olympic medals & broken dreams

Kim Kibum ✩ 800 words
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Two minutes ago he was looking at his team members. The cheer of the audience is loud as he waits for the performer before him to finish.

He’s here, he’s finally here. Never once did he imagine he would ever stand on the Olympic gymnastics field but here he is.

Someone pats his shoulder and he closes his eyes for a second or two while he lets the atmosphere sink in. Jonghyun and Jinki both did outstanding performances. They’re probably going on the podium together. Now it’s his turn to perform what he has been practicing for years.

He opens his eyes as his name sounds on the loud speakers.

“Kibum Kim from South Korea.”

He steps up to the bars, takes one look at them before he claps his hands together in a silent good luck. One jump is all it takes before he’s hanging where he’s supposed to be and he starts spinning, faster and faster, jumping from one bar to the other and back again while he performs all the things he’s been training.

His final is going to be grand because that’s what he wants it to be. He wants to be as good as Jonghyun and Jinki despite them having more years of practice and also a couple of Olympic medals behind them.

Kibum closes his eyes shortly before he starts his final and jumps into free air. Except in the middle of the jump, time seems to disappear and he loses count of how many salto's he has made when he suddenly crashes with the floor, hears a distinct crash and lies completely still.

His back is hurting a little but not very much but as he tries to will his legs to get him to stand they simply won’t listen. Kibum tries to force his legs to respond by pushing off of the floor with his shoulders but suddenly more than one person are there, asking him to please lay down and not move.

It’s ridiculous, of course, he needs to move, he’s going to be just fine. But whenever he tries to say so, someone asks him not to say anything.

Before he knows it, he’s being rushed to the hospital by an ambulance and whenever he tries to tell them that he doesn’t really feel that much pain, it’s just his legs that don’t respond, he’s told to stay still and don’t move at all.

He doesn’t really understand much of what the doctors are saying as he’s rushed into the ER and when they press on his back, he has to admit that okay, it does hurt. A lot. Then he’s rushed for x-rays and an MRI-scan and much later when he’s lying in a bed and is dying to know why his legs aren’t working, he’s hit with the worst possible message he could ever have received.

“Mr. Kim, you’ve sustained a spinal cord injury between T1 and T2 which have caused nerve damage. It seems your legs have been paralysed but how much of your trunk has been paralysed is something we'll have to wait for your recovery to determine. You got a few bruises here and there but no other major injuries. I'm sad to inform you that our therapist will come teach you how to use a wheelchair in the next couple of weeks.”

Kibum stares ahead of him until a thought clutches his chest, squeezes his lungs and makes breathing difficult.

“Does that mean I can’t ever do gymnastics again?”

The doctor doesn’t answer the question as he’s talking to someone else outside the door and Kibum succumbs to his bed and wants to cry.

He doesn’t even realise a few tears has rolled down his cheeks until Jonghyun settles in the chair in front of the bed and wipes them away. Jinki stands behind him, Taemin on the other side. Taemin wrings his hands nervously, Jinki sports a golden medal around his neck while Jonghyun sports a bronze.

Kibum wants to ask them to leave but he can’t get himself to do it. They’re here because they’re worried.

“I’m fine.”

Jonghyun sends him a sad smile and Jinki reaches up to take off the heavy medal, only to gently put the string around Kibum’s neck.

Kibum isn’t fine and he starts crying as he realises he’ll never be on the floor again, he’ll never swing in the bars and he’ll never be able to win an Olympic medal of his own.

All he’ll ever have is a wheelchair and a broken dream.

author's notes

I admire olympic athletes so much, especially after writing this. They're impressive. 
Thanks for reading.