The Favorites

Katarina Shaw has no famous name, no funding and no family backing, but she has always been certain she will skate at the Olympics. As a girl she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely boy stuck in the foster care system. The two click at once, and they become a formidable pair on the ice.

Skating is how both of them escape turbulent home lives. Kat and Heath grow from childhood sweethearts into champion ice dancers, known for their rebellious style, their fierce chemistry and a relationship with plenty of ups and downs. Then an incident at the Olympic Games ends the partnership abruptly.

Ten years after their last skate, an unauthorized documentary revives the public fascination with Shaw and Rocha. It promises the real story, told by their closest friends and sharpest rivals. Kat wants no part of it, yet she cannot bear to let someone else define her legacy, so she breaks a decade of silence and tells it herself.

Her account reaches back to the childhood tragedies that forged her bond with Heath and to the clashing desires that pulled them apart. It is a love story set in the glittering, ruthless world of elite figure skating, told by a woman set on carving her own path.

The rumors that have followed the pair for years may fall short of what actually happened.