What if athletes could compete in a body perfectly designed for their sport? What if the same athletes had to compete again in a randomly-asssigned body?In the not-too-distant future, technology has advanced to allow people to experience life in any body of their choosing, then return to their own body after six hours. Athletes compete in body-swapping sports to test their skills, their athletic intelligence, and the genetic limits of the human body.
As usual, the tingling subsided as soon as Zella stepped out of the chamber. She looked down over her new body - well by now, she’d spent so much time in this body, pushing it to its physical limits, the lines were starting to blur between this body and her own. She studied her hands.
“You know what,” she said carefully. “Let’s do the longer fingers.”
“You sure?” asked Nix. “These are the ones I gave you for the time trials yesterday.”
“Yep. I was thinking about it last night. They didn't feel quite right.”
Zella turned on her heels and clicked the door to the chamber open again.
“Zel, this isn’t the time to play around,” her coach, Liza, said sternly from over Nix’s shoulder. “Your career is on the line.”
“I’m sure.” Zella said confidently as she lay down on the chamber’s smooth white bench. “Change the fingers.”
Nix tapped on the projection display in front of him and the chamber’s machinery whirred. Zella felt the familiar pins and needles, but only in her fingers this time. Finally, the whirring stopped and the door’s lock clicked open again.
“Perfect,” Zella said, admiring Nix’s work. “Let’s go.”
As Zella, Nix and Liza wove their way through the smooth, gray halls of the stadium’s interior, Zella took deep breaths to calm her anxiety. There was so much at stake. Sure, she’d been a world champion several times over, but the Olympics was a different thing altogether. Earning a cobalt medal at the centuries-old games, could mean lucrative sponsorships, projector broadcasts around the world, becoming a household name. 2084 was only the third year that body decathlon was recognized as an official olympic event, so there wasn’t much precedent to look to for clues about what today’s competition might be like.
Zella was one of the last to arrive at the track. Most of the other athletes were already warming up their competition bodies. Zella scanned the crowd until she locked eyes with Ji Yoon Kim. She instantly recognized the intimidating scowl that the United Korean Peninsula athlete chose for her competition body’s face. The grimace had become something of a calling card and Zella had seen Ji Yoon’s fans wearing caricatures of it on t-shirts.
Ji Yoon and Zella had been neck and neck in the standings for the last two years, alternating first and second place at other world-class body decathlons. Winning the olympic cobalt would solidify one of them as the reigning champion. Zella had sighed with relief when she found out she’d beat Ji Yoon at the time trials yesterday, although it was only by half a second.
Ji Yoon shot Zella a nod of recognition, then went back to bending straight down over her competitive body’s long, muscular legs. Zella noticed that she’d chosen to fill out her body’s shoulders a tiny bit since yesterday. Smart move. She’d seen Ji Yoon lagging a bit during the boulder carry at time trials.
The announcer’s voice sounded through the stadium ordering the athletes to take their places at the starting gates. Cheers roared around the building. Zella scanned the stands looking for Americanadian flags. It was hard to believe that so much time had passed since the civil war, that the Americanadian team could sit right next to the Dixieland team with no violence.
She spotted her family sitting in the front row of the balcony, decked-out in maple leaves and stripes. She caught her wife, Charelle’s eye and blew her a kiss. Her sister, Malya and twelve-year-old nephew, Kit waved excitedly, their faces painted red white and blue. Zella beamed, she knew it’d been difficult for her sister and nephew to travel and she was so grateful to see them there.
Zella took a deep, calming breath as she pushed her feet up against the starting blocks. The organizers had placed her and Ji Yoon beside each other in the center of the track. Zella willed herself not to peek over at her rival
“On your marks,” spoke the announcer through the speakers.
“Get set.” Zella tucked her chin.
“Go!”
Zella breezed through the 200-meter dash, Ji Yoon right beside her. The two of them pulled slightly ahead of the rest of the pack. They worked the sinewy legs of their competition bodies until they reached a sprinting speed of almost thirty miles an hour. They passed the 200-meter finish line and kept sprinting down the track towards the climbing wall. Zella saw Liza waiting with the harness ready.
“You’re doing great,” Liza whispered as she fastened Zella’s buckles. “Remember, clear mind, think only about the competition at hand.”
Zella nodded and hooked her foot into the first rung of the 50-foot wall climb. She pushed up on her competition body’s strong feet and began to ascend. The long, slender fingers Nix built for her were stretching perfectly to reach the holds in the rock. Much better than yesterday. Zella silently celebrated her smart decision as she looked down and saw Ji Yoon climbing ten feet below her.
She focused on the wall, pushing her competition body to move up the rocks as quickly as possible. Zella executed movements she’d never dream of achieving in her natural 45-year-old woman’s body. The proliferation of body swapping sports had been a gift for older athletes and female athletes like Zella. Suddenly, she could compete in a situation where her athletic intelligence was the most important factor, as opposed to her body’s physical traits.
CRISPR, the technology that supported body-swapping sports, had matured in the late 2030s, but it hadn’t been used for recreation until the last decade. When it was first developed, the changes CRISPR made to human DNA were unpredictable. A CRISPR mutation that was meant to cure Multiple Sclerosis left the patient with limb paralysis. A treatment for blindness also caused seizures. Not only were these changes permanent and irreversible, scientists were shocked to find that the mutations lived on into the children of these patients and into the next generation as well.
After some time, CRISPR technology became more precise, but the process was still prohibitively expensive. For the next two decades it was reserved for curing debilitating diseases. Of course there were debates over the ethics of using CRISPR to make yourself taller or more attractive, but these were mostly theoretical. The long-term side effects were still unknown, so people were wary of using it to give themselves bigger breasts or bluer eyes.
In the 2070s, however, a breakthrough made the CRISPR process much faster and more affordable, but the DNA changes made using this method wore off after six hours. The impermanent results almost made this technique even more exciting. A revolution in body experimentation began.
People harnessed the technology for sexual adventures and movie stunts. It was used to help the elderly regain mobility. CRISPR salons sprung up where customers could alter their appearances before a night out on the town. It became illegal to seduce another person in a CRISPR body without disclosure.
The technology was life-changing for the trans and gender-fluid community. Suddenly, trans people could experience life within the exact bodies they were meant to have. This was how Zella’s body designer, Nix, began their career. Every morning and afternoon, Nix stepped into the CRISPR chamber and came out in their androgynous body, expertly fine-tuned after years of tweaks to its programming. Zella knew that it must break their heart to have the changes wear off overnight.
People quickly discovered CRISPR’s profound implications for sports. Most major leagues banned the technology, but side leagues popped up almost immediately. Spectators were fascinated to see what a body perfectly designed for basketball could achieve on the court. And sports like the body decathlon were invented to test the overall limits of the human body.
.
Zella caught a glimpse of her competition face’s triumphant grin on the stadium’s huge projection screen as she rang the bell at the top of the climbing wall. She was comfortably in the lead now, but she chided herself for the display of arrogance as she repelled down. There were still three other events in today’s race - this wasn’t the time to become complacent.
“Great work,” said Liza as she unclipped Zella’s harness. “Keep it steady on the uneven bars. Remember, elbows straight on the spin. You got this.”
Zella nodded with gratitude. She would never stop being impressed by Liza’s versatility as a coach. Like most other elite body decathletes, Zella worked with specialized coaches for each event. It was crucial to have a head coach like Liza who could pull all the events together. Event coaches always pushed the body designer for tweaks that benefited their own sport. The 200-meter dash coach wants long legs, the boulder carry coach wants bulky arms. Liza was well-versed enough that she knew which adjustments would be detrimental to other events. It was Liza’s direction that led Nix to fine-tune Zella’s competition body to work well for everything.
Zella took a deep breath as she chalked her hands for the uneven bar routine. Of all the events, this one challenged her the most. Each athlete had to complete a pre-set gymnastics routine under a referee's watchful eye. There were no extra points given for perfect form, but certain mistakes could mean disqualification. In every body decathlon, several athletes were usually removed due to a missed catch or a single flip instead of a double. Zella spent months practicing the uneven bars with an olympic gymnast’s physique, barely coming close to completing a successful routine. Her own body was nowhere near flexible enough to execute any of the stunts, so it felt unnatural to trust that her competition body would bend that way.
Zella hopped up to grab the high bar, swung up into a handstand and leapt into her first catch on the low bar. It was going well today. The trick felt good, as natural as walking down the street.
Now for the combination. This was always the toughest to execute. The competition body needed long limbs for climbing and running. These weren’t ideal for gymnastics. Zella had suffered a few embarrassing early-career disqualifications for awkwardly whacking her foot against the bar.
She swung into a pike position, bending her legs up towards her face until the tops of her thighs made contact with the bar. For a moment, she panicked that she might lose her balance, but no, just as she’d done a thousand times in practice, she executed a graceful leap to catch the high bar again. Relief washed over Zella as she completed the final spin around the high bar into a perfect double backflip dismount. The worst was over.
Zella was still in first place, with Ji Yoon on her tail. The Australian, Japanese and South American Republic athletes were close behind. They rounded the track to take their seats at the sewing table. The roar of the crowd always hushed to a whisper at this part of the competition. Fans collectively held their breath to watch close-ups of the athletes’ fingers on the projection screen.
Zella completed her first of twenty stitches, right through the middle of the guideline. It had taken her years to learn how to keep her hands from shaking after the demands of the wall climb and the uneven bars.
As Zella sewed, the long fingers that had been such a boon during the wall climb were feeling more and more like a bad decision. Zella and Ji Yoon were seated next to each other, so she could see that her foe was already completing her tenth stitch, while she had only finished four.
A thunderous gasp rang through the stadium. Zella couldn’t help but look up from her work to catch a glance at the projection screen. She saw a close-up of the Australian athlete’s needle popping through the fabric, ever-so-slightly outside the guideline. This meant instant disqualification. Zella’s heart sank with pity, she’d met the Australian athlete last month at the world championships and liked her.
She narrowed her eyes to focus on her own sewing, She could not afford a similar mistake. Ji Yoon was nearly at the end of the guideline now, how was she going so fast? Zella silently cursed herself for her last-minute choice to lengthen her body’s fingers.
Ji Yoon held her completed stitches over her head triumphantly and raced towards the final event. Zella still had four stitches to go. Finally, after what felt like eons, Zella’s needle made its twentieth stitch. She threw the fabric aside and launched herself up from the table.
The body decathlon’s final event was the boulder carry. Ten rocks of increasing weight had to be moved from one basket to another ten feet away. Most athletes went from lightest to heaviest, but Zella preferred to move the heaviest boulder in the middle to avoid getting too fatigued to lift it.
Ji Yoon was already on her third boulder by the time she arrived, so Zella worked quickly to catch up. She had to resist working too quickly, however, as she knew that any injury made to her competition body would show up on her own body as well.
As Zella heaved the heaviest boulder into the second basket, she saw that Ji Yoon was nearly done, with only two boulders left. Of course, Ji Yoon still had her heaviest boulder to go, while Zella had already taken care of hers. It was hard to tell who was in the lead.
Zella passed Ji Yoon carrying her next boulder, but she still had two more left, while Ji Yoon only had one. The fans in the crowd were all on their feet cheering now. Zella raced back to grab her last boulder. Her rival was almost finished. She’d nearly caught up just as Ji Yoon was tipping her last boulder into the basket. The buzzer sounded. Ji Yoon had finished the day’s events 0.7 seconds ahead of her.
Zella hung her head with disappointment. She remembered that the projection cameras were focused on her, so she tried to remain stoic.
Liza appeared by her side and patted her on the shoulder.
“It’s OK, Zel,” she said. “It’s not over yet. There’s still tomorrow.”
—--------------------------
The next morning, the sun was just beginning to rise as Zella and Liza walked through the belly of the stadium to meet Nix at the Americanadian CRISPR chamber.
Nix had already received the olympic committee’s instructions to program today’s body and they were hunched over the machine, entering commands into the control panel. Yesterday, the athletes competed in their own unique competition bodies, but today they would all compete using the same randomly-assigned body. This posed a different test of athletic intelligence; how well could each athlete adapt to a less-than-ideal physique?
To prepare her for this part of the competition, Zella’s training regimen alternated bodies each day. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, she practiced in her ideal competition body. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, Nix threw her whatever challenge he could think of - seven-foot-tall bodies, three-foot-tall bodies, toddlers, 75-year-olds, amputees, cancer patients with painful tumors that inhibited her movements, 300-pound bodies, 75-pound bodies - you name it.
The only limits set by the Body Decathlon Federation were that the bodies had to exist within the genetic limits of humanity and they had to theoretically be able to complete the competition. Infants and bodies with extremely low mobility were a no-go.
Zella and Liza waited for Nix to complete the programming instructions, rocking from foot to foot with anticipation. Nix was taking longer than usual today.
“You okay Nix?” asked Liza.
They furrowed their brow. “Um… yep. Almost done, I think.”
“We’ve got lots of time, so don’t rush.” Liza assured them.
“Mhm,” they grunted, running their hands over their chin-length hair nervously as they squinted at the control panel. This confusion was uncharacteristic of Nix. Zella had been working with them for nearly five years and she’d never seen anything phase them.
“Okay. Ready.” Nix finally said and pressed the button that opened the chamber’s door.
Zella entered, the machinery whirred and she felt the tingling rush throughout her body. After twenty minutes, the door clicked open and she stepped out into the room.
Liza and Nix took Zella’s new body in. “A ten-year-old boy?” Liza said, dumbfounded.
Zella looked down and patted her new hands up and down her new body’s smooth chest. “Really? So easy.”
Four years ago, the day-two body at the Olympics had been a fifty-year-old woman with severe scoliosis. Zella was expecting something more challenging. Sure, children’s lack of fine motor control made sewing more difficult and the boulders would be challenging, but overall, a ten-year-old’s body would be a cinch.
Liza shrugged. “If that’s what the instructions said, I’m not going to argue. Let’s go to the field.”
The team moved towards the doorway. Nix drew in their breath as if they wanted to say something. Liza and Zella whirled around.
“What is it, Nix?” Zella asked.
“Um… it’s just... “ Nix looked conflicted. Their eyes darted back and forth between Zella and Liza. “Never mind.”
“If you made a mistake programming the body, now is the time to say so. We can still go back and fix it.” Liza said sternly.
“No, it’s not that at all,” they promised. “It’s nothing. Let’s go.”
Liza rolled her eyes and the three of them began to walk briskly towards the track.
Zella’s team arrived at the starting gates. Now, the only visual difference between the athletes were the flags on their uniforms. Zella always thought it strange that she was a world-famous athlete, but her fans never saw her real face when she competed. Zella saw that most of the other athletes and coaches wore the same bewildered expression at the assignment of the ten-year-old’s body.
Again, the announcer called the athletes to take their places. Zella and Ji Yoon nodded their identical faces towards each other as they lined up at their blocks.
“On your marks…” the announcer called. “Get set… Go!”
The athletes launched into the 200-meter dash. Zella felt her heart rate speed up as she ran. It was more intense than usual, like her heart was about to leap up into her throat. She compensated by taking bigger, gulping breaths into her diaphragm.
Although the body’s heart was racing, its other muscles felt slower than they should, as if she was trying to run under water. She was at the front of the pack, but she didn’t feel like she was performing at her peak. Ji Yoon raced just behind her, also gasping for air.
As Zella and Ji Yoon crossed the 200-meter finish line, a loud gasp resounded around the stadium. Zella glanced backwards to see that the Japanese athlete had tripped and fallen mid-race. Falls during the uneven bars were common, but a fall during the sprint was unheard of. Something about today’s body was not as it seemed.
“Keep your head in the game,” Liza reminded Zella as she fastened her climbing harness.
Zella began scaling the wall. She made what should have been an easy reach for a hold above her head, but found that her hand missed its target. Her legs refused to push straight up off the footholds. She began to take smaller steps, using rungs that were close together. Her heart continued to pound as she climbed. She wondered if Nix had made a mistake in the programming. But if that were true, all the other athletes would be ahead of her by now and she was still leading the pack by a hair.
After several agonizing minutes of struggle, Zella rang the bell at the top of the wall. She looked up at her family in the stands and saw her nephew, Kit staring down at her, his eyes wide with shock.
The moment she locked eyes with Kit, she knew.
Her mind flashed back over memories of anxious, late-night phone calls with her sister, Malya. The hours they’d spent poring over clinical test reports, trying to decipher the doctors’ notes on Kit’s condition. CRISPR treatments had improved his prognosis, but they couldn’t cure him entirely. He still lived with the unique challenge of having a neuromuscular disability that was invisible at first glance. Malya worried he’d be bullied on the playground for his clumsiness. People were always confused as to why he couldn’t do the same physical activities as his classmates.
Zella realized that today’s competition body must be burdened with a neuromuscular disease similar to Kit’s. As she repelled down the wall, she mulled over what to do with this information. She guessed that most of the other contestants hadn’t caught on yet and would continue to use the body as if it were a typical ten-year-old’s. She could use this to her advantage.
“Something seems off today, but keep pushing,” Liza said as she unfastened Zella’s harness. Ji Yoon had also just made it down the wall, so they were tied for first.
“I got this.” Zella nodded confidently and jogged away from the climbing wall towards the next event.
The gymnastics event at day two of the body decathlon took place on a balance beam instead of the uneven bars. The upper-body strength required to complete the uneven bar routine was too difficult for most bodies. Still, Zella knew she’d have to be cautious.
She clenched her muscles and pushed herself up onto the beam. Pausing for a moment, she considered how she might complete the first spin. She decided to copy a technique she’d seen Kit use on the playground. She took a deep breath in and focused her eyes on a spot in front of her before attempting the trick. Slowly and carefully, Zella executed the move. Success. Only two more moves to go.
She rose to her feet and lifted her arms over her head. Now for the split jump. Remembering that there were no points given for perfect form, Zella completed the smallest amount of movement allowed. Even then, she had to strain against the cramps in her legs and she wobbled as she landed on the beam.
All around her, other athletes were falling off their beams and disqualifying themselves. Beside her, Ji Yoon wind-milled her arms, nearly losing her balance after the leap.
Last was the cartwheel dismount. She recalled the summer when Kit first received his diagnosis. One of the early clues that something in his body was amiss was that his elbows kept giving out when he attempted a cartwheel. Zella copied the form she’d seen him use with bent arms. She sank low to absorb the shock in her legs as she landed.
Suddenly, the crowd let out a loud “ooh!” The projection screen showed an instant replay of the French athlete painfully smacking their shoulder as he failed his dismount.
Only five athletes remained in the competition when Zella sat down at the sewing tables. She knew she’d have to be extremely cautious to avoid disqualification.
She picked up her needle and thread. It took six tries today to thread the needle because her hand kept slipping and missing the hole. Slowly, painstakingly, she made the first stitch, then another. She moved at a snail’s pace, watching as other athletes attempted to rush through and were disqualified. Ji Yoon seemed to sense that slow and steady was the best bet as well and she crept along with Zella. By the time they finished their twenty stitches, nearly thirty minutes later, the two rivals were the only athletes left in the competition.
Zella put down her sewing and jogged with dread towards the boulder carry. How would she ever complete it? The day-two boulders were lighter than yesterday’s, but it would still be an inconceivable challenge.
Zella mulled over the problem. Maybe rolling the boulders would be easier. There were no rules against rolling, but this would use up so much extra time. It was a risky move, but it would pay off immensely if she managed to preserve her strength and Ji Yoon tapped out early. Zella heard the crowd muttering with confusion as she began to roll the smallest boulder.
By the time her first boulder was in the basket, Ji Yoon was already way ahead of her, carrying her third. Zella began to worry that she’d guessed wrong.
She snapped back to attention and scolded herself for focusing on Ji Yoon. There was no point in looking at what her competitor was doing. She’d decided on her strategy and she would stick with it.
By the time Zella had moved her third boulder, things were looking as though they might take a turn. Ji Yoon was working on her fifth boulder and struggling miserably. For the sixth, she began to copy Zella’s method of rolling them. Zella managed to catch up and the two athletes rolled their sixth boulders into their baskets at exactly the same time.
Zella decided that now was the time to try the heaviest boulder. She knew she’d have to save some strength for the end. She heaved against the rock with all her might and it barely moved an inch. Ji Yoon passed her with the seventh-heaviest boulder. Little by little, she rolled it across the field.
When Zella finally tipped the heaviest boulder into the basket, Ji Yoon was working on her ninth boulder, struggling against its weight. Her competitor stopped mid-field, her hands on her thighs, painting with exhaustion and Zella caught up. Both athletes tipped their ninth boulders into the basket at the same time. They were tied again with one more rock to go, although Ji Yoon still had her heaviest. Both athletes trudged back to the first basket.
Ji Yoon braced her body against the boulder. It didn’t budge. She’d used up all her strength and couldn’t push any longer. Zella realized that the cobalt medal was hers, just as long as she could move the last boulder. Her body was so sore by now, it felt like her arms and legs might fall out of their sockets. She stretched the fingers of her hands in the same way she’d seen Kit do it. She steeled herself and began to move the last rock.
It took all her might, every last ounce of strength she had to roll it across the floor. She passed Ji Yoon and saw tears running down her competitor’s face as she tried in vain to catch up. Zella heaved and heaved, taking breaks to breath and stretch out her fingers. She worried that Ji Yoon might regain her strength at any minute.
In the stands, the Americanadian fans were on their feet, fervently waving their flags and cheering. She saw Kit yelling, “Go! Go!” She knew she had to win this for him. If she could do this, it would help prove that he could live any kind of life he wanted. Determined, she made the final heave and the boulder landed in the basket. Zella collapsed on the ground, exhausted but elated. She’d won.
Liza and Nix rushed onto the field to join her. They lifted her up with her arms around their shoulders and helped her walk to the first-place podium. Someone brought out a cobalt medal and hung it around her neck.
“I wanted to tell you!” Nix whispered breathlessly in her ear as she waved to the cameras. “I wanted to tell you so badly, but I knew it was against the rules.”
“I know,” Zella nodded. “I figured it out, I guess.”
Nix and Liza raised Zella’s exhausted arms over her head in triumph. Ji Yoon nodded at her respectfully. She would take home the silver for advancing the farthest of any other competitors.
Zella’s family made their way down from the stands and joined her on the field. Her wife embraced her and kissed her deeply. She knelt down to meet Kit’s eye and the two looked at each other knowingly for a long time.
“I’m proud of you, Auntie,” Kit said.
“I’m proud of you,” said Zella and she pulled him in for a hug.
As usual, the tingling subsided as soon as Zella stepped out of the chamber. She looked down over her new body - well by now, she’d spent so much time in this body, pushing it to its physical limits, the lines were starting to blur between this body and her own. She studied her hands.
“You know what,” she said carefully. “Let’s do the longer fingers.”
“You sure?” asked Nix. “These are the ones I gave you for the time trials yesterday.”
“Yep. I was thinking about it last night. They didn't feel quite right.”
Zella turned on her heels and clicked the door to the chamber open again.
“Zel, this isn’t the time to play around,” her coach, Liza, said sternly from over Nix’s shoulder. “Your career is on the line.”
“I’m sure.” Zella said confidently as she lay down on the chamber’s smooth white bench. “Change the fingers.”
Nix tapped on the projection display in front of him and the chamber’s machinery whirred. Zella felt the familiar pins and needles, but only in her fingers this time. Finally, the whirring stopped and the door’s lock clicked open again.
“Perfect,” Zella said, admiring Nix’s work. “Let’s go.”
As Zella, Nix and Liza wove their way through the smooth, gray halls of the stadium’s interior, Zella took deep breaths to calm her anxiety. There was so much at stake. Sure, she’d been a world champion several times over, but the Olympics was a different thing altogether. Earning a cobalt medal at the centuries-old games, could mean lucrative sponsorships, projector broadcasts around the world, becoming a household name. 2084 was only the third year that body decathlon was recognized as an official olympic event, so there wasn’t much precedent to look to for clues about what today’s competition might be like.
Zella was one of the last to arrive at the track. Most of the other athletes were already warming up their competition bodies. Zella scanned the crowd until she locked eyes with Ji Yoon Kim. She instantly recognized the intimidating scowl that the United Korean Peninsula athlete chose for her competition body’s face. The grimace had become something of a calling card and Zella had seen Ji Yoon’s fans wearing caricatures of it on t-shirts.
Ji Yoon and Zella had been neck and neck in the standings for the last two years, alternating first and second place at other world-class body decathlons. Winning the olympic cobalt would solidify one of them as the reigning champion. Zella had sighed with relief when she found out she’d beat Ji Yoon at the time trials yesterday, although it was only by half a second.
Ji Yoon shot Zella a nod of recognition, then went back to bending straight down over her competitive body’s long, muscular legs. Zella noticed that she’d chosen to fill out her body’s shoulders a tiny bit since yesterday. Smart move. She’d seen Ji Yoon lagging a bit during the boulder carry at time trials.
The announcer’s voice sounded through the stadium ordering the athletes to take their places at the starting gates. Cheers roared around the building. Zella scanned the stands looking for Americanadian flags. It was hard to believe that so much time had passed since the civil war, that the Americanadian team could sit right next to the Dixieland team with no violence.
She spotted her family sitting in the front row of the balcony, decked-out in maple leaves and stripes. She caught her wife, Charelle’s eye and blew her a kiss. Her sister, Malya and twelve-year-old nephew, Kit waved excitedly, their faces painted red white and blue. Zella beamed, she knew it’d been difficult for her sister and nephew to travel and she was so grateful to see them there.
Zella took a deep, calming breath as she pushed her feet up against the starting blocks. The organizers had placed her and Ji Yoon beside each other in the center of the track. Zella willed herself not to peek over at her rival
“On your marks,” spoke the announcer through the speakers.
“Get set.” Zella tucked her chin.
“Go!”
Zella breezed through the 200-meter dash, Ji Yoon right beside her. The two of them pulled slightly ahead of the rest of the pack. They worked the sinewy legs of their competition bodies until they reached a sprinting speed of almost thirty miles an hour. They passed the 200-meter finish line and kept sprinting down the track towards the climbing wall. Zella saw Liza waiting with the harness ready.
“You’re doing great,” Liza whispered as she fastened Zella’s buckles. “Remember, clear mind, think only about the competition at hand.”
Zella nodded and hooked her foot into the first rung of the 50-foot wall climb. She pushed up on her competition body’s strong feet and began to ascend. The long, slender fingers Nix built for her were stretching perfectly to reach the holds in the rock. Much better than yesterday. Zella silently celebrated her smart decision as she looked down and saw Ji Yoon climbing ten feet below her.
She focused on the wall, pushing her competition body to move up the rocks as quickly as possible. Zella executed movements she’d never dream of achieving in her natural 45-year-old woman’s body. The proliferation of body swapping sports had been a gift for older athletes and female athletes like Zella. Suddenly, she could compete in a situation where her athletic intelligence was the most important factor, as opposed to her body’s physical traits.
CRISPR, the technology that supported body-swapping sports, had matured in the late 2030s, but it hadn’t been used for recreation until the last decade. When it was first developed, the changes CRISPR made to human DNA were unpredictable. A CRISPR mutation that was meant to cure Multiple Sclerosis left the patient with limb paralysis. A treatment for blindness also caused seizures. Not only were these changes permanent and irreversible, scientists were shocked to find that the mutations lived on into the children of these patients and into the next generation as well.
After some time, CRISPR technology became more precise, but the process was still prohibitively expensive. For the next two decades it was reserved for curing debilitating diseases. Of course there were debates over the ethics of using CRISPR to make yourself taller or more attractive, but these were mostly theoretical. The long-term side effects were still unknown, so people were wary of using it to give themselves bigger breasts or bluer eyes.
In the 2070s, however, a breakthrough made the CRISPR process much faster and more affordable, but the DNA changes made using this method wore off after six hours. The impermanent results almost made this technique even more exciting. A revolution in body experimentation began.
People harnessed the technology for sexual adventures and movie stunts. It was used to help the elderly regain mobility. CRISPR salons sprung up where customers could alter their appearances before a night out on the town. It became illegal to seduce another person in a CRISPR body without disclosure.
The technology was life-changing for the trans and gender-fluid community. Suddenly, trans people could experience life within the exact bodies they were meant to have. This was how Zella’s body designer, Nix, began their career. Every morning and afternoon, Nix stepped into the CRISPR chamber and came out in their androgynous body, expertly fine-tuned after years of tweaks to its programming. Zella knew that it must break their heart to have the changes wear off overnight.
People quickly discovered CRISPR’s profound implications for sports. Most major leagues banned the technology, but side leagues popped up almost immediately. Spectators were fascinated to see what a body perfectly designed for basketball could achieve on the court. And sports like the body decathlon were invented to test the overall limits of the human body.
.
Zella caught a glimpse of her competition face’s triumphant grin on the stadium’s huge projection screen as she rang the bell at the top of the climbing wall. She was comfortably in the lead now, but she chided herself for the display of arrogance as she repelled down. There were still three other events in today’s race - this wasn’t the time to become complacent.
“Great work,” said Liza as she unclipped Zella’s harness. “Keep it steady on the uneven bars. Remember, elbows straight on the spin. You got this.”
Zella nodded with gratitude. She would never stop being impressed by Liza’s versatility as a coach. Like most other elite body decathletes, Zella worked with specialized coaches for each event. It was crucial to have a head coach like Liza who could pull all the events together. Event coaches always pushed the body designer for tweaks that benefited their own sport. The 200-meter dash coach wants long legs, the boulder carry coach wants bulky arms. Liza was well-versed enough that she knew which adjustments would be detrimental to other events. It was Liza’s direction that led Nix to fine-tune Zella’s competition body to work well for everything.
Zella took a deep breath as she chalked her hands for the uneven bar routine. Of all the events, this one challenged her the most. Each athlete had to complete a pre-set gymnastics routine under a referee's watchful eye. There were no extra points given for perfect form, but certain mistakes could mean disqualification. In every body decathlon, several athletes were usually removed due to a missed catch or a single flip instead of a double. Zella spent months practicing the uneven bars with an olympic gymnast’s physique, barely coming close to completing a successful routine. Her own body was nowhere near flexible enough to execute any of the stunts, so it felt unnatural to trust that her competition body would bend that way.
Zella hopped up to grab the high bar, swung up into a handstand and leapt into her first catch on the low bar. It was going well today. The trick felt good, as natural as walking down the street.
Now for the combination. This was always the toughest to execute. The competition body needed long limbs for climbing and running. These weren’t ideal for gymnastics. Zella had suffered a few embarrassing early-career disqualifications for awkwardly whacking her foot against the bar.
She swung into a pike position, bending her legs up towards her face until the tops of her thighs made contact with the bar. For a moment, she panicked that she might lose her balance, but no, just as she’d done a thousand times in practice, she executed a graceful leap to catch the high bar again. Relief washed over Zella as she completed the final spin around the high bar into a perfect double backflip dismount. The worst was over.
Zella was still in first place, with Ji Yoon on her tail. The Australian, Japanese and South American Republic athletes were close behind. They rounded the track to take their seats at the sewing table. The roar of the crowd always hushed to a whisper at this part of the competition. Fans collectively held their breath to watch close-ups of the athletes’ fingers on the projection screen.
Zella completed her first of twenty stitches, right through the middle of the guideline. It had taken her years to learn how to keep her hands from shaking after the demands of the wall climb and the uneven bars.
As Zella sewed, the long fingers that had been such a boon during the wall climb were feeling more and more like a bad decision. Zella and Ji Yoon were seated next to each other, so she could see that her foe was already completing her tenth stitch, while she had only finished four.
A thunderous gasp rang through the stadium. Zella couldn’t help but look up from her work to catch a glance at the projection screen. She saw a close-up of the Australian athlete’s needle popping through the fabric, ever-so-slightly outside the guideline. This meant instant disqualification. Zella’s heart sank with pity, she’d met the Australian athlete last month at the world championships and liked her.
She narrowed her eyes to focus on her own sewing, She could not afford a similar mistake. Ji Yoon was nearly at the end of the guideline now, how was she going so fast? Zella silently cursed herself for her last-minute choice to lengthen her body’s fingers.
Ji Yoon held her completed stitches over her head triumphantly and raced towards the final event. Zella still had four stitches to go. Finally, after what felt like eons, Zella’s needle made its twentieth stitch. She threw the fabric aside and launched herself up from the table.
The body decathlon’s final event was the boulder carry. Ten rocks of increasing weight had to be moved from one basket to another ten feet away. Most athletes went from lightest to heaviest, but Zella preferred to move the heaviest boulder in the middle to avoid getting too fatigued to lift it.
Ji Yoon was already on her third boulder by the time she arrived, so Zella worked quickly to catch up. She had to resist working too quickly, however, as she knew that any injury made to her competition body would show up on her own body as well.
As Zella heaved the heaviest boulder into the second basket, she saw that Ji Yoon was nearly done, with only two boulders left. Of course, Ji Yoon still had her heaviest boulder to go, while Zella had already taken care of hers. It was hard to tell who was in the lead.
Zella passed Ji Yoon carrying her next boulder, but she still had two more left, while Ji Yoon only had one. The fans in the crowd were all on their feet cheering now. Zella raced back to grab her last boulder. Her rival was almost finished. She’d nearly caught up just as Ji Yoon was tipping her last boulder into the basket. The buzzer sounded. Ji Yoon had finished the day’s events 0.7 seconds ahead of her.
Zella hung her head with disappointment. She remembered that the projection cameras were focused on her, so she tried to remain stoic.
Liza appeared by her side and patted her on the shoulder.
“It’s OK, Zel,” she said. “It’s not over yet. There’s still tomorrow.”
—--------------------------
The next morning, the sun was just beginning to rise as Zella and Liza walked through the belly of the stadium to meet Nix at the Americanadian CRISPR chamber.
Nix had already received the olympic committee’s instructions to program today’s body and they were hunched over the machine, entering commands into the control panel. Yesterday, the athletes competed in their own unique competition bodies, but today they would all compete using the same randomly-assigned body. This posed a different test of athletic intelligence; how well could each athlete adapt to a less-than-ideal physique?
To prepare her for this part of the competition, Zella’s training regimen alternated bodies each day. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, she practiced in her ideal competition body. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, Nix threw her whatever challenge he could think of - seven-foot-tall bodies, three-foot-tall bodies, toddlers, 75-year-olds, amputees, cancer patients with painful tumors that inhibited her movements, 300-pound bodies, 75-pound bodies - you name it.
The only limits set by the Body Decathlon Federation were that the bodies had to exist within the genetic limits of humanity and they had to theoretically be able to complete the competition. Infants and bodies with extremely low mobility were a no-go.
Zella and Liza waited for Nix to complete the programming instructions, rocking from foot to foot with anticipation. Nix was taking longer than usual today.
“You okay Nix?” asked Liza.
They furrowed their brow. “Um… yep. Almost done, I think.”
“We’ve got lots of time, so don’t rush.” Liza assured them.
“Mhm,” they grunted, running their hands over their chin-length hair nervously as they squinted at the control panel. This confusion was uncharacteristic of Nix. Zella had been working with them for nearly five years and she’d never seen anything phase them.
“Okay. Ready.” Nix finally said and pressed the button that opened the chamber’s door.
Zella entered, the machinery whirred and she felt the tingling rush throughout her body. After twenty minutes, the door clicked open and she stepped out into the room.
Liza and Nix took Zella’s new body in. “A ten-year-old boy?” Liza said, dumbfounded.
Zella looked down and patted her new hands up and down her new body’s smooth chest. “Really? So easy.”
Four years ago, the day-two body at the Olympics had been a fifty-year-old woman with severe scoliosis. Zella was expecting something more challenging. Sure, children’s lack of fine motor control made sewing more difficult and the boulders would be challenging, but overall, a ten-year-old’s body would be a cinch.
Liza shrugged. “If that’s what the instructions said, I’m not going to argue. Let’s go to the field.”
The team moved towards the doorway. Nix drew in their breath as if they wanted to say something. Liza and Zella whirled around.
“What is it, Nix?” Zella asked.
“Um… it’s just... “ Nix looked conflicted. Their eyes darted back and forth between Zella and Liza. “Never mind.”
“If you made a mistake programming the body, now is the time to say so. We can still go back and fix it.” Liza said sternly.
“No, it’s not that at all,” they promised. “It’s nothing. Let’s go.”
Liza rolled her eyes and the three of them began to walk briskly towards the track.
Zella’s team arrived at the starting gates. Now, the only visual difference between the athletes were the flags on their uniforms. Zella always thought it strange that she was a world-famous athlete, but her fans never saw her real face when she competed. Zella saw that most of the other athletes and coaches wore the same bewildered expression at the assignment of the ten-year-old’s body.
Again, the announcer called the athletes to take their places. Zella and Ji Yoon nodded their identical faces towards each other as they lined up at their blocks.
“On your marks…” the announcer called. “Get set… Go!”
The athletes launched into the 200-meter dash. Zella felt her heart rate speed up as she ran. It was more intense than usual, like her heart was about to leap up into her throat. She compensated by taking bigger, gulping breaths into her diaphragm.
Although the body’s heart was racing, its other muscles felt slower than they should, as if she was trying to run under water. She was at the front of the pack, but she didn’t feel like she was performing at her peak. Ji Yoon raced just behind her, also gasping for air.
As Zella and Ji Yoon crossed the 200-meter finish line, a loud gasp resounded around the stadium. Zella glanced backwards to see that the Japanese athlete had tripped and fallen mid-race. Falls during the uneven bars were common, but a fall during the sprint was unheard of. Something about today’s body was not as it seemed.
“Keep your head in the game,” Liza reminded Zella as she fastened her climbing harness.
Zella began scaling the wall. She made what should have been an easy reach for a hold above her head, but found that her hand missed its target. Her legs refused to push straight up off the footholds. She began to take smaller steps, using rungs that were close together. Her heart continued to pound as she climbed. She wondered if Nix had made a mistake in the programming. But if that were true, all the other athletes would be ahead of her by now and she was still leading the pack by a hair.
After several agonizing minutes of struggle, Zella rang the bell at the top of the wall. She looked up at her family in the stands and saw her nephew, Kit staring down at her, his eyes wide with shock.
The moment she locked eyes with Kit, she knew.
Her mind flashed back over memories of anxious, late-night phone calls with her sister, Malya. The hours they’d spent poring over clinical test reports, trying to decipher the doctors’ notes on Kit’s condition. CRISPR treatments had improved his prognosis, but they couldn’t cure him entirely. He still lived with the unique challenge of having a neuromuscular disability that was invisible at first glance. Malya worried he’d be bullied on the playground for his clumsiness. People were always confused as to why he couldn’t do the same physical activities as his classmates.
Zella realized that today’s competition body must be burdened with a neuromuscular disease similar to Kit’s. As she repelled down the wall, she mulled over what to do with this information. She guessed that most of the other contestants hadn’t caught on yet and would continue to use the body as if it were a typical ten-year-old’s. She could use this to her advantage.
“Something seems off today, but keep pushing,” Liza said as she unfastened Zella’s harness. Ji Yoon had also just made it down the wall, so they were tied for first.
“I got this.” Zella nodded confidently and jogged away from the climbing wall towards the next event.
The gymnastics event at day two of the body decathlon took place on a balance beam instead of the uneven bars. The upper-body strength required to complete the uneven bar routine was too difficult for most bodies. Still, Zella knew she’d have to be cautious.
She clenched her muscles and pushed herself up onto the beam. Pausing for a moment, she considered how she might complete the first spin. She decided to copy a technique she’d seen Kit use on the playground. She took a deep breath in and focused her eyes on a spot in front of her before attempting the trick. Slowly and carefully, Zella executed the move. Success. Only two more moves to go.
She rose to her feet and lifted her arms over her head. Now for the split jump. Remembering that there were no points given for perfect form, Zella completed the smallest amount of movement allowed. Even then, she had to strain against the cramps in her legs and she wobbled as she landed on the beam.
All around her, other athletes were falling off their beams and disqualifying themselves. Beside her, Ji Yoon wind-milled her arms, nearly losing her balance after the leap.
Last was the cartwheel dismount. She recalled the summer when Kit first received his diagnosis. One of the early clues that something in his body was amiss was that his elbows kept giving out when he attempted a cartwheel. Zella copied the form she’d seen him use with bent arms. She sank low to absorb the shock in her legs as she landed.
Suddenly, the crowd let out a loud “ooh!” The projection screen showed an instant replay of the French athlete painfully smacking their shoulder as he failed his dismount.
Only five athletes remained in the competition when Zella sat down at the sewing tables. She knew she’d have to be extremely cautious to avoid disqualification.
She picked up her needle and thread. It took six tries today to thread the needle because her hand kept slipping and missing the hole. Slowly, painstakingly, she made the first stitch, then another. She moved at a snail’s pace, watching as other athletes attempted to rush through and were disqualified. Ji Yoon seemed to sense that slow and steady was the best bet as well and she crept along with Zella. By the time they finished their twenty stitches, nearly thirty minutes later, the two rivals were the only athletes left in the competition.
Zella put down her sewing and jogged with dread towards the boulder carry. How would she ever complete it? The day-two boulders were lighter than yesterday’s, but it would still be an inconceivable challenge.
Zella mulled over the problem. Maybe rolling the boulders would be easier. There were no rules against rolling, but this would use up so much extra time. It was a risky move, but it would pay off immensely if she managed to preserve her strength and Ji Yoon tapped out early. Zella heard the crowd muttering with confusion as she began to roll the smallest boulder.
By the time her first boulder was in the basket, Ji Yoon was already way ahead of her, carrying her third. Zella began to worry that she’d guessed wrong.
She snapped back to attention and scolded herself for focusing on Ji Yoon. There was no point in looking at what her competitor was doing. She’d decided on her strategy and she would stick with it.
By the time Zella had moved her third boulder, things were looking as though they might take a turn. Ji Yoon was working on her fifth boulder and struggling miserably. For the sixth, she began to copy Zella’s method of rolling them. Zella managed to catch up and the two athletes rolled their sixth boulders into their baskets at exactly the same time.
Zella decided that now was the time to try the heaviest boulder. She knew she’d have to save some strength for the end. She heaved against the rock with all her might and it barely moved an inch. Ji Yoon passed her with the seventh-heaviest boulder. Little by little, she rolled it across the field.
When Zella finally tipped the heaviest boulder into the basket, Ji Yoon was working on her ninth boulder, struggling against its weight. Her competitor stopped mid-field, her hands on her thighs, painting with exhaustion and Zella caught up. Both athletes tipped their ninth boulders into the basket at the same time. They were tied again with one more rock to go, although Ji Yoon still had her heaviest. Both athletes trudged back to the first basket.
Ji Yoon braced her body against the boulder. It didn’t budge. She’d used up all her strength and couldn’t push any longer. Zella realized that the cobalt medal was hers, just as long as she could move the last boulder. Her body was so sore by now, it felt like her arms and legs might fall out of their sockets. She stretched the fingers of her hands in the same way she’d seen Kit do it. She steeled herself and began to move the last rock.
It took all her might, every last ounce of strength she had to roll it across the floor. She passed Ji Yoon and saw tears running down her competitor’s face as she tried in vain to catch up. Zella heaved and heaved, taking breaks to breath and stretch out her fingers. She worried that Ji Yoon might regain her strength at any minute.
In the stands, the Americanadian fans were on their feet, fervently waving their flags and cheering. She saw Kit yelling, “Go! Go!” She knew she had to win this for him. If she could do this, it would help prove that he could live any kind of life he wanted. Determined, she made the final heave and the boulder landed in the basket. Zella collapsed on the ground, exhausted but elated. She’d won.
Liza and Nix rushed onto the field to join her. They lifted her up with her arms around their shoulders and helped her walk to the first-place podium. Someone brought out a cobalt medal and hung it around her neck.
“I wanted to tell you!” Nix whispered breathlessly in her ear as she waved to the cameras. “I wanted to tell you so badly, but I knew it was against the rules.”
“I know,” Zella nodded. “I figured it out, I guess.”
Nix and Liza raised Zella’s exhausted arms over her head in triumph. Ji Yoon nodded at her respectfully. She would take home the silver for advancing the farthest of any other competitors.
Zella’s family made their way down from the stands and joined her on the field. Her wife embraced her and kissed her deeply. She knelt down to meet Kit’s eye and the two looked at each other knowingly for a long time.
“I’m proud of you, Auntie,” Kit said.
“I’m proud of you,” said Zella and she pulled him in for a hug.
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The Body Swapping Decathlon in The Body Swapping Decathlon
by
CJwrites123
· 29 Sep 2022
What if athletes could compete in a body perfectly designed for their sport? What if the same athletes had to compete again in a randomly-asssigned body?In the not-too-distant future, technology has advanced to allow people to experience life in any body of their choosing, then return to their own body after six hours. Athletes compete in body-swapping sports to test their skills, their athletic intelligence, and the genetic limits of the human body.
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