Nastia travelled to Copenhagen, Denmark today as part of the delegation supporting Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games. Also in the delegation are President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and thirteen other influential Olympians including Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Nadia Comaneci, Bart Connor and Michael Johnson. Before she left she posted a message to her fans on WOGA.net. Click here to view her message.

Nastia celebrated the one year anniversary of her Beijing triumph by taking another step in her return to competition, a performance on balance beam in front of a home town crowd in Dallas at the VISA Championships. Having originally planned to compete two events at the Championships Nastia decided during podium training before the event that she was still a little underprepared to perform on the uneven bars saying, “I didn’t feel confident enough to just chuck a routine. I’m just not that kind of person. I’m doing my full routine, except for the dismount separate. But I feel like it’s my event and I don’t want to go out there and perform it if I don’t feel confident and ready. It just isn’t worth it. Don’t get me wrong, Nationals are very important, but there are more important things that lie ahead this year, like Worlds. I’m on the right track, I just have to keep pushing this way. I have a few more months.”

While she is also not yet competing full difficulty on beam she did debut a new skill (aerial cartwheel), an upgraded dismount from her recent Covergirl Classic performance and proved that even Olympic Champions get nervous … especially when competing in front of a hometown crowd telling Inside Gymnastics after prelims, “When they announced my name and hearing the crowd—knowing it’s a home crowd too—everything kind of boils up and comes together.” Nastia scored 14.450 in the prelims and a 14.700 in finals to earn 4th place on the event saying of her performance, “There’s nothing to hide. I’m not in shape yet. I’m not ashamed of that. I’m proud of my accomplishments and everything I’ve done. Do I wish I was more in shape? Of course. What athlete wants to go out there and perform not at their best? But given the circumstances and all the obligations that I’ve had, this is where I have to be right now.” Her performance was enough to secure a place on the 2009/10 National Team and an invitation to the world team selection camp later in the year where the next chapter of her comeback will unfold.

During the course of the Championships Nastia, her father Valeri and WOGA were all honoured by USA Gymnastics. On the first night of women’s competition, USA Gymnastics honoured the Olympic accomplishments of WOGA. WOGA gymnasts have earned an impressive 21 world and Olympic medals, including Carly Patterson’s two world and four Olympic medals and Nastia’s nine world and five Olympic medals. “Nastia and Carly’s back-to-back accomplishment is virtually unprecedented,” said USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny. “It is one thing for athletes to come from the same country, but another for them to come from the same country, city and club. It is important to bring special attention to this unique achievement.” Nastia then joined all of the 2008 Olympians on the final night of competition in a celebration of their achievements last summer. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the US team amassed its greatest medal haul since the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The 10 medal tally – two gold, six silver and two bronze – is the most earned by the USA in gymnastics in a non-boycotted Olympic Games. As is tradition USA Gymnastics announced its annual awards at the conclusion of the Championships. Nastia was presented with two awards; USAG Athlete of the Year and USAG Sportswoman of the Year (as voted by her peers) while Valeri was named as USAG Coach of the Year.

Nastia made her highly anticipated return to competition at the Covergirl Classic on Saturday in Des Moines. In her first competition appearance since winning five medals at the 2008 Olympic Games, Nastia used the event as the first step of final preparations for the upcoming VISA Championships in Dallas by competing on the balance beam. She earned a 14.500, after electing to compete a watered down dismount, for a second place finish on the event. A quick change of attire and Nastia returned as part of the Universal Sports broadcast team providing ‘Covergirl Updates’ from the competition floor throughout the final three rotations for the live online broadcast. For American fans who did not tune in for the live broadcast, visit UniversalSports.com to catch a full archive of the event. Nastia’s next event is the VISA Championships in her hometown Dallas, August 12-15. She plans to compete bars, beam and perhaps floor exercise at this competition! We updated both the results and schedule pages.

Congratulations to Nastia’s WOGA teammates - Ivana Hong, Briley Casanova, Madison Kocian, Sophia Lee, Grace McLaughlin - who have also qualified to compete in Dallas. Rebecca Bross is expected to successfully petition to the competition after an injury suffered while training in Des Moines prevented her from competing in the final qualifer. Also qualified are current and former WOGA men’s team members Presten Ellsworth, Eric Schryver, Tim Gentry (Stanford), Steve Legendre (OU). In all eleven current and former WOGA gymnasts bound for a home National Championships!

Episode 2 of the current season of the GK WOGA Insider has been released. Watch Nastia, Valeri, Carly and Evgeny relive and talk about their success in the last two Olympic All Around Finals. Also take a look inside Nastia’s photoshoot for her new line of signature leotards with GK Elite Sportswear!

The GK WOGA Insider is created for GK & WOGA by Rich Tate - Alford Media Services.

The WOGA Toy Joy Drive is on. Bring a new unwrapped toy to any WOGA Gym from December 1 thru 10 and receive an autographed card of Nastia or Carly Patterson (2004 Olympic All Around Champion). To get Nastia’s autograph in person, bring a new unwrapped toy to WOGA’s Frisco Gym on Thursday, December 4 between 4:00 and 5:30 pm. Nastia will be on hand to receive the donations and sign autographs for those who support the Toy Joy Drive. All donated toys will go to the Frisco Family Services Center.

Celebrate WOGA’s success and support the Dallas Morning News Charities by purchasing limited edition World and Olympic Medals posters from WOGA. The posters feature the Olympic and World Championship medals won Nastia, Carly Patterson and Hollie Vise. Only 300 posters printed! Visit WOGA.net for more information and to place an order.

Thank you to everyone who bidded on the autographed merchandise that Nastia donated to the Dallas Morning News Charities. Thanks to your support over $9447.36 was raised from the auctions. Carly Patterson and Evgeny Marchenko recently presented a $14,447.36 (including a personal donation of $5000.00 from Nastia) cheque on behalf of Nastia at the Dallas Morning News Charities campaign launch. For 23 years, the agencies of The Dallas Morning News Charities have been providing food, clothing, shelter and other basic assistance to the hungry and homeless in Dallas. It is amazing what can happen when you follow your heart. Thank you for your donations. From the bottom of ours.

Welcome to the new season of the GK WOGA Insider. Episode 1 - Tour of Gymnastics Superstars - features an exclusive interview with Nastia about the Tour of Gymnastics Superstars and the upcoming show in Dallas on October 11th. Carly Patterson also talks about singing at the Dallas show.

The GK WOGA Insider is created for GK & WOGA by Rich Tate - Alford Media Services.

When Nastia won the Olympic All Around gymnastics competition in Beijing, she became the second WOGA gymnast to win the Olympic All Around Gold Medal after Carly Patterson in 2004. The NBC commentator said ” the center of the universe for gymnastics is in Plano, Texas.”

It certainly felt like the center of the gymnastics universe on Wednesday morning at the Plano gym, when Nastia, Carly Patterson and Hollie Vise gathered to bring together WOGA’s twenty one Olympic and World Championship medals and photograph them for the first and only time.

Some facts and stats about WOGA’s recent success:

WOGA has won more Olympic and World Championship medals than any other non-government training program in the world. Over one third of Olympic and World medals won by U.S. women since 2003 have been won by WOGA gymnasts (21 out of 61 medals since 2003). Fifteen percent of all Olympic and World medals ever won by U.S. women have been won by WOGA gymnasts in the past six years (21 out of 139 medals won since 1970. Hollie Vise won WOGA’s first individual World Championship gold medal for Uneven Bars in 2003. Hollie and Carly helped the U.S. team win its first ever team gold at World Championships in 2003. Nastia is tied with Shannon Miller for winning the most World Championships medals by a U.S. gymnasts (9 medals). No other U.S. training program has won 2 or more Olympic or World Championships medals every year since 2003. It took each girl over 10 years of training 35+ hours per week, 50 weeks per year and 2 coaches working with each of them every day to earn these medals.

Be sure to visit woga.net for more information and click here to view a montage of Hollie, Carly and Nastia in action.  (Click on the photos in this article to view larger versions of each image)

Nastia was honored by more than 800 people at private celebration hosted by WOGA in Frisco on Saturday. Family, friends, teammates, sponsors and other supporters in Texas were all on hand to congratulate Nastia for her achievements in Beijing. A team from Dallas News were on hand to take portraits of Nastia, her father Valeri and fellow WOGA gymnast and 2004 Olympic Champion Carly Patterson. We will be posting a highlights video from the night as well as the slideshow that was played during the evening on Nastia website so her fans can enjoy the event as well.


Amongst the many special presentations made to Nastia at the party was the first and only world’s biggest pink gummi bear. Mike Ellsworth (a parent of one of Nastia’s teammates) was channel surfing while watching the Olympics and came across a story on the Food channel regarding the World’s Largest Gummi Bear maker. Knowing Nastia’s favorite candy is the Gummi Bear, he made contact with candyship.com who make the Gummi Bears to explain about the upcoming WOGA celebration. Mike Horowitz (from candyship.com) made contact the next day and was so excited as he is a huge fan and had already started experimenting with making the first and only pink world’s largest gummi bear. Mike had the item over nighted to Mike Ellsworth so that Cailee, Shay, Christa, Catherine, Mykle, Emily, Rebecca and Brittany (Nastia’s Team) could present it to her at the celebration. As you can see from the photo, Nastia was really excited to receive this unique gift! Click here to view more photos of Nastia receiving her special 4 pound sweet pink treat! Also included in the gallery are the portraits taken by Dallas News. Look out for many more photographs (and of course the videos) from the party soon!

Nastia is back on the road again, this time in Los Angeles for a number of appearances and photo shoots. On her schedule today was photo shoots for Wheaties and Cosmo Girl as well as meet and greets at both InStyle Magazine and People Magazine. Tomorrow she will be appearing on Ryan Seacrest’s Morning Show (102.7 KIIS FM) which will air twice in LA before being broadcast on 40 stations nationally, the Billy Bush Radio Show and will be taping her appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She will also be taping a segment for an upcoming episode of the award-winning children’s news series called Nick News entitled “How I Spent My Summer Vacation!”.