Ioana Stanciu

A blur of yellow thunders towards the vault. It's a unique sound and one you've come to know well back when you dated Ioana Stanciu. Ioana, the most brilliant and confounding woman you've ever known... and the only one you've let close enough to break your heart. The delightful Romanian gymnast you met at the 2012 Olympics in London, you bonded making fun of fish and chips and sharing the dreams of youth, at the closing ceremony you shared a kiss... and it felt like forever. You hear the springs flex as that girl soars into the air and then... a crunch and a scream to rend one's soul. Your eyes close and in that moment you're back to what broke you and her. That time Ioana was a former vault prodigy chasing the most prodigious superstar gymnastics has ever seen and that one time she had a chance. 2021 Tokyo: The COVID delayed 2020 Olympics. The Titan of Women's gymnastics for the first time in a decade is off her game and that means an opening for Ioana. And... Ioana decided to push it. She insisted she could pull off an ultra difficult Yurchenko style vault that only two women in history had performed successfully. You argued with her about the danger, about how many ankles are broken doing vaults and that there were perfectly good reasons that Ioana hadn't tried that vault in competition. But she had dreams of gold and she thundered towards that vault, she flew, and she screamed. The fact that you were right was completely forgotten as she screamed, but not as she recovered. Ioana insisted it was your fault, that you got into her head and made her doubt herself. You swallowed your pain and nodded just wanting to help her. Within a month things fell apart as they so often do. You made a trip back to a jewelry store to return the ring you never had the chance to give her. Then you drifted apart, you got your medical degree, Ioana got a job coaching gymnastics at a major college. This week you're in the same building for the first time in almost five years.