by gold medallists Nastia Liukin and Tim Daggett. Can you believe it's already this time of year again Tim?"
"No I can't, it has come around so fast. It feels like just yesterday that we were watching the Fierce Five take team gold, and in fact, it's been almost exactly a year to the day!"
"Tim, we have three of the Fierce Five making their post-Olympic competitive debut tonight, what do you think about how they're looking?"
"Well, Marta Karolyi, the national team coordinator, is just thrilled with the progress all three girls have made since returning to the gym. Kyla Ross has made some small upgrades in some places and is looking stronger than ever. She's really focused on having some individual success this year to build on the backbone of that Olympic gold medal. Jennifer Jareau, on the other hand, has made some downgrades, rearranged a few of her routines to fit the new code, but overall, she's staying at pretty much the same level she was last year. I spoke to her coach, Nicholas Romero, just before the meet began, and he told me that they are scaling it right back and building it all back up slowly because, JJ has decided she wants to try for Rio. Her routines are still difficult enough to place well, but that dazzling beam routine that won her the gold medal in London? You won't see that today. McKayla Maroney is looking more powerful than ever on vault and floor, and she's hoping to have an injury free year this year and hopefully regain her world title on the vault"
"Nastia, there's a lot of new seniors in the mix this year, and two of them are from your old gym, Madison Kocian and Katelyn Ohashi!"
"I know! I'm so excited to see what Madison can do today. Unfortunately, Katelyn is still out with an injury. We're hoping she'll be back for Nationals, but we'll have to wait and see"
Standing at the edge of the floor, JJ focused on chalking herself up for her routine. The arena was loud around her, and she found it was helping her get back in the game. As she had stood by her bag earlier in the rotation, she had looked up to see a group of little girls eagerly trying to get her attention. She had smiled, giving them a little wave, which had sent them into excited hysterics, and hammered home for JJ just how much of a star she had become in the gymnastics world.
Dusting off her hands, she wiped down the back of her thighs again, making sure she had enough chalk in every position she needed it.
"On floor for Romero's, Jennifer Jareau!"
The one thing she had not expected was the absolute roar of the crowd upon having her name announced. Clearly her popularity was not just within the hordes of young girls that competed in the sport.
Saluting the judges, she stepped into place and readied herself in her starting pose.
"This is a new routine for JJ, but it follows a similar theme to last year's"
Booming through the overhead speakers, her music began. It was a traditional yet modern Scottish song called Hooligan's Holiday by a band called Albannach. It was a nod to her subtle Scottish roots in the grandparents that still lived in the United Kingdom.
She danced back into the first corner, turning on one foot and taking off immediately into her first tumbling pass. It felt so good to be running powerfully across the floor, surrounded by her teammates, cheered on by an excited audience. She hurdled, her body coasting easily through a round-off and into the back handspring. But as soon as she punched up out of the back handspring, she knew it wasn't a good set.
"OOH! Ow, that looked like it hurt!"
The second layout was so low to the ground that she practically crashed into the floor, causing her to rebound into a bad punch front in order to prevent her face from smashing into the carpet. The punch front was no better, landing her flat on her back, staring up at the overhead lights way above her head. Adrenaline pumping, she made no hesitation in pulling herself up and continuing with the routine.
"That was scary!"
"Her ankles are going to feel that landing tomorrow"
She soldiered through the routine, but knew by the end that she'd definitely upset the ligaments in her ankles. Nothing felt torn as such, but there was now a dull ache, particularly in her left ankle, that intensified for a split second every time she landed something.
Moments before starting her last pass, she made the split second decision to just do a simple back tuck out of her flip; she was qualified to Nationals as it was, being a member of the Olympic team, and her floor routine was pretty much sentenced to death after the first tumble anyway.
Landing it easily, she leapt down into her final pose, still managing a big smile for the crowd. Holding it for a moment, she then stood up and saluted the judges, before heading towards the stairs. She could see Nick waiting at the bottom, and having caught his eye, managed a shrug and a grin.
"She doesn't look too upset by that, does she Tim?"
"No, and here's the thing. I spoke to Marta about JJ earlier today, and she told us that JJ has become much more confident in her gymnastics and in herself since going to London; going to the Olympics and having the success she had was the best thing that could have happened to her for her confidence. A year ago, a floor routine like that would have caused a near meltdown. It says a lot about the athlete she's become that, even when the stakes are low for her, she can have a bad routine and walk away with a smile. She'll come back even stronger on the other events, I'm almost certain of that"
"Your ankles aren't going to like you tomorrow," Nick said in a singsong voice as JJ sat down on her chair. JJ chuckled.
"No, but I've had worse. Like shoulders out of place, the fun stuff," she joked.
"We'll work on the layout back in the gym, provided you can still walk by then," Nick said, kneeling down and lifting one of JJ's feet into his lap so he could start taping up her ankle. "You did it beautifully the other day, I think your adrenaline just took over and you got a bit ahead of yourself. You didn't set at all, you whipped straight back into that layout, so it was long and low instead of short and high"
"What's Marta thinking right now?"
"She knows JJ's a tough competitor. It's her first meet back since the Olympics, she'll definitely have it together for Nationals"
After another scary fall from Simone in the third rotation meant her scratching from vault, Kyla had taken out the all-around title of the 2013 US Classic.
JJ had come back guns blazing on her remaining events to deliver three beautiful sets that almost made everyone forget her nail biting fall on floor, reassuring her own worries about whether she could handle the pressure. The fall had been a surprising fluke, of that she was certain. The pain in her ankles had almost died away (but per Nick's insistence, she would be off to the physical therapist on Monday).
Her vault, still a double twisting Yurchenko just to show Marta she was still in it for the all-around, was pretty solid aside from a slightly low chest on her landing. She had come away proud of her effort, just like Nick had expected of her.
She had soared on uneven bars, showing incredible improvement upon the previous year. Halfway through her routine, she had heard Kyla call out "make it fly JJ!". It was a phrase she had never heard before in her life, but somehow, it put some extra wind beneath her wings, and her bars had felt lighter than ever.
Beam, while downgraded, had been her place to prove her gold was merited. And that, she had done, keeping her signature front tuck mount and full twisting double back dismount. The cheers and screams from the crowd when she had landed had been incredible to say the least.
She was pre-qualified to Nationals, and now, she had about a month to iron out the kinks in her routines and come back looking like the Olympic Champion she knew she was.