Jacob Tierney | Heated Rivalry (Ep. 2, Season 1: "Olympians") / 2025 [TV series]

the thaw and summer of ice

by Douglas Messerli

Jacob Tierney (screenwriter and director, based on the novel Game Changers by Rachel Reid) Heated Rivalry / 2025 [TV series]

 

Episode 2, Season 1 “Olympians”

 

By this time Shane and Ilya have long been sexting one another under female code names. And sexually the is a long, somewhat unbelievable gap of two long years since their game in the fall of 2013 when they finally meet up again at Shane’s apartment, now one of several places he owns, and have the promised anal sex for the first time with Shane.    

     For all of his previous quick decisions and sometimes almost dangerously quirky moves, Ilya turns out to be a sensitive lover, checking several times whether or not his sexual penetration is actually hurting Shane, not something one might expect from the rather temperamental Russian, learning how to pleasurably bottom.

     And that seemingly tempestuousness seems to be much in play at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Japan, when Ilya begins to ignore Shane’s texts when the Russian Hockey team loses.

      We can only suspect that it has something to do with his return to Russia, the appearance for the first time of his much decorated and somewhat mentally afflicted father (Yaroslav Poverlo) who is obviously far more disturbed by his son’s failure to lead his team to success than are the Russian authorities.

    Moreover, the appearance of the Russian Minister of the Interior, a former goaltender, and his daughter, who turns out to be Svetlana Sergeevna Vetrova, Ilya’s occasional sex partner, cannot help matters. Although she suddenly appears, this time quite elegantly dressed at the formal embassy party, pulling Ilya away from the older men, the room into which she leads him is just as dangerous, inhabited as it is by Ilya’s former boyhood male sexual partner, Sasha (Kaden Connors), a heavy cocaine user who also happens to be the son of Ilya’s former coach.

    As Sasha hangs out in an empty bathtub inexplicably located in the middle of room, Svetlana almost appears to be delivering Ilya up to him and to his past in Russia, leaving the two men together soon after. Sasha tries desperately to rekindle old times, and almost succeeds, before Ilya turns him away, reminding him that they are no longer children. Sasha hardly seems to be phased, however, as he hurries off to another party, where, with all the beautiful athletes in town, he declares he will surely find another sexual partner.

    The danger Ilya faces for having once been sexually active in Russia is made even more apparent when, soon after, while Shane meets up with his friends Scott Hunter (François Arnaud) and Carter Vaughn (Kolton Stewart), captain of the New York Admirals and Scott’s best friend, casually comment on the bravery of the apparently gay figure skaters performing from conservative Russia.

    Shane attempts to again support Ilya in person, but is met with total hostility and sent away so that they will not be see together, reminding us of Shane’s paranoia in the first episode.

    If there is any hint of illogic in this series resulting from the female-created romance, aimed primarily at a female audience, it is the long periods in which the moody men remain sexually separated from one another. One has the feeling that in reality, most males—particularly those involved with the necessarily quick determinations of star athletes—would have long ago given up on one another, no matter how delightful and fulfilling the sex has been. If they had not needed to be so closeted by this time, like Sasha, Ilya and Shane would have sought out the company of other sexy athletes in the year just before gay marriage was legalized in the US and had already been in many European countries.

   In this case, however, Ilya continues to ignore Shane’s texting attempts as he now reproves his athletic abilities, helping his team with the MLH championship. Finally in the summer of 2014, while backstage at the MLH awards, Shane openly expresses his frustrations for Ilya’s distance. The two openly joke with one another as they serve as hosts to the event, Ilya even challenging Shane to provide him with his cellphone number, Shane responding in the negative to continue their myth of being distant challengers.

     But when the two immediately after meet up in the bathroom, the kisses return, Shane finally making some demands, including that Ilya get down at that very moment on the floor to suck him off. But Ilya, always the wiser and far more sophisticated of the two, suggests that instead of dirtying his tux, why not return to the “boring” affair, but not before betting on his winning the player of the year award. If he wins, Shane must do what he commands, otherwise he will obey Shane.

     Despite Ilya’s obvious fears, he has met all the challenges it has taken to put his team back in first place, and the year does belong to him as this time he is chosen as the winner.

    In the beautifully lit hotel room high above the city where he takes his lover after the ceremony, he demands that Shane strip and he plays the voyeur before the two once more engage in almost rapturous sex.

     In a brief time of actual communication, Shane wonders if he will return to Russia again this summer and, even more intensely, attempts to ask about how difficult it is for Ilya in his native country, suggesting perhaps that he need not return. But once more Ilya shuts down, insisting that he get his sleep and sending Shane off into the night.

     In the elevator, Shane begins a somewhat angry response before quickly deleting it. He begins a new message: “We didn’t even get to kiss one another goodbye,” but deletes that text as well. It appears that they will now have to wait once again until the new season.

     

Los Angeles, January 19, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (January 2026).