Medalist

Inori is eleven and already told she's too late to matter in figure skating: she struggles at school, and her mother — scarred from watching her older daughter's skating dreams collapse — refuses to let Inori try. But the rink is the one place Inori feels completely alive. When she crosses paths with Tsukasa, a floundering coach still aching over his own failed skating career, the two misfits recognize the same stubborn hunger in each other. Bound by a dream the world keeps dismissing, they begin the grueling climb through competitions, self-doubt, and long odds toward the top of the sport. Tender, tense, and quietly inspiring, this award-winning manga is as much about believing in someone as it is about the jumps and spins on the ice.