Unrealistic Expectations
//idea from @otabekvoiceblog//
@theviktornikiforov-rp
Yuri had never been more frustrated. His second Olympic Games, and once again, coming back from an injury. The thing that made everything worse was that the injury he was recovering from was the one he had gotten at the last Olympics. He was hoping his Flip and Lutz would be back, and he’d be back to normal but no such luck.
They were still too shaky for Olympic competition. He couldn’t even chance them in the Team Event to try them out, because if he was wrong, they might lose the gold medal and then it would be his fault. He didn’t need another Team Gold Medal – he had one of those already. He needed a Singles Gold. It wasn’t looking like it was going happen.
Yuri was trying to keep his expectations reasonable, but damn it. It was the only thing he needed and he’d complete the Super Slam. In some sports, similar things were called Golden Slam, but in figure skating it was Super Slam. There were Pairs teams, Ice Dancers, and Women who had done it - many of them in each discipline. In Men’s, only Viktor had done so. Winning every major junior and senior title. Of him and Otabek and all their friends, only Guang-hong was even eligible – not even JJ was. He’d never qualified to the Junior Grand Prix Final. Yuri was only missing that one thing, and then he’d have it all.
Frustrated, he looked back at the ice. What was the point in putting himself through all this if he was never going to do what he wanted, achieve what he wanted? Viktor could do it, why not him? He was supposed to Viktor’s successor, after all. Viktor was his coach. “It fucking sucks,” he muttered to himself. If something was going to happen to take him out every four years, why was he going to keep putting himself through this? No, he needed to do this. He needed to.