Olympic Glory

• Ivy Atallah, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2018

"On your marks, get set, GO!" yelled the starter.
The starting gun had gone off. My heart started pounding out of my chest. I looked around and saw my opponents sprinting next to me, they were right on my tail. I looked ahead, the finish line was in sight! Would I make it in time? Without thinking, I looked down at my shoes, oh no! My shoe lace had come un done. In no time, I had tripped over it! My heart had stopped! I watched my opponents cross the finish line without me. I covered my face so no one could see me crying. Fat tears started pouring down my face. What had I done!

What had happened? I had been training to go to the Olympics for four years to represent Australia, whereas now I am not going at all! My chance had gone down the drain. I was annoyed with myself because it was my dream to go to the Olympics and stand on the podium with a medal. It would make my mum feel overwhelmed. What was I going to do? Hopefully the mayor will still let me run, he knows how good I am.

I walked to the starting line and started to stretch. I also made sure my shoe laces were tight! I was feeling really confident this time."On your marks, get set, GO!" yelled the starter for the second time. I started to sprint up my lane but I was to far behind! The crowd was chanting out to me to sprint faster. I started to pick up my pace now, I became one on one with a gold medal Russian sprinter. It was going to be tough to get passed him. I looked out into the crowd and saw mum and dad watching me. Somehow I got in front... I crossed the finish line coming in first place!

I stood up on the podium with a sigh of relief. I was presented with beautiful flowers and a hard worked for gold medal. The crowd clapped and cheered for what felt like ages. I looked out to the crowd. The first person l saw was my mum. There were tears of joy coming out of her eyes. I had finally achieved my goal!