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Nastia's Story
Updated: March 2007

Anastasia "Nastia" Liukin was born to Anna and Valeri Liukin on October 30, 1989 in Moscow, Russia. When she was two and a half years old, her parents decided to move from Russia to the USA where they reside today. As the daughter of two gymnasts who each earned the title of World and/or Olympic Champion in their careers and who became gymnastics coaches themselves it was only natural that Nastia found herself in the gym from a very young age. Unable to afford a babysitter during their early years in the USA, Valeri and Anna were forced to bring Nastia to the gym while they worked. The gym was the ultimate playground, "I was always running around and on the bars, and that's kind of how I started," she remembers. Soon Nastia began mimmicking the other children in the gym even copying and performing their floor routines at the side of the gym. Her parents, all too aware of just how tough the sport can be, never intended for Nastia to become a gymnast - certainly not at the elite level. However it was difficult to ignore her talent and her desire to be involved in gymnastics. Nastia began competing earlier than most at the age of six. She doesn't remember much about her first competition except that she was so late arriving that she did not get a chance to warm up before her first event floor. By the time she was 12 years old, Nastia was an Elite gymnast. Finding Her Way Junior Dominance The 2002 US Classic was Nastia's breakthrough competition. She entered the event as a relative unknown but left as the the all around bronze medalist (behind future Olympic Champion Carly Patterson and 2003 World Uneven Bars Champion Hollie Vise) as well as winning the silver medal on balance beam and earning top five placings on both uneven bars and floor exercise. This performance helped Nastia achieve the first of many career goals in earning her the opportunity to compete at the USA Championships. She fought back from a scary fall on the uneven bars in the preliminary round at the Championships to earn a place on the Junior National Team. Selection to represent her country for the first time in a dual meet against Canada and at then at the Junior Pan American Games soon followed. It was the beginning of a dominant junior international elite career that saw Nastia twice crowned US National Champion, win four individual Junior Pacific Alliance gold medals and also not only earn selection on the Senior Pan American Games team but return from the Games as a five time medalist. Remarkably Nastia was undefeated in junior all around competition from January 2003 until she became a senior in January 2005. A Senior At Last Into The Big Time 2005 was Nastia's first year as a Senior International Elite. Her season began at the WOGA Classic where she won five gold medals after originally intending to only compete on uneven bars and beam. Soon after she traveled to New York to compete in her first major international event - the American Cup which in 2005 made its debut on the World Cup Circuit. Nastia was selected to represent the USA on uneven bars and beam, easily qualifying through to the final on each. She put aside thoughts of an uncharacteristic fall on the bars to put in a strong performance on balance beam and share the American Cup title with China's Zhang Nan. In April the USA Women toured Europe to train with and compete against the National Teams of the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The US woman easily won both team competitions while individually Nastia proved to be the dominant individual US gymnast winning the all around in both dual meets by more than a point. While on tour she also debuted a newly re-worked routine on uneven bars and a 3.5 twist on floor exercise. It was not until July that Nastia returned to competition appearing at US Classic for the first time since 2003. Having already successfully qualified to Nationals by way of her strong performances internationally earlier in the season, she felt comfortable to compete her quadruple twist on floor exercise - becoming the first American gymnast to ever attempt the skill. Nastia's father achieved a similar feat during his elite career when he was the first gymnast to compete a triple back salto on floor exercise - a skill that has rarely been seen in competition since. She went on to win her first US Classic title as a senior as well as gold medals on uneven bars and balance beam. Nastia's highly successful national season came to a close in Indianapolis at the VISA USA Championships. She entered the event as one the favorites for the title but a scary fall on her dismount from balance beam left her in only 3rd place following the preliminary round. An impressive finals comeback - including a season high 9.800 on balance beam - helped her to her third consecutive National All Around title - though importantly her first as a senior. She also won event gold medals on uneven bars and balance beam as well as a silver on floor exercise. Nursing a slight knee injury and with the selection camp for the World Championships on the horizon, Nastia decided miss the Pan American Championships and concentrate her efforts on her preparation for the World Championships. World Champion A Dream Realised In November Nastia achieved one of her career goals by being selected as a member of a World Championship Team. She arrived in Melbourne with as much anticipation and expectation on her shoulders as any athlete at the championships, eager to put a recent knee injury behind her and show her best performances. She would not disappoint going through the competition without major error and winning four medals. In one of the closest all around finals ever contested, Nastia won the silver medal behind teammate Chellsie Memmel - a staggering 0.001 was all that seperated the gymnasts. "Winning the silver medal feels great. I've been working really hard for this so it's great to get the silver medal. To get a reward for all the training I have done, that's really good." Victories in the uneven bars and balance beam finals followed as well as a silver medal on floor exercise. Nastia returned from Melbourne as a two time World Champion and the most decorated gymnast male or female at the Championships. Stick It Onto The Big Screen 2005 was not all about gymnastics competition for Nastia. Prior to the US Classic she was invited, alongside many other current and former elite gymnasts, to take part in the filming of a new gymnastics themed feature film. Nastia spent three days on the set of Stick It filming many action sequences as well as a small speaking part in the movie. The movie was released to US audiences in April 2006 before opening in many countries around the world. In addition to appearing in the movie, three of Nastia's routines are included as part of the special features on the DVD release of the movie. It was a fantastic experience for Nastia particularly as she hopes to pursue and acting career in the future. New Beginnings Onward and Upward 2006 brings many changes to the sport of gymnastics. Since Nadia Comaneci first showed the world perfection at the 1976 Olympic Games, gymnasts throughout the world have attempted to emulate her achievements by scoring an elusive Perfect 10. This year, following a review of the sport by the FIG significant and all emcompassing changes to the Code of Points that govern the judging of the sport have been introduced. The "Perfect 10" has been replaced with an open ended scoring system that rewards a gymnast seperately on difficulty and execution. Just as at the end of any Olympic cycle, Nastia like most elite gymnasts needed time to adjust her skills and routines to the new code of points. On her return from Melbourne she wasted little time in getting back into training to start making the necessary upgrades and changes to make sure that her routines fitted the new code of points. So significant were the changes to the scoring system that this process will be ongoing for some time yet. While Nastia did not compete in the early months of 2006, she joined her Melbourne teammates in a short tour to celebrate their history making acvhievements performing individual and group exhibition routines as well as answering questions and signing autographs for their fans. Nastia returned to competition in Philadelphia at the American Cup in March. The event, which returned to its traditional all around format in 2006, was also Nastia's first hit out under the new code of points. She easily qualified through to the all around final where, despite a fall from beam, she won her first American Cup all around title as well as taking first place on uneven bars and floor exercise. A month later Nastia was selected for her first Senior Pacific Alliance Team and travelled to Hawaii to take on the best gymnasts in the Pacific Rim. The US women easily won the team title while Nastia and Chellsie Memmel fought out another intense individual competition eventually becoming joint All Around Champions. Nastia also won a gold medal on the uneven bars and a silver on balance beam. After the competition she was excited to be able to join members of the cast and crew from Stick It at the Los Angeles premiere! In July Nastia travelled to Kansas City for the US Classic. Already qualified to the VISA Championships courtesy of her performance at the 2005 World Championships, she used the competition as an opportunity to test out her upgraded uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise routines. She also unveiled her brand new floor routine choreographed to Dark Eyes. Falls from the uneven bars and floor exercise held her to fourth place all around but she won a gold medal on balance beam earning her first score in excess of 16 points under the new code of points. Less than a month later her she won her fourth consecutive National title, her second as s senior, after holding off a strong challenge from Natasha Kelley (the 2005 Junior National Champion) and an uncharacterisitcally "off" second evening. Her performances in Minnesota included three scores over 16 points earning her the gold medals on uneven bars and balance beam. She was also named USAG Co-Athlete of the Year alongside Chellsie Memmel while Valeri collected the Coach of the Year award. Aarhus An Unexpected Interuption Fresh from her highly succcessful National campaign, Nastia entered the selection process for the World Championship team with confidence. She easily progressed through the first selection camp and returned to the Ranch for the final verification camp ready to cement a place on the team for the Aarhus World Championships. Then disaster - an awkward landing on the tumbletrak resulted in an ankle injury that put her chances of competing at Worlds in severe jepardy. Intensive rehabilitation started immediately and while her participation in the Championships would be restricted to a single event, she was excited to be named on the team and to have the opportunity to contribute as strongly as she could to the US campaign to win the team gold medal. It was a fighting performance from the US women in Aarhus with Chellsie Memmel also suffering an injury in the lead up to the event. Nastia landed her first dismount since the accident during Podium Training. The US women showed their power during the first round of the competition, beating all other teams by more than 2 points. Nastia earned the highest score on any event during the preliminary round to qualify for her second uneven bars final and the team entered the final confident that they would strongly challenge for the gold medal. As has been the case since the introduction of the 6-3-3 team final format, nothing is certain in a major team final. While the US team counted two falls in an uncharacteristically inconsistent day, the team from China were powerful and consistent and in the end snatched the gold medal. Nastia's second World Championships campaign ended when she earned a silver medal in the uneven bars final behind Great Britain's Beth Tweddle. Given the circumstances of the previous fortnight, it was hard to be disappointed to leave the event with two silver medals. From Aarhus Nastia travelled to Geneva, Switzerland to make her second appearance in an FIG Gala celebrating her 17th birthday during her stay. When she returned to Texas, she underwent surgery on her injured ankle. She spent the rest of the year allowing her ankle to heal and preparing for the 2007 season. A Long Road The Journey Back Although her ankle surgery was successful Nastia's return to the competition floor for the 2007 Season proved to take longer than both her doctors and she expected. As anticipated she sat out the American Cup, attending the competition as a spectator for the first time in two years. At the time her recovery, while progressing slower than she would have liked, looked to be progressing well with her ankle responding to rehabilitation. She was already training skills on beam and bars and was even hopeful of earning a place on the National team tour to Europe in April. Then seemingly without reason, just as she was beginning to step up her preparation for the important meets of the Summer, her ankle began to swell after every training session. The new development hampered her ability to train as she had wanted, particularly limiting her ability to train anything on the pounding events vault and floor exercise. Reassured by doctors that her ankle surgery had been successful and her ankle was looking strong she persisted and made a successful return to competition at the Pan American Games though only in a specialist role. Nastia and her teammates performed brilliantly in front of a very vocal Brazillian home crowed to win the gold medal. Nastia debuted her new uneven bars routine including her double front dismount and individually went on to win two silver medals on uneven bars and balance beam. The race was then on to be ready to compete on all four aparatus at the VISA Championships just four weeks after the Pan American Games concluded. It was only in July that she seriously began to work back towards competing on vault and floor exercise but she was determined to have a chance to defend her National title and more importantly to show the world that she was still an all around gymnast. By her own admission Nastia entered the VISA Championships competing at about 80% fitness. Although she struggled throughout the competition, particularly on floor and vault, she was overjoyed to just be out competing across four events again and left San Jose with a bronze medal in the all around, her third straight national uneven bars title as well as a silver medal on the balance beam. Importantly she was named as a member of the World Championship team and vowed that the two weeks between Nationals and the start of competition in Stuttgart would be enough for her to find the extra strength she needed to contend for the all around title at the World Championships. Twice a Champion Back on top in Germany Although her ankle surgery was successful Nastia's return to the competition floor for the 2007 Season proved to take longer than both her doctors and she expected. As anticipated she sat out the American Cup, attending the competition as a spectator for the first time in two years. At the time her recovery, while progressing slower than she would have liked, looked to be progressing well with her ankle responding to rehabilitation. She was already training skills on beam and bars and was even hopeful of earning a place on the National team tour to Europe in April. Then seemingly without reason, just as she was beginning to step up her preparation for the important meets of the Summer, her ankle began to swell after every training session. The new development hampered her ability to train as she had wanted, particularly limiting her ability to train anything on the pounding events vault and floor exercise. Reassured by doctors that her ankle surgery had been successful and her ankle was looking strong she persisted and made a successful return to competition at the Pan American Games though only in a specialist role. Nastia and her teammates performed brilliantly in front of a very vocal Brazillian home crowed to win the gold medal. Nastia debuted her new uneven bars routine including her double front dismount and individually went on to win two silver medals on uneven bars and balance beam. The race was then on to be ready to compete on all four aparatus at the VISA Championships just four weeks after the Pan American Games concluded. It was only in July that she seriously began to work back towards competing on vault and floor exercise but she was determined to have a chance to defend her National title and more importantly to show the world that she was still an all around gymnast. By her own admission Nastia entered the VISA Championships competing at about 80% fitness. Although she struggled throughout the competition, particularly on floor and vault, she was overjoyed to just be out competing across four events again and left San Jose with a bronze medal in the all around, her third straight national uneven bars title as well as a silver medal on the balance beam. Importantly she was named as a member of the World Championship team and vowed that the two weeks between Nationals and the start of competition in Stuttgart would be enough for her to find the extra strength she needed to contend for the all aruond title at the World championship. Beyond the Chalk Keeping It All In Perspective Nastia has a very busy schedule every week splitting her time between two training sessions a day and also school. When she is not in the gym she spends her time much as any other teenager, shopping, hanging out with her friends, chatting on AIM and listening to music. She is a Senior in a specialist school that accommodates the demanding schedules of students who are also developing their talents in athletics, the performing arts, and other intense outside interests. In the future she hopes to pursue a career in business or acting. As for her gymnastics aspirations, Nastia takes it one day at a time enjoying the challenges and opportunities that the sport brings her, "I do this for myself. I like the sport. I like everything about it". Although she lists competing at the 2008 Olympic Games as a goal, she chooses to focus her attention on shorter term goals like contributing to the team at the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart later this year. Beijing is afterall still just under two years away and there is a lot of gymnastics to be done before then.