Our Take: Liukin Stands Tall

Inside Gymnastics publisher Chris Korotky shares some behind-the-scenes perspective on Nastia Liukin's American Cup victory.

In advance of competitions, reporters are invited to “Media Day” events to interview athletes, coaches and other officials in a preview of the competition. And after the competition concludes, reporters gather in “Mix Zone” interview areas to talk to the athletes about their performances. At the start of this quad, during these media opportunities, as the athletes came out to talk, 90% of the reporters would rush to Nastia Liukin as the first athlete to interview. What does it feel like to be the "next great gymnast" in the sport? Are you worried about following in the footsteps of your mother and father who achieved greatness in gymnastics (rhythmic and artistic, respectively)? Are you destined to be the next Olympic Champion?

Just like press conferences you see on television, the attention can be overwhelming. Multiple questions are being throw out at the same time, and the attention and the questions themselves can elevate expectations and pressures. But even at a young age, Liukin always seemed to handle the situations with composure, grace and a smile.

As Liukin was winning titles at the national and world level, the press attention – and expectations – grew stronger and stronger. Immediately after winning her first senior national title, the questions were already pointing ahead to Beijing 2008. As some reporters asked me about my expectations for Liukin for Beijing – as far back as 2003 and 2004 before the Athens Olympics – I always answered that she had all of the qualities that give her the potential to be an Olympic Champion, but that we should all enjoy the process along the way as well as the beauty of her gymnastics and what she brings to the sport. But often in the mainstream media, the attention our sport receives is primarily focused on that one event that comes along every four years.

But back to those Media Day and Mix Zone opportunities…as Liukin struggled with an ankle injury that limited her training and eventually required surgery to repair, the questions from reporters went in a different direction. Will you be too old to compete in Beijing? Can your body handle the requirements of this new Code? Are you going to transition to become an event specialist?

Not only was Nastia bombarded with these questions, but her father and coach Valeri was grilled as well. I think sometimes they felt like they were on trial, and you could see the frustration in their eyes at times. Throughout, they remained unified in their front, gracious, and composed throughout the process. Time and time again, Nastia adamantly insisted that she was an all-around gymnast and spoke of her love for the sport. So much so, she has noted multiple times, that her plan is not to compete through 2008 and be done, but to continue on beyond that.

Still, the media coverage questioned her ability to continue as an all-around gymnast and wondered how she would hold up en route to Beijing. What didn’t change was Nastia’s love of the sport, her dedication to training, her confidence in herself and her belief that she was an all-around gymnast.

In advance of this year’s American Cup, Liukin didn’t hold back on how the coverage and the questions affected her during her injury and recovery. “I’m not going to lie,” she told me. “It hurt. Going into Nationals [in 2007], I knew that I wasn’t fully prepared. I didn’t have the training time I needed…. My ankle was still hurting and I was trying to figure out the best way to train around it. I just knew that I wasn’t fully prepared, but I had to go out and give it my best at that point. I’m glad that at Worlds I had a chance to show that I really still am an all-around gymnast.”

One person that never gave up on her as an all-around gymnast throughout this entire process was National Team Coordinator Martha Karolyi. When media outlets, some fans, and even some coaches wondered if Liukin should be used as an event specialist at the 2007 Worlds, Karolyi remained steadfast in support of Liukin as an all-arounder. “When you have someone of this talent and this potential, you don’t give up on them as an all-arounder,” Karolyi told Inside Gymnastics leading to the 2007 World Championships. “Some people want to write her off, but that is not right.”

In training the day before the American Cup, Liukin told us that her ankle wasn’t 100%, but that it felt better than it had in quite a long time and that she’s learned how to train effectively with the ankle. She also talked about how invigorating it was to be able to train at a normal pace again and to be able to focus on adding skills into her routines. In the competition, Liukin competed new skills and combinations on bars, beam and floor. She’s also training a Yurchenko double full vault onto soft surfaces that she hopes to introduce to competition this summer. While most of the skills and routine composition result from a collaborative process with her father, she also comes up with ideas on her own. While her father was away at an international competition with WOGA teammate Rebecca Bross, Liukin tried a pike front to one foot landing to scale on beam that she nailed within the first couple of attempts. “I had someone at the gym video it that same day and I emailed it to my dad while he was away with Rebecca,” she told me. “He emailed me back later that night and said ‘Wow, that looks good! I like it.’ I don’t think anyone has done it in competition in a piked position, so I think I’m the first one to do it. Not that that’s really important to me, but it is kinda cool!”

After the competition Saturday, where Liukin, 2007 World Champ Shawn Johnson, and World Championship team member Samantha Peszek went 1-2-3 in an American sweep of the awards podium, the throngs of reporters once again gathered in that famous Mix Zone to quiz the competitors on their performances. Liukin once again fielded questions on a wide variety of topics, from her debut of a new bar routine to her “rivalry” on the competition floor with Johnson to how it felt to kick off the Olympic year with a victorious outing. Yes, the questions had changed this time. No more questioning her as an all-arounder. And no more questioning if the body would hold up. But there was one thing that remained constant, dating back to those events in 2003 and 2004: Liukin’s grace, composure and the smile on her face.

Look for coverage of the Tyson American Cup in the next issue of Inside Gymnastics magazine. Subscribe or Renew now so that you don’t miss a single issue of Inside Gymnastics!

Photos by Scott Einuis