Unified in Support, Liukins Reunite in Victory

1988 Olympic gold medalist Valery Liukin hugs daughter Nastia after she won the 2008 Olympic all-around title.

While Nastia Liukin was winning the Olympic all-around title Friday, mom Anna Liukin was strolling the busy streets of Beijing. No shopping, she said, just walking.

Anna had watched her daughter compete in Wednesday's team finals, when the U.S. took second to China. But on Friday, when Nastia Liukin competed alone, the National Indoor Arena wasn't big enough to contain Anna's pacing.

Instead, Anna simply walked, trying to keep her mind distracted during the biggest night of her daughter's life. Nastia's coach and father, Valery Liukin, was taking care of her gymnastics' needs. Anna steeled herself to be able to provide emotional support if Nastia came away disappointed.

Nastia Liukin in Beijing (above) and Anna Kochneva in 1987 (below).

Anna and Valery, two well-known gymnastics champions, had never wanted their daughter to take up such a demanding sport. But inside Nastia's small body there was a tiger lurking, Valery says. She inherited her Russian mother's blonde beauty and lanky figure, and the fierce resolve of her Kazakh father. When Nastia's stubborn insistence on being a gymnast wouldn't break, they relented and decided to help her go as far as she wanted.

On Friday in Beijing, she went all the way.

In the early afternoon Anna's phone rang with the news of her daughter's all-around gold medal. It didn't come from the National Indoor Arena, but from Anna's father in her native Moscow. Immediately after came a second call, this time from her mother, taking care of the Liukin family home and pets in Parker, Texas.

"We are a small family and we are really spread out now," Anna explained.

The Liukin family had been divided in Beijing until Friday afternoon. Anna, who traveled to Beijing as a tourist, hadn't been able to see her daughter and husband in the Olympic Village.

Nastia had received 78 text messages by the time the medal ceremony concluded, but the first person she called was Anna, her first coach before Valery took over.

"I would not be here if it weren't for my parents," Nastia said Friday. "They had an enormous influence on me. My dad at the gym — one of the main reasons why I became an Olympic champion. My mom supported me emotionally in the most difficult moments of my life."

Father Valery, the well-known gymnastics legend, has helped give her the technical help she needed at the gym. Twenty years ago, a few hundred miles away, he had known Olympic disappointment in Seoul, where he finished second all-around by one tenth of a point.

Valery, who has always said he tries to be dad at home and coach at the gym, couldn't brush away his own Olympic memories.

"It's almost always possible," he said. "But for some reason I suddenly remembered how 20 years ago I lost in Seoul. It turns out, Nastia has corrected my mistake. She, like me, does not like to be the second."

Nastia had been second too often for her own liking. She finished second at her first world championships in 2005 by a mere .001, even though she mathematically tied for first. Prior to the 2006 Worlds she suffered a serious ankle injury that required surgery, and took a year before it was fully healed.

She was second to Shawn Johnson at both the 2008 U.S. Championships and Trials. Almost everybody had pegged Johnson to finish ahead of Liukin in Beijing.

Vladimir Artyomov and Valery Liukin, Olympic co-champions on high bar in 1988

But Liukin didn't listen. In Beijing she looked stronger and sharper than she had earlier in the year. She fell on uneven bars in the qualification and stepped out of bounds in the team final, but there would be no mistakes in the all-around.

"I studied her face to see any nervousness, but did not see any," Valery said. "She is very fragile outside, but inside her is a tiger. To work with her is not always easy, probably how it is with any athlete who exhibits strong character. She is very strong technically, but because of the injury we did not have enough time to be prepared for the last world championships. Not everything came out well this season, but when I saw my daughter's face before the competition today, I realized the tiger has returned."

Nastia found inspiration in her own parents' faces during the final buildup to Beijing.

"A few months before the Olympics Games I made myself a collage of different photos and hung it up in my room," Nastia said. "There were pictures of my mom, and my dad... I looked at them every day and thought that someday I, maybe, will have an Olympic medal too."