Nastia Liukin

She is the only child of two former Soviet champion gymnasts: 1988 Summer Olympics double-gold medalist Valeri Liukin and 1987 World clubs champion in rhythmic gymnastics Anna Kotchneva.

Her nickname Nastia is a Russian diminutive for Anastasia.

The family immigrated to the United States when Nastia was two and a half years old, following the breakup of the Soviet Union, and settled first in New Orleans before moving to Texas.

Anastasia "Nastia" Valeryevna Liukin (Анастасия Валерьевна Люкина ; born October 30, 1989) is a Russian-born American former artistic gymnast.

Liukin was born on October 30, 1989, in Moscow, Russia SFSR, Soviet Union.

Born in 1989, Liukin was ten months too young to compete as a senior in 2004, and thus was not eligible for a place on the U.S. team for the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

In 1994, Valeri Liukin teamed up with another former Soviet champion athlete, Yevgeny Marchenko, to open the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) in Plano, Texas.

Liukin is fluent in English and Russian.

Liukin competed in her first national championships as a junior in 2002, at the age of 12 and a half.

In contrast to her WOGA teammates Carly Patterson and Hollie Vise, who finished first and second, respectively, Liukin fell on the uneven bars which rendered her unable to finish the routine.

She was chosen to compete with the U.S. team at the 2002 Junior Pan American Championships, where she contributed to the team gold medal and placed second on the uneven bars and balance beam and in the all-around.

By 2003, Liukin was one of the strongest junior gymnasts in the United States.

She won the junior division of the U.S. National Championships, as well as gold medals on three of the four events: uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise.

She was a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the 2003 Pan American Games; she took second place in the all-around behind teammate Chellsie Memmel.

She also won the all-around in the junior division of the 2004 Pacific Alliance Championships.

She repeated as junior U.S. all-around champion in 2004.

In 2005, Liukin won her first senior national championships and, once again, earned gold medals on the bars and beam.

At the 2005 World Championships in Melbourne, she finished second in the all-around behind teammate Chellsie Memmel with a score of 37.823.

In event finals, she won the gold on the uneven bars and balance beam and the silver on the floor exercise.

In March 2006, Liukin placed first in the all-around at the American Cup.

At the 2006 Pacific Alliance Championships, Liukin tied with teammate Memmel for first in the all-around, won the uneven bars title and a silver medal on beam, and contributed to the U.S. team's gold-medal performance.

She competed at the 2006 U.S. Classic as the defending all-around champion, but falls on the uneven bars and floor resulted in a fourth-place finish.

However, she scored well on the balance beam and was the only competitor in the meet, junior or senior, to earn a score over 16.00 on this event.

In late August, at the 2006 U.S. National Championships, Liukin successfully defended her all-around, beam and bars titles, becoming a two-time senior national champion.

She was named to the U.S. team for the 2006 World Gymnastics Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, and was expected by many to be a strong contender for the all-around title.

She graduated from Spring Creek Academy, located in Plano, Texas, in the spring of 2007.

She is the 2008 Olympic all-around champion, a five-time Olympic medalist, the 2005 and 2007 World champion on the balance beam, and the 2005 World champion on the uneven bars.

She is also a four-time all-around U.S. national champion, winning twice as a junior and twice as a senior.

With nine World Championships medals, seven of them individual, Liukin is tied with Shannon Miller for the third-highest tally of World Championship medals among U.S. gymnasts.

Liukin also tied Miller's record (later equaled by Simone Biles) as the American gymnast having won the most medals in a single non-boycotted Olympic Games.

She enrolled as an international business major at Southern Methodist University in January 2008, and took a leave from classes to concentrate on preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games.

She returned to campus in spring 2009, but her travel schedule and professional commitments caused her to withdraw before the end of the semester.

In October 2011, Liukin announced that she was returning to gymnastics with the hopes of making a second Olympic team.

Liukin did not make the 2012 Olympic team and retired from the sport on July 2, 2012.

In January 2013, Liukin attended New York University where she studied sports management and psychology, graduating in May 2016.

Nastia has been involved with numerous charities and philanthropy over the years including Cards for Hospitalized Kids, breast cancer awareness and more.

Liukin also established the Nastia Liukin Fund with USA Gymnastics which helps support fitness oriented programs for young people.

Liukin began gymnastics at the age of three because she was "always hanging around in the gym" with her parents, who could not afford a babysitter to look after her while they were working as coaches.

Liukin's parents initially did not aspire for their daughter to become a gymnast, knowing the pressure of high-level competition firsthand, but relented when they noticed her aptitude for the sport.

She continued through the rest of the competition and, despite the incomplete bars set, finished 15th, which landed her one of the final spots on the U.S. National Team.