Smart Like Scoring Nastia Liukin
August 19th, 2008 at 11:23am Under Main Content
Nastia Liukin did not realize that the scores were tied when she was done with her routine, just that she was second. It hadn’t been her best routine, she said. All-around champ Nastia Liukin took bronze, giving the United States two medals in the event and its women’s team five total medals. Johnson, who also won silver in the all-around, had the unwanted chore of going first. As a life long lover of gymnastics, I think the point being missed here is that the Australian judge deducted a FULL POINT from Nastia Liukin’s score. As she did neither of these things, that paid off fake judge Nellie Kim should have stepped in right away and said that this was NOT LEGAL SCORING!
This came after settling for silver in the all-around while teammate Nastia Liukin claimed gold. The two switched places after Johnson scored a 16.225 on a difficult routine. Nastia Liukin , who is not particularly strong on vault, started in tenth place, with Russian Anna Pavlova in fourth and Chinese Yang Yilin in sixth. On bars, Liukin also scored well, but not as high as she normally does, on her best event.
Nastia Liukin stated, “He was so close to winning that all-around gold medal. I hope I made up for that. In the wee hours of Friday morning, I watched 18 year old American Nastia Liukin earn the title as the third American woman to win the all around gold medal for the US. Holding my breath and grinding my teeth with every approach she made, I rooted her on. Teammate and Olympic all-around champion Nastia Liukin earned bronze, giving her a medal of every color and putting her one shy of matching her father Valeri’s haul in 1988. Upset was the storyline in the women’s finals.
Her style is inherited from Mary Lou Retton, who, no accident, Johnson greeted in the audience after she completed the stunning floor routine that would bring her the silver medal. Johnson and Liukin have been the world’s two best gymnasts for two years now, and most expected the teammates would be each other’s biggest competition. Johnson came in with all the momentum, winning every matchup with Liukin but one in the last few years. Nastia’s body looks like a dancer’s body.
But the International Olympic Committee told the FIG to stop sharing medals after the Atlanta Games, and a tiebreak system was implemented in 1997. In 2003, she was the Junior National Champion and won the gold in uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise. She would win again the following year. When she struggled at the 2007 national championships and again in the all-around at the world championships, the criticism was fierce. She was washed up, some said.
Tags: American Woman, Anna Pavlova, Floor Routine, Gold Medal, Gymnastics, Gymnasts, Liukin Nastia, Mary Lou Retton, Medals, Nastia Liukin, Silver Medal, Teammate, Teammates, Vault, Yilin
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