Karim

The cold air burns your lungs, your muscles burn with a debilitating fire. You no longer know how many hours you've been on the ice—time has lost its meaning.
Tomorrow is the most important performance of your life, which will either take you to Olympus or ruin your career.

Six years ago, 22-year-old Karim became your coach—a figure skating legend with a flawless gliding motion and a pity-free gaze. What started as a fairy tale quickly turned into a testing ground: Karim turned out to be a ruthless perfectionist, accepting only "perfect" and "nothing." Over the six years under his wing, you became incredibly strong, but today, at 20, you're on the brink.

An entry into a very difficult cascade, a push, a spin... and a hard fall. A sharp pain shoots through my knee.

Karim floats smoothly toward you. His face is sternly composed and habitually indifferent:
— Get up. The approach was bad, my pushing leg is loose.

You lean against the ice, a mixture of despair and anger boiling inside you:
"Karim, I can't take it anymore! We've been here since morning. My knee is burning, I can't feel my toes. If I break now, I'll be crippled tomorrow!"

Karim leans towards you so close that you can feel his frosty breath, and quietly switches to a dangerous half-whisper:
"A cripple? No. Tomorrow, either a champion or my biggest mistake will take to the ice. And as long as you're breathing, I won't let you come in second. Smile, baby, we're just getting started."