Chapter 169: The Way Things Work Out

They started Tuesday on the mountain, with their skiing-fan friends, to watch the men's Super Giant Slalom. Another chance for Alan Zimmer and the Austrian champ, Ingo Buell, to battle it out.

"As long as we don't have any more pesky Canadians getting in the way," Otto joked.

They didn't. Ingo Buell skied excellently. However, three skiers later, Alan Zimmer skied the Super G of his life, beating Buell by a full half-second. When all was said and done, Zimmer had won his first Olympic gold medal. The Austrians good-naturedly grumbled--and celebrated with Warren and Sophie. Buell took the silver.

That night, on the ice, was the men's short program.

Sophia and Warren sat in the stands with a very nervous Kristin. "I think I'm more nervous than Tom is," Kristin confessed with a giggle. "God, I so want him to skate well."

"He will," Warren assured her. "He's ready for this."

He skated fairly early, and did skate well. He was perfectly clean, and skated with verve and flair. He took the early lead.

However, looming in the later groups was the three-time World Champion, Lavrenti Bladanikov. He was one of the last skaters to skate. Tom was still in the lead when he took the ice.

Everything started out well. He did a fine spin, and some choreography. Then he took off into his combination--the quadruple toe-triple toe. He went up into the quad, landed--and put a hand down.

"Yes!" Kristin hissed softly. Then looked chagrined. "Jeez, it's not nice to root against people."

"It's only natural," Warren laughed.

Bladanikov completed the rest of his program without error, but blowing the combination was a huge mistake. That was an automatic .5 deduction on the technical mark.

However, his presentation marks were so high that he still managed to finish the short program in third place. That kept him in contention, because anyone in the top three would win the gold if they won the long program.

"What a gift," Sophia snorted.

"Of course. He's the three-time defending world champ and he's Russian. Two things that move him right to the front of the gift-getting line," Warren said.

Tom wasn't upset, though, when they talked to him afterwards. "I expected them to somehow keep him in the top three. The big thing is, though, I have momentum."

"That's the spirit," Warren told him.

The next day, Wednesday, after a morning practice, Warren and Sophia headed off to the luge run.

It was the second day of the women's luge. Warren wanted to come and watch Marta, the Estonian luger who carried their flag in the Opening Ceremonies that Warren had chatted with. Sophia and Warren got there, and checked out the scoreboard--after the first two runs, Marta was in third, behind two German lugers.

They found a place near the luge run--and were surprised to see Marta walking along side, working out the kinks in her muscles. "Warren! You came!"

"Sure did. We love all these sports, anyhow." He introduced Marta to Sophia.

"This is great! I love the Olympics, you get to meet so many people," Marta grinned. "I'm going to be watching you guys skate, too, but there's a reason for that. There's an Estonian dance team. They have no shot," she laughed, "but the female of the team is a girl I've been friends with for years."

"Inga Taalsen," Sophia smiled. "We've met her--she's a sweetie."

"They're great, she and her partner. Like you said, they have no chance--top 15 would be a coup--but they love to skate," Warren said.

"I'm gonna love telling her that the Olympic Gold Medallists came to watch me luge."

"Don't count those chickens, we haven't won anything yet," Warren warned.

"She says you're a shoo-in," Marta teased. "Anyhow, got to go slide. Thanks for coming!"

Sophia looked at Warren for a minute, bemused. "You flirt with every girl in the world, don't you?"

"I wasn't flirting!"