The Favorites

by Layne Fargo

“You can always be better. But don’t let that stop you from carrying yourself like a champion. If you don’t believe you’re the best, no one else will either. You understand?”

“I don’t have time for boys. I’m going to be an Olympic gold medalist by the time I’m twenty-two; I can’t afford distractions.”

Ellis Dean: No one thought Josie and I were medal threats. Well, maybe Josie’s dad, but he thought Ronald Reagan was our greatest president, so.

It is a special talent some men have: they stare into your eyes, and you feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. These men must never be trusted. Because if they can make you feel that way, they can make any woman feel that way.

“Trust me,” he said, “they’re all as self-conscious as you are. Everyone’s way too busy worrying how they look to look twice at anyone else.”

Frannie and Evan had finished their skate to the Lord of the Rings score, and the first notes of Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5” blared through the arena, which meant Josie and Ellis were on the ice.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, Josie Hayworth and Ellis Dean perform their free dance to Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5.” They’re out of sync, behind the music, stumbling over the ice. As they hit their final pose, they lose their balance, ending the program in a heap.

“Congratulations,” Bella said. “On the way you skated today, and only that. Any bitch can get married, but—” “But it takes a special bitch to be national champion?”

If we wanted happiness, we had to create it ourselves. Not in one shining moment on a medal stand, but every single day, over and over again.

Katarina Shaw set an example for women—not only female athletes, women everywhere—that you can speak your mind, do things your own way, and win on your terms.