(rivals to lovers, small town, sports) [WATTYS 2024 SHORTLIST] (Season 3 coming soon) After a devastating Olympic loss puts her career in a downward spiral, an aging skier returns to her laid-back mountain hometown to rediscover her love of her spor...
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Going back to Whistler for the holidays didn't really feel like going home. It had been almost two years ago now that Summer had first noticed that her childhood bedroom felt like it belonged to someone else. Kevin's comic book collection had expanded to take over half the space on her bookshelf, and the skiers in the posters on her walls had long since become her peers instead of her idols. After her years in the US for school and then on the World Cup circuit, she was more used to strange beds than the creaky springs and faded floral sheets she'd slept on as a kid.
Her first few days back, she squeezed in a bunch of meetings with her sponsors before everyone shut down for the holidays. Now that she had a tentative timeline for her return to competition, the thought of talking to them didn't feel paralyzing. She didn't have to dodge questions about her injury. She could just channel Juniper by smiling brightly and say, I'll be back with the team by the end of January.
The sponsors were all very kind and encouraging. She even returned from the gym one day to find an enormous gift basket had been sent by her ski sponsor. Her brother had already torn into the chocolate-covered almonds.
"We should think about your overall media strategy," her mother said after they'd shut off the final scheduled call. "By staying quiet, we've been letting other people shape your narrative this year. This would be a good time to retake control. Get ahead of the speculation."
Summer took off her headphones and wrapped the cord. She knew Jie was right. Alpine Canada would want to make a statement, at least. But if there had been one silver lining to the last year, it had been the ability to pretend she didn't have to do that whole part of her job. "Can we just do something low-key? Make a small announcement through my socials? Some training videos with the team and a caption like, Glad to be back?"
"Yes, we can do that. But I was thinking a little more high profile. An interview, maybe. Everyone loves an inspirational comeback story. We could get a lot of good buzz and pull some interest ahead of the Olympic spending burst."
Summer sighed and scraped her hair up into a bun on top of her head. If she leaned into the recovery story, everyone would want to talk about it. She would have to answer questions about her injury all year. The idea made her exhausted. But it also made sense. Everyone loved an underdog, and who was more of an underdog than someone who had been told they would never race again?
"Let me think about it. I have some time before we need to decide, right?"
Jie kissed her teeth. "Don't wait too long. You'll be racing again before you know it."
The thought sent little bubbles of joy floating up from her toes.
It was a relief to get the business out of the way. Nicer was seeing her grandparents, who asked their usual questions about whether she had a boyfriend and how her training was going, in that order. Best was skiing with her family on the slopes she'd first learned on. That part did feel like home. The weather was different than Crystal Peaks, warmer and wetter, and it was good to practice on different snow. On one clear day, she took some photos of the views and sent them to Juniper.
