"She is a special talent. She has big promise for 2008." Marta Karolyi US National Team Co-Ordinator
"She is just a delight to watch on this aparatus. To me she is the epitome of what this aparatus is about. She has class. She has style and acrobatically she does everything the way it is supposed to be done. She's my gold medalist. I just think that how she performs on this aparatus is how it is supposed to be performed" Liz Chetkovich while commentating at the 2005 World Championships
"That's my girl from Texas. You're in all the Texas newspapers, you know. Our star." george w. bush us president in 2003
"It's not just that she does super hard stuff. It's that she does it flawlessly." tim daggert while commentating at the 2005 usa championships
"She's the next big thing. I think she'll win first in everything. She's a really calm girl. I think she handles everything really well. Nastia is ready." carly patterson on nastia's senior debut
"She has a great body for gymnastics, long and skinny. She has great lines. She's hard-working. I think she's the best young gymnast in the U.S. and the next great one if she can stick with it." carly patterson 2004 Olympic Champion
"She's very good, very artistic. She's had excellent basic training. She could become an Olympic or world champion." marta karolyi on nastia's potential
"She's good, she's very good. She's still young, and she has to prove herself, but she's definitely got the potential to become an Olympic champion. Definitely has the breeding, that's for sure." peggy liddick Australian National Team Coach
Family From Anna and Valeri
"To be honest I don't think that Nastia has reached anywhere near her potential yet. All the really big competitions are still ahead of her to. And of course its her dream to make the Olympic Games and my wife and I will be with her every step of the way to help her achieve her goals." valeri liukin on supporting Nastia as she chases her Olympic Dream
"Of course medals are great and it's a real plessure to see a smile on your child's face but its not most important thing in life. Being a mum I want my daughter to be a good person and you know I'm just as happy when she does well at school or if she overcomes a difficult situation that life throws at you." anna liukin on celebrating all of her daughter's achievements
"She reminds me basically of myself. I just hated second place. It was just the worst that could be for me. There was one place for me, it's first. So I can see that alot in Nastia too. That little fragile body but there is an animal inside of that body." valeri liukin on the competitive drive in the Liukin family
"She does get a lot of attention right now. It does make me feel very proud. It does make me feel like she is becoming a great gymnast. She's on her way." valeri liukin
"Nastia does it until she gets it done right, whatever the element. I know you might not believe it, but, really, we have to sometimes hold her back. She looks skinny and fragile, but really she's a tiger." valeri liukin on his daugther's determination and drive
"Nastia's a very smart girl and she will trust me and she will understand what it takes to be a very good gymnast. Its not only winning all the time, alot of times you lose. This is how it is in a big sport. To lose some and you will win alot. This is what is takes to be a great gymnast. We try to do difficult stuff on the competition. That is why there will be the falls. There is going to be hopefully a lot more ups than down. It is not easy to make an Olympic Team. It's going to be war. I know that. I've seen this, I've done that." valeri liukin on preparing his daughter to achieve her goals
"She was with us in the gym all the time. She used to like doing somersaults on the mats and just generally play around with some of the aparatus. I remember she would stand there and copy the moves of the children we were training and we soon noticed she was a lot better than those older kids we were coaching. So my wife and I had a chat about it and we decided that we would include Nastia in a small gymnastics group and that's how it all started for her." valeri liukin on how nastia got into gymnastics
"Nastia's gymnastics - and people who are around us all know this - comes entirely from within. It's not us who wanted her to do this. That makes it easy. We're not making her do this. She just followed us, and it's been a blessing." valeri liukin on his daughter's path into the sport
"She is my baby. She started (in the gym) when she was 2 years old. She is my vision of what gymnastics can be. That is how I picture my gymnasts developing, and that is what we have done with her." valeri liukin
"People say to me all the time, 'But Nastia is in the gym all the time'. They don't understand she wants to be there. She wants to be in the gym. That's her choice and we don't push her at all." anna liukin on her daughter's drive and ambition
"She has an innate sense. Most gymnasts have to learn to point the toes, keep the knees straight. The details are very hard. She knows this already. The basic skills are really advanced." valeri liukin
"Nastia has a very good chance of performing well at the Olympic Games. But there is two and half years between now and that moment so we're not thinking about it too much. That's for the future. Our plan is to deal with the present and upcoming competitions we have." valeri liukin on pacing his daughter's career
"She told me she wants to be No. 1. And to be first, you have to work very hard. If she wants to be No. 1, I have to coach her as No. 1. But she's very tough and works very hard, and she's going to get whatever she wants." valeri liukin on his daughter's determination
In Her Own Words From Nastia
"I don't really feel the pressure just because I know I do gmnastics for myself and I want to be one of the best gymnasts in the world. Neither of my parents they've never pushed me into gymnastics. They kind of pushed me the other way when I was little, just starting gymnastics. They knew how hard it was and you know going through all the injuries. It's a really hard sport and I know they kind of didn't want me to do it but then again when I started and they saw how much I love it they just want the best for me and they wanted me to do what I really love." nastia on her love of the sport
"I knew I'd hit my routine and I knew I had a good chance of getting a medal. When I landed, I was just so excited. I have been working so hard all this year. To win this is awesome. I've been working towards this for a long time." nastia on becoming the World Uneven Bars Champion
"The whole experience has been great. Our team has done very well overall. Another USA one-two finish, four medals at a World Championships myself — there is nothing else I can ask for." nastia on her 2005 Worlds experience
"I feel great. I know I did a good routine. I knew I could pull it off. After that it was just up to the judges. It's great to win..." nastia on becoming the World Balance Beam Champion
"It was a great result. The floor is not my strongest event. I was just so pleased to be able to participate in the floor final. Alicia getting gold is amazing. She executed her routine so well." nastia on becoming the World Floor Exercise Silver Medalist
"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." nastia on becoming the World All Around Silver Medalist
"I think having my dad being able to catch all of those tiny, tiny mistakes is really what helps me be the gymnast that I am today because the judges are looking for all those little mistakes too." nastia on being coached by her father
"Sometimes it is hard because we both want me to be the best that I can and when things don't go right it's a little bit difficult but at the gym he's just my coach he's not my dad. He doesn't baby me in the gym. He treats me like the other athletes in the gym and when we get home he's my dad. We never really talk about gym at home. Sometimes we'll bring it up or we'll watch one of my competitions but its never like everyday we come home and we think about how that day went and what went wrong and what went right. What I did good. So really we just keep the gym at the gym and home he's my dad." nastia on her relationship with her father and coach
"He might be tougher on me but I think that is good because he knows what my goals are, that I do want to be on top of the world in gymnastics. It takes toughness. It is hard some days but you've got to go through that. That's what makes you a good gymnast." nastia on bring coached by her father
"I'm not like the strongest gymnast, so we try to focus a lot on artistry, you know, like expressive dance on beam and floor. I train dance with my choreographer, Natayla two times a week." nastia on working to her strengths
"It's really inspiring. I just like watching all of it." nastia on watching videos of her parents competing
"Nationals its a two day competition so after the first day if you have a little mistake you can never give up. Even when you feel like its all over, its never over so just keep fighting your way through it." nastia on what she learned at her first senior Nationals
"At the gym, he's my coach. At home, he's my dad." nastia on her coach and father Valeri
"They've always supported me in whatever I've wanted to do. Actually I don't even think they even wanted me to do it because they've been through it and because it's a really hard sport. But I wanted to do it. I just really fell in love with it." nastia on her parent's influence and support
"Every single day I walk in and signs on the door Golden Girl. The big Wheaties box with her on it. All the posters and the signs we have in the gym - Olympic Gold Medalist Carly Patterson. You know she leaves the country as just the National Champion and comes back the world's hero." nastia on friend, teammate and 2004 Olympic Champion Carly Patterson
"With both of my parent's being successful gymnasts and Carly training here, I guess I can see where people say that I could be the next big thing but I try not to take in too much of that because I don't want to have too much stuff in my head. I don't feel like I'm the next big thing. I guess, maybe more media and stuff. I feel like I'm the same Nastia." nastia in 2005
"Yes, I am grateful to my parents not only for their genes, but also for what they have done to get me here. However, I have to grow up on my own and work hard to achieve what I want to achieve." nastia on achieving her goals
"The Olympics, it's a great thing, just to compete there and obviously to win is even better. Right now I am kind of keeping the Olympics at the back of my mind because it's three years away." nastia on pacing her career and goals
"I do this for myself. I like the sport. I like everything about it" nastia on gymnastics
"You see how hard she trains, what she had to do, what she had to go through so you know what it takes to be the Olympic Champion." nastia on Carly Patterson
