by Erk
Olympic skater Amy Blahdavich has been skating since she was 3 years old. From a strong line of skaters, with a pedigree exceeding 5 generations, she was her family’s most hopeful entry for the 2010 winter olympics, being held in Vancouver. “I trained her for 10 years” explains her coach Maury Sutherland choking back tears of frustration and sadness “and she had one of the strongest spirits I’d ever had the pleasure of coaching. I just know she would have won. It… it just kills me.”
Tragically, Amy sustained a serious injury when she fell from the bleachers and the zamboni ran over her foot. X-rays revealed a massive compound fracture. “She’ll never skate again” says Dr Prakash. “The delicate bones of her ankle would heal into a jagged and graceless mockery of their original form. There is no choice but to put her down.”
“No one’s told Amy yet, but I think that deep down she can sense it” says her father Alexandr. He adds that whenever he tries to talk to his daughter “She keeps saying she’ll be ready to skate in 2010. She’s such a fighter.” As Alexandr chokes back his tears, he looks hopefully at his younger daughters. “but we must not dwell on the past. We must look to the future! To victory!”
Cindy,who is 11, and Masha, who is 8, are already being groomed to fill their big sister’s skates. “We’ll never be able to skate inVancouver, ” says Cindy, “but I will be ready by 2014.”
“And we won’t fall of the stupid bleachers.” adds her sister Masha.
And thus, the Great Zamboni War was started.