Love Over Gold

Love and Ambition.

The Drive to succeed, to be the best you can.

Every Olympian needs such a drive, needs to be obsessed with winning in order to have a chance of doing so. In many ways, it's like Love: It dominates your life, your feelings, your perception of the world. It's impossible to win Gold without it.

But what if Love and Ambition clash? What if the person you loved was also your opponent? What if your euphoria could only come at the cost of your beloved's angst? Or vice versa?
Would you choose Love over Gold? Should you? Could you achieve the highest pinnacle of your career, the moment you've always dreamed of - if the cost was to crush your lover's dreams? And, if you did, could your love survive?

Diane is a hockey player with a secret - she's autistic. Travelling to the Netherlands to hone her hockey skills, she meets Katrien, a Dutch hockey player with secrets of her own. Seemingly unalike, the quiet, introverted, autistic English goalkeeper and the extroverted Dutch forward strike up a friendship which, after their first victory, becomes something more than friendship.

As their careers progress, they get closer and closer, their relationship deepening and blossoming. But the problems inherent in an autistic-NT relationship also come to the fore, especially when Diane finds out about Katrien's past. Then, when they are selected for their national teams, they're set on a collision course, which climaxes when the Tokyo Olympics rolls around, in 2020. Will Love win out over Gold?

Warning: Contains extracts from Existentialist philosophy and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Only to be read with your Authentic Self.