Nastia Liukin Biography

The One Who Never Made it Back, Nastia Liukin
Starting at the bottom is hard, working your way to the top is hard, become one of the best in a sport is hard, however never giving up seems to be one of the most hard things that athletes go through to this day.
With the small advantage of having gymnast legends as her coach, she started at the bottom and did not stop until she became one of the greatest gymnast that the world has ever seen. Anastasia Valeryevna Liukin, better know as Nastia Liukin, was born in Moscow, Russia
SFSR, USSR on October 30, 1989 (biography). Liukin is the only child to Valery Liukin and
Anna Kotchneva. She was exposed to the sport of gymnastics at the very young age of just two, and because of her love for the sport,
she started homeschooling(Cruz).
Liukin's parents are legends in the sport of gymnastics. Her father, Valery Liukin, won two gold medals at the Summer Olympics of 1988. His speciality, in which he received one of his gold medals was the high bar.
He also received a gold medal in the the team event for the
Soviet Union (Biography). Liukin's father was a major influence on her when she was younger and he eventually became her coach (Nastia). Although Liukin's father played a major role on her love for gymnastics, her mother did as well.
Liukin's mother, Anna Kotchneva, is also a world renowned gymnast. Kotchneva is a
1987 rhythmic gymnastics world champion for the Soviet Union. It was only because of an injury that Kotchneva did not continue her career and go to the olympics(Biography). Liukin's parents were not excited to hear that she wanted to become a gymnast. With both of them being
Donelson 2 former gymnast, they knew how hard the sport is on the body and the mind. While they did not want her to move into this career, they noticed how strong her love was for the sport and completely supported her. They taught her to set short term goals weekly, monthly, and sometimes even daily. In doing this Liukin felt that she was always able to strive to achieve something new off her list(Cruz). Liukin is grateful for the amount of support she received from her parents as parents and not as
athletes(Nastia).
When Liukin was two and a half years of age her parents decided to pack everything up and move to the united states (Biography). When they arrived in America, Liukin's parents decided to make Texas their permanent home. It was here that they meet up with some friends that they had meet through gymnastics who were in the same situation as them, they had moved from russia, had no money, and did not really have a plan. As a result, the families decided to open a gymnastic gym together (Going). Liukins parents did not have enough money at the time to provide childcare for young Nastia so they would bring her to the gym every day of the week while they would work(Cruz).
Being in the gym every day starting at the age of two and a half, it was expected that young Nastia would start to wonder around and explore the life of a gymnast. Although Liukins parents would bring her to the gym they did not want her to be a gymnast. With such an adventurous mind she would see the older kids working in the gym and she wanted to be like them. It was inevitable that she would become a gymnast( Biography). Liukins first National competition was at the young age of 12. Her teammates placed first and second, but with a fall on the uneven bars, she was unable to finish the rest of her routine. However because she did so well on her other events that she placed 15th and officially earned her spot on the USA
Donelson 3 team(USA). She left nationals with nobody knowing who she was and went to compete at the
2002 US classic. It was here that she helped her team get the gold and she earned the bronze medal on bars. This is when she went from being unknown to being one of the greats.(USA) This was also when the world realized the potential that she had and became her biggest fans(Roenigk). While Liukin made quite the impression in her junior career, it was only the beginning.
As she moved onto her senior career she was amazing people all over the world. At one of her first official events as a senior competitor, she received five gold medals.. Liukin toured Europe to practice with the United Kingdom's women's gymnastics team. (official). With Liukin competing in more competitions than ever, she finally felt that she was ready to compete quadruple twist on floor exercise, she is the first female athlete to ever do this. At the end of her long tour she won her third National all around title(USA).
With Liukins career starting at such a young age and lasting for so long, she earned a lot of titles. She has three National titles. Like her mother, she is a World Champion, and her biggest achievement of all she is a 2008 Olympic gold medalist(Roenigk). Liukin took home the gold medal for the all­around, the silver medal on both bars and beam, and the bronze medal for the floor event(Gymnastike).Making her way to the olympics was hard, with constant training and traveling to compete at other competitions as preparations(Biography). She also had to deal with injuries. It was specifically her knee that was causing her the most trouble, causing her to take small amounts of time off to let it rest(Gymnastike). In order to keep the rest of her body healthy, she got acupuncture three times a week along with a massage. To keep her body in shape she also ran every day. All of this was outside of the training(Mateo). With Liukins titles
Donelson 4 came a lot of pain mentally and emotionally, but being able to push through this is what most say made her a great athlete.
On of the great pains that Liukin has experienced in her career was when she failed at her comeback. Liukin announced in 2011 that she would was returning to training in attempt to attend the 2012 Olympics in London. Her first event after she announced her comeback was the
2012 Secret Classic where she only competed on beam and received third place. Her next stop was in St. Louis at the 2012 Visa Championships where she decided to compete on bars as well as beam. It was at this event that Liukin took one of the most memorable falls in gymnastics off the bars, This was the fall that ruined her chances of going to the 2012 Olympics. Although she has this fall she still scored high enough to make the U.S senior team and move onto the
Olympic trials in San Jose.(Gymnastike).
Outside of gymnastics Liukin had a lot of goals and plans for her life. Along with a very successful gymnastics career she is also thriving in the business field. Liukin partnered up with an agency to do what they called The Shine Tour. Within this tour Liukin went around the world to different locations to speak to women and young girls. She shared with them her story and how she had to start from the bottom with a family that did not have very much and work her way to the top. She inspires the young women and girls to reach for their goals even if they are less fortunate because that is what she did. Liukin is able to share all of her disappointments that came along with the good in her life. She is able to relate to things that these girls are going through and give them life changing advice on how to deal with and move past it(Shine).
Liukin has made many appearances on television, most of the time it was for gymnastics however some of her most memorable times were not. She has made many small appearances in
Donelson 5 movies and on tv from being in the movie Stick It to appearing on the show Gossip Girl for a day with Chuck Bass. competed on ABC’s Dancing with the stars in March of 2015. She also maintains her sponsorship with Subway as well as GK where she has her own line of leotards(
Hairopoulos).
With Liukin having her own brands, she also has a line of pink gymnastics equipment with AAI(Gymnastike).
As for her everyday life Liukin attends New York University. On Monday June 1st, 2015 she announced her engagement to Matthew Lombardi, a professional ice hockey player, via her social media pages. Currently Liukin continues to do meet and greets and speeches all over the country(Takeda). As life goes on, stars come and go and there are only a few who make an impression that will last forever. Liukin is one of those few. She is so relatable to for men and women all over the world. Being able to see somebody who started at the body, with no money and working her way to the top. Somebody who struggled along the way. It is because of these things that she is remember. She is know as somebody who always gave it her all and never gave up even when all of the odds seemed against her. Still to this day she is giving everything that she does all of her effort and changing people's lives for the better. Failing is a hard thing to do but how you get back is what shows good character, something that Liukin did very
well.