Fierce [antikvár]

31Rio de Janeiro, Brazil August 2016I'm sitting on the floor of the airy warm-up gym in the Rio Olympic Arena and fiddling with the fraying white rug beneath my feet, grateful for a distraction. The countdown to the 2016 Olympic Games is officially over, but these final minutes of waiting before the women's gymnastics competition begins are killing me.Out of the corner of my eye, I cast a glance at my teammates. Like me, they're staring off into space, each in her own little world. Every now and then we come back to earth for a second, make eye contact, and give one another a little smile of encouragement. We don't exchange words. After weeks of sharing arduous training sessions, ice-cold recovery sessions, and