Friday, August 15, 2008 8:13:43 PM
From Russia with gold
Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson go 1-2
VIDEO: http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/news/newsid=216969.html#all+around+artist
Watch all four of Nastia Liukin's routines
By Alan Abrahamson, NBCOlympics.com
Posted Friday, August 15, 2008 1:27 AM ET
Watch all four of Nastia Liukin's routines Nastia Liukin, a Russian-born American gymnast of exquisite grace and beauty, on Friday won the women's individual all-around competition, a triumph that served as an emphatic reminder that the sport is formally called "artistic gymnastics" and Olympic judges still delight, when all is said and done, in artistry rendered under pressure.
Shawn Johnson, the straight-A student born and raised in Iowa, a Midwestern girl through and through whose gymnastics reflects a brilliant blend of speed and power, won silver. Johnson had been widely considered the favorite heading into Friday's competition; she won the individual all-around at last year's world championships.
Nastia finished with 63.325 points, Shawn with 62.725. China's Yang Yilin took third, with 62.650.
The results marked the first time in Olympic history Americans have gone 1-2 in the women's Olympic all around - and, as well, the first time the United States has put two on the medals stand in the event.
Earlier this week, the Americans took team silver, behind China.
The all-around competition, like the team finals, was shadowed by questions about the age of some of the Chinese gymnasts, among them Yang Yilin. "I could never have anything bad to say about them," Shawn said of the Chinese team. "I respect them totally."
Nastia now joins Mary Lou Retton, in 1984, and Carly Patterson, in 2004, as the only American all-around winners.
"Just hearing ‘Olympic champion' next to my name is the greatest feeling in the world," Nastia said.
Shawn could not hold back tears - but not, she said, tears of disappointment.
Tears, she said, of joy and of relief - the day of reckoning, after years of so much hard work, finally upon her.
"I tried my hardest," she said.
Artistry over athleticism.
At the Olympics, it's still so much about artistry.
Among those in the stands Friday at the National Indoor Stadium: Larisa Latynina, winner of 18 Olympic medals - the most in Summer Games history, including the all-around in 1956 and 1960 -- who is still considered one of the great artists in gymnastics history.
And after watching Nastia, who won with a superior routine on the uneven bars but cemented first place with a lovely turn on the beam, Latynina sighed in delight. Speaking in Russian, she said, "I was excited by the great beauty of the movements of Nastia - such great beauty she performed."
A beauty the judges knew to expect. Nastia carries, by gymnastics standards, a recognized pedigree.
Her father, Valeri, is a four-time Olympic medal winner. Competing for the Soviet Union at the Seoul Games in 1988, he won team and high bar golds, all-around and parallel bars silvers.
Valeri is Nastia's coach.
"I said," Nastia related, laughing, "that I wanted to beat him in the medal count. I'm getting close."
The results Friday added to a fascinating, if somewhat bizarre, piece of gymnastics and Olympic history. Since 1972, only one gymnast - Lilia Podkopayeva of the Ukraine - has won the Olympic all-around the year after winning the all-around at the world championships.
A few in the know could already guess ahead of Friday's competition what would transpire.
Peter Vidmar, who won two gymnastics golds and one silver at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, said, "Shawn doesn't miss. You just don't see her miss. But the way the scoring has been here, it looks like Nastia has the edge."
Shawn did not miss Friday.
But neither did Nastia - and, indeed, the scoring went her way.
Shawn's vault is technically far more difficult than Nastia's. The vault was the first of Friday's four rotations, and it ended with Shawn ahead by 85-hundredths of a point.
The two girls got exactly the same score on the floor, the final event.
It was the two events in between that made the difference.
Nastia's beam routine proved a flowing, delicate thing. A front flip that she lands on one leg, slowly bringing her free leg into a scale, was marked by a discrete change in tempo - emphasizing her control on the four-inch beam.
If it had been words, it would have been poetry.
Nastia finished first on the beam, Shawn second - the 75-hundredth differential wiping out most of Shawn's lead on the vault.
The difference-maker, as it had to be all along, would be the bars.
Nastia's bars routine, under the sport's new code of points, carries an extraordinarily high start value, 7.7 - way more than Shawn's.
It is a routine that Valeri developed after Nastia took silver on the bars in both 2007 and 2006 at the worlds. He reasoned after last year's championships that she simply needed harder elements to remain competitive; he drew it up on a sticky note and showed it to her, a string of letters, each one signifying the difficulty of each element.
She asked, what's this?
Your new bars routine, he said.
The routine is so technically demanding, however, that Nastia had trouble finishing. At the U.S. nationals and the U.S. Olympic Trials, Shawn ended with higher all-around scoring because Nastia kept missing her dismount, typically under-rotating, a sign she was just too tired by the end to nail the landing.
She missed the landing, again, during team qualifying last Sunday, her score a 15.950 - but instead of under-rotating, she over-rotated, almost falling forward.
It wasn't pretty. But it showed Nastia finally had come up with the strength she needed.
In the team finals, Nastia nailed it - the routine and the landing. Her score: 16.9.
And on Friday, she nailed it again. Her score: 16.650.
Shawn's bars score: 15.275.
The two girls are genuine friends - 18-year-old Nastia, for instance, sending 16-year-old Shawn affectionate text messages of concern from Texas, where she lives, after Shawn's gym in Iowa was flooded earlier this summer. Here at the Olympics, in the athletes' village, they have been roommates.
Now they are linked together, in Olympic history.
First and second, gold and silver.
"We push each other both to the limit," Nastia said. "The few years that we have competed with each other, we've both wanted it so bad that we push each other so much. I think that we became better and stronger gymnasts because of each other.
"I think if it had just been one of us, there wouldn't be someone chasing your tail, wanting you to make you work even harder.
"So I think," Nastia said, and even her words were so lovely, "we have both made each other a stronger athlete, a stronger person."
http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/news/newsid=216969.html#all+around+artist
With public trust - everything is possible.
Without public trust - nothing is possible.
Abe Lincoln
.
.
.
.
Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson go 1-2
VIDEO: http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/news/newsid=216969.html#all+around+artist
Watch all four of Nastia Liukin's routines
By Alan Abrahamson, NBCOlympics.com
Posted Friday, August 15, 2008 1:27 AM ET
Watch all four of Nastia Liukin's routines Nastia Liukin, a Russian-born American gymnast of exquisite grace and beauty, on Friday won the women's individual all-around competition, a triumph that served as an emphatic reminder that the sport is formally called "artistic gymnastics" and Olympic judges still delight, when all is said and done, in artistry rendered under pressure.
Shawn Johnson, the straight-A student born and raised in Iowa, a Midwestern girl through and through whose gymnastics reflects a brilliant blend of speed and power, won silver. Johnson had been widely considered the favorite heading into Friday's competition; she won the individual all-around at last year's world championships.
Nastia finished with 63.325 points, Shawn with 62.725. China's Yang Yilin took third, with 62.650.
The results marked the first time in Olympic history Americans have gone 1-2 in the women's Olympic all around - and, as well, the first time the United States has put two on the medals stand in the event.
Earlier this week, the Americans took team silver, behind China.
The all-around competition, like the team finals, was shadowed by questions about the age of some of the Chinese gymnasts, among them Yang Yilin. "I could never have anything bad to say about them," Shawn said of the Chinese team. "I respect them totally."
Nastia now joins Mary Lou Retton, in 1984, and Carly Patterson, in 2004, as the only American all-around winners.
"Just hearing ‘Olympic champion' next to my name is the greatest feeling in the world," Nastia said.
Shawn could not hold back tears - but not, she said, tears of disappointment.
Tears, she said, of joy and of relief - the day of reckoning, after years of so much hard work, finally upon her.
"I tried my hardest," she said.
Artistry over athleticism.
At the Olympics, it's still so much about artistry.
Among those in the stands Friday at the National Indoor Stadium: Larisa Latynina, winner of 18 Olympic medals - the most in Summer Games history, including the all-around in 1956 and 1960 -- who is still considered one of the great artists in gymnastics history.
And after watching Nastia, who won with a superior routine on the uneven bars but cemented first place with a lovely turn on the beam, Latynina sighed in delight. Speaking in Russian, she said, "I was excited by the great beauty of the movements of Nastia - such great beauty she performed."
A beauty the judges knew to expect. Nastia carries, by gymnastics standards, a recognized pedigree.
Her father, Valeri, is a four-time Olympic medal winner. Competing for the Soviet Union at the Seoul Games in 1988, he won team and high bar golds, all-around and parallel bars silvers.
Valeri is Nastia's coach.
"I said," Nastia related, laughing, "that I wanted to beat him in the medal count. I'm getting close."
The results Friday added to a fascinating, if somewhat bizarre, piece of gymnastics and Olympic history. Since 1972, only one gymnast - Lilia Podkopayeva of the Ukraine - has won the Olympic all-around the year after winning the all-around at the world championships.
A few in the know could already guess ahead of Friday's competition what would transpire.
Peter Vidmar, who won two gymnastics golds and one silver at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, said, "Shawn doesn't miss. You just don't see her miss. But the way the scoring has been here, it looks like Nastia has the edge."
Shawn did not miss Friday.
But neither did Nastia - and, indeed, the scoring went her way.
Shawn's vault is technically far more difficult than Nastia's. The vault was the first of Friday's four rotations, and it ended with Shawn ahead by 85-hundredths of a point.
The two girls got exactly the same score on the floor, the final event.
It was the two events in between that made the difference.
Nastia's beam routine proved a flowing, delicate thing. A front flip that she lands on one leg, slowly bringing her free leg into a scale, was marked by a discrete change in tempo - emphasizing her control on the four-inch beam.
If it had been words, it would have been poetry.
Nastia finished first on the beam, Shawn second - the 75-hundredth differential wiping out most of Shawn's lead on the vault.
The difference-maker, as it had to be all along, would be the bars.
Nastia's bars routine, under the sport's new code of points, carries an extraordinarily high start value, 7.7 - way more than Shawn's.
It is a routine that Valeri developed after Nastia took silver on the bars in both 2007 and 2006 at the worlds. He reasoned after last year's championships that she simply needed harder elements to remain competitive; he drew it up on a sticky note and showed it to her, a string of letters, each one signifying the difficulty of each element.
She asked, what's this?
Your new bars routine, he said.
The routine is so technically demanding, however, that Nastia had trouble finishing. At the U.S. nationals and the U.S. Olympic Trials, Shawn ended with higher all-around scoring because Nastia kept missing her dismount, typically under-rotating, a sign she was just too tired by the end to nail the landing.
She missed the landing, again, during team qualifying last Sunday, her score a 15.950 - but instead of under-rotating, she over-rotated, almost falling forward.
It wasn't pretty. But it showed Nastia finally had come up with the strength she needed.
In the team finals, Nastia nailed it - the routine and the landing. Her score: 16.9.
And on Friday, she nailed it again. Her score: 16.650.
Shawn's bars score: 15.275.
The two girls are genuine friends - 18-year-old Nastia, for instance, sending 16-year-old Shawn affectionate text messages of concern from Texas, where she lives, after Shawn's gym in Iowa was flooded earlier this summer. Here at the Olympics, in the athletes' village, they have been roommates.
Now they are linked together, in Olympic history.
First and second, gold and silver.
"We push each other both to the limit," Nastia said. "The few years that we have competed with each other, we've both wanted it so bad that we push each other so much. I think that we became better and stronger gymnasts because of each other.
"I think if it had just been one of us, there wouldn't be someone chasing your tail, wanting you to make you work even harder.
"So I think," Nastia said, and even her words were so lovely, "we have both made each other a stronger athlete, a stronger person."
http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/news/newsid=216969.html#all+around+artist
With public trust - everything is possible.
Without public trust - nothing is possible.
Abe Lincoln
.
.
.
.
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
