Nastia Liukin
Encyclopedia
Anastasia Valeryevna "Nastia" Liukin is a Russian-American artistic gymnast
. She was the 2008 Olympic
individual all-around Champion, the 2005 and 2007 World Champion
on the balance beam, and the 2005 World Champion on the uneven bars. She has won a total of nine World Championships medals.
Liukin is the daughter of former Soviet champion gymnast, Olympic gold medalist Valeri Liukin
and World Champion rhythmic gymnast Anna Kotchneva
. Liukin was born in Moscow
and moved to the United States as a child and was trained by her parents in gymnastics. Liukin became a member of the U.S. junior national team when she was 12 years old and won the National all-around title at the age of 13. She was the all-around silver medalist at the 2003 Pan American Games. She is a four-time all-around U.S. National Champion and the U.S. senior National Champion on the uneven bars from 2005 to 2008.
, Russia SFSR, USSR. She is the only child of two former Soviet
champion gymnasts: 1988 Summer Olympics
gold medalist Valeri Liukin
and 1987 World Clubs Champion
in rhythmic gymnastics
Anna Kotchneva
. Liukin and her family are members of the Russian Orthodox church. Her nickname Nastia is a Russian diminutive
for Anastasia
.
The family moved to the United States when Nastia Liukin was two and a half years old, after the breakup of the Soviet Union
, and settled first in New Orleans before moving to Texas
. In 1994, Valeri Liukin teamed with another former Soviet champion athlete, Evgeny Marchenko, to open the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy
(WOGA) in Plano.
Liukin competed in her first National Championships as a junior in 2002, at the age of 12½. In contrast to her WOGA teammates Carly Patterson
and Hollie Vise
who finished first and second respectively, Liukin suffered a fall on the uneven bars which rendered her unable to finish the routine. 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. 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, balance beam and 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 repeated these accomplishments in 2004. Liukin was a member of the gold-medal winning U.S. team at the 2003 Pan Am Games; she took second place in the all-around behind fellow American Chellsie Memmel
. She also won the all-around in the junior division of the 2004 Pacific Alliance Championships.
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
. Her scores in the junior division at the 2004 U.S. National Championships were competitive with those being posted by the seniors, and Marta Karolyi
, U.S. National Team Coordinator, has said that if Liukin had been eligible, she would have been named to the Olympic team.
in Melbourne
she finished second in the AA behind teammate Chellsie Memmel with a score of 37.822.
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 extremely 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. However, due to an ankle injury sustained in training before the competition began, she was only able to compete on one event, the uneven bars. In spite of her injury, in the qualification round, Liukin's bars set earned a 16.2, the highest score of any competitor on any apparatus in the meet. Her bars routine in team finals scored a 15.7 and helped the U.S. team win the silver medal. Liukin also qualified for the event finals on bars, where she took a small step on her dismount and finished with a 16.05, earning a silver medal behind Britain's Beth Tweddle
.
. She competed only on bars and beam, contributing to the team's gold medal finish and winning an individual silver medal in the uneven bars finals and an individual silver medal on the balance beam final.
Despite limited training time on floor and vault in the summer of 2007, Liukin opted to compete all-around at the 2007 U.S. National Championships. She posted the highest score of the entire meet on bars and the second highest score on beam on the second day of competition, winning the senior bars title for the third year in a row and placing second on beam. However, she also suffered several falls and errors on floor and vault, and finished in third place overall, more than five points behind Shawn Johnson
, the all-around gold medalist.
Following Nationals, Liukin was named to the American team for the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, competing all-around in the team qualifying round and in on bars and beam in the finals. Liukin's score for her bars routine in team finals was a 16.375, the highest score of the day and, in the end, the entire World Championships. However, at the end of her beam routine, her foot slipped while she was setting up her dismount, prompting her to change her usual skill, a two and a half twisting salto, to a simple back tuck. While she lost credit for her dismount, she also avoided a deduction for a fall, and earned a 15.175. The team recovered from this and other mistakes to finish first overall with 184.400, nearly a point ahead of the silver medal Chinese.
Liukin's struggles with the balance beam continued in the all-around final, where she fell from the apparatus during her flight series. In spite of a 16.100 on bars, the highest score of the day from any competitor on any event, she finished the competition in fifth place. In the event finals, however, Liukin rallied and regained her World Champion title on the balance beam with a score of 16.025. She also earned a silver on the uneven bars, scoring a 16.300 after taking a step on her dismount.
to regain her title. She posted the highest score of the meet, a 16.600 on the uneven bars. In March, Liukin competed at the Pacific Rim (formerly Pacific Alliance) Championships in San Jose
, where she led the American team to a gold medal and won the all-around and balance beam titles. In the team competition, Liukin posted an all-time high score of 16.650 on the uneven bars, but in event finals, she fell on her Gienger
release move and took a step on her dismount, earning a 15.225 and taking second place.
At the 2008 U.S. National Championships in Boston
, Liukin fell on floor on her double front tuck the first day of competition, but had a strong meet on her other events and placed second in the all-around behind Shawn Johnson. She regained her National Champion title on the beam and defended her national title on the uneven bars for the fourth consecutive year, scoring a 17.050 in preliminaries and a 17.100 in finals, the highest recorded score for any American gymnast at any event since the advent of the new Code of Points. In June, Liukin competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials in Philadelphia, finishing second behind Johnson, and earning a berth on the American team for Beijing.
, her friend and Olympic roommate. Liukin also qualified to three event finals: beam, uneven bars and floor exercise; more than any other American competitor.
In the team finals, Liukin performed on three events: beam, bars and floor exercise. Her uneven bars score of 16.900 was the highest mark awarded in the entire Olympic competition. Liukin performed second on balance beam, matching her qualifying score of 15.975. On floor exercise, she stepped out of bounds on her first tumbling pass, incurring a 0.10 point penalty, with a final score of 15.200. The American team earned the silver medal, 2.375 points behind China.
On August 15, Liukin performed clean routines on all four events (sticking her landings on 3 out of 4 events) to win the all-around gold medal with a final score of 63.325. Shawn Johnson took the silver medal with a score of 62.725. The win marked the third time that an American woman had won the Olympic all-around title; Mary Lou Retton
and Carly Patterson
were the two previous American gold medalists. It was also the fourth time in the history of the Games that two athletes from the same country have taken first and second place in the women's all-around. The last time this was accomplished was the 2000 Olympics, when Romanian gymnasts won gold and silver; Soviet gymnasts also won gold and silver all-around medals at the 1952 and 1960 Games.
In the event finals, Liukin displayed a beautiful routine to earn a surprising bronze medal on floor exercise with the score of 15.425, behind teammate Shawn Johnson with 15.500, and Romanian Sandra Izbasa with 15.650. On uneven bars, Liukin and China's He Kexin
both posted final marks of 16.725, and earned identical A and B-panel scores of 7.70 and 9.025, respectively. However, He Kexin won the gold medal, and Liukin was awarded the silver, after a tie-breaking calculation that took into account individual marks given by judges on the B-panel. In the balance beam final, Liukin scored 16.025 to claim silver behind Shawn Johnson's 16.225. With her fifth Beijing medal, Liukin tied Mary Lou Retton and Shannon Miller
for the most gymnastics medals won by an American in a single Olympic Games.
Following her success in Beijing, Liukin was named the USOC Female Athlete of the Month (August) and ultimately USOC Co-Sportswoman of the Year alongside swimmer Natalie Coughlin, the Women's Sports Foundation Individual Sportswoman of the Year, FIG Athlete of the Year and USAG Sportswoman of the Year. In addition she was ranked third in the Associated Press' 2008 Female Athlete of the Year voting.
In March 2009 Liukin was announced as one of 12 semifinalists for the AAU Sullivan Award. The annual award honors the athlete who best represents "the qualities of leadership, character, sportsmanship, and the ideals of amateurism". On April 15, 2009, Liukin's Olympic teammate Shawn Johnson won the AAU Sullivan Award.
. Liukin thought about competing uneven bars and beam at the U.S. Championships, but decided to once again just perform on beam. She placed 4th and looked on track to possibly make a fourth World Championships team. Liukin was added to the National Team and included in the World Championships selection camp. However, she pulled out of Worlds selection consideration because she felt that she was not quite up to World Championships standards.
Following the 2008 Olympic Games, Liukin had a skill on beam named after her in the 2005–08 FIG Code of Points. The 'Liukin' was rated as a D and was described as follows: salto forward piked, take off from one leg to one foot landing to scale, hold for two seconds. Changes in the 2009–2012 FIG Code of Points meant that the skill is no longer considered as an appropriate skill.
, a 2008 episode of Gossip Girl
and a quick cameo appearance on the newest Bravo TV show, NYC Prep
. She has expressed a desire to become an actress in the future. Following the Beijing Olympics, Liukin appeared on many talk shows in the United States, including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night With Conan O'Brien
, and the Oprah Winfrey Show.
She also appeared in the second season of Make It or Break It.
Liukin was on The Tour of Gymnastics Superstars
, which was broadcast nationwide on MyNetworkTV
. Tapings of the second show of the tour were included in Frosted Pink with a Twist, which was a television special about women's cancers. The TV special aired on ABC
on October 12, 2008, and featured singers Jesse McCartney
, Kenny Loggins
, Cyndi Lauper
and Carole King
.
Liukin is set to guest-star on the CW's Hellcats
.
Liukin's corporate sponsors include Visa, AT&T
, GK Elite Sportswear
and Longines
. She appeared in an Adidas
commercial with Nadia Comăneci
which ran during the 2004 Olympics and a 2008 commercial for Visa Inc. She signed an endorsement deal on March 15, 2010 and appears in commercials for Subway
After the Beijing Olympics, she was signed to be one of two American Olympians featured on Wheaties
cereal boxes.
Liukin has expressed interest in the fashion world; she has served as a Longines Sports Ambassador of Elegance since 2006 and, along with her teammates Shawn Johnson
and Alicia Sacramone
, was one of the first female athletes ever to be signed as CoverGirl spokesmodels. She also collaborated with Vanilla Star Jeans to create a junior girls' clothing line and has modeled for Max Azria
. In June 2010, she launched a line of girls' wear called Supergirl by Nastia for department store chain JC Penney.
In October 2008, Liukin partnered with World Vision
to help her home state of Texas to recover from Hurricane Ike
.
and Russian
. She graduated from Spring Creek Academy
, located in Plano, Texas
, in the spring of 2007. She had enrolled as a freshman international business major at Southern Methodist University
in January 2008, but 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. Nastia's signature color is pink, hence her pink leotard worn during the 2008 Beijing Olympics All-Around competition.
Liukin currently updates a blog on her official website and regularly posts on Twitter as @NastiaLiukin. She has a line of GK Gymnastics Leotards and grips and a line of pink gymnastics equipment from AAI.
It is rumored that Nastia Liukin is in a relationship with Olympic Figure Skating champion Evan Lysacek
. People Magazine claimed to confirm their relationship in a February 2010 article, but Lysacek denied the rumors in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, stating that the two are just "very close friends."
Artistic gymnastics
Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics where gymnasts perform short routines on different apparatus, with less time for vaulting . The sport is governed by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique , which designs the Code of Points and regulates all aspects of international elite...
. She was the 2008 Olympic
Gymnastics at the 2008 Summer Olympics
At the 2008 Summer Olympics, three different gymnastics disciplines were contested: artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline. The artistic gymnastics events were held at the Beijing National Indoor Stadium on August 9–19. The rhythmic gymnastics events were held at the Beijing...
individual all-around Champion, the 2005 and 2007 World Champion
World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The World Artistic Gymnastics Championships are the World Championships for artistic gymnastics. They have been held since 1903.* * First time track and field event fully disappeared from the sport of gymnastics.- All-time medal count :...
on the balance beam, and the 2005 World Champion on the uneven bars. She has won a total of nine World Championships medals.
Liukin is the daughter of former Soviet champion gymnast, Olympic gold medalist Valeri Liukin
Valeri Liukin
Valeri Viktorovich Liukin is a retired competitive artistic gymnast who competed for the former Soviet Union. Liukin is the 1988 Olympic Champion in the team competition and individually on the horizontal bar and Olympic silver medalist in the all-around and the parallel bars...
and World Champion rhythmic gymnast Anna Kotchneva
Anna Kotchneva
Anna Kotchneva is a former Soviet rhythmic gymnast. She is the 1987 World Champion in clubs, the 1987 World bronze medalist in the hoop, and the 1987 World co-bronze medalist in the rope with Marina Lobatch....
. Liukin was born in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and moved to the United States as a child and was trained by her parents in gymnastics. Liukin became a member of the U.S. junior national team when she was 12 years old and won the National all-around title at the age of 13. She was the all-around silver medalist at the 2003 Pan American Games. She is a four-time all-around U.S. National Champion and the U.S. senior National Champion on the uneven bars from 2005 to 2008.
Early life
Liukin was born on October 30, 1989, in MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Russia SFSR, USSR. She is the only child of two former Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
champion gymnasts: 1988 Summer Olympics
1988 Summer Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad, were an all international multi-sport events celebrated from September 17 to October 2, 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. They were the second summer Olympic Games to be held in Asia and the first since the 1964 Summer Olympics...
gold medalist Valeri Liukin
Valeri Liukin
Valeri Viktorovich Liukin is a retired competitive artistic gymnast who competed for the former Soviet Union. Liukin is the 1988 Olympic Champion in the team competition and individually on the horizontal bar and Olympic silver medalist in the all-around and the parallel bars...
and 1987 World Clubs Champion
1987 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships
1987 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships were held in Varna, Bulgaria on September 17-20, 1987.-Participants:The following countries sent competitor Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Israel,...
in rhythmic gymnastics
Rhythmic gymnastics
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which individuals or teams of competitors manipulate one or two pieces of apparatus: rope, clubs, hoop, ball, ribbon and Free . An individual athlete only manipulates 1 apparatus at a time...
Anna Kotchneva
Anna Kotchneva
Anna Kotchneva is a former Soviet rhythmic gymnast. She is the 1987 World Champion in clubs, the 1987 World bronze medalist in the hoop, and the 1987 World co-bronze medalist in the rope with Marina Lobatch....
. Liukin and her family are members of the Russian Orthodox church. Her nickname Nastia is a Russian diminutive
Diminutive
In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
for Anastasia
Anastasia
Anastasia is a personal name and the female form of the Greek male name Anastasius/Anastasios meaning "resurrection." The name, and its male counterpart, were often given to Greek children born around December 2 or around Easter during the early days of Christianity. It is the name of several...
.
The family moved to the United States when Nastia Liukin was two and a half years old, after the breakup of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and settled first in New Orleans before moving to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. In 1994, Valeri Liukin teamed with another former Soviet champion athlete, Evgeny Marchenko, to open the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy
World Olympic Gymnastics Academy
The World Olympic Gymnastics Academy is a three-facility gymnastics club located in Plano, Frisco, and Dallas, Texas.The head coaches at WOGA are Valeri Liukin, gold and silver medalist at the 1988 Olympic Games representing the former Soviet Union, and Yevgeny Marchenko, a five-time World...
(WOGA) in Plano.
Junior career
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.Liukin competed in her first National Championships as a junior in 2002, at the age of 12½. In contrast to her WOGA teammates Carly Patterson
Carly Patterson
Carly Rae Patterson is an American singer and former gymnast. She is the 2004 Olympic All-Around Champion and a member of the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame...
and Hollie Vise
Hollie Vise
Hollie Diane Vise is an American female gymnast. A two-time World Champion, Vise is currently attending the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma.-Early career:...
who finished first and second respectively, Liukin suffered a fall on the uneven bars which rendered her unable to finish the routine. 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. 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, balance beam and 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 repeated these accomplishments in 2004. Liukin was a member of the gold-medal winning U.S. team at the 2003 Pan Am Games; she took second place in the all-around behind fellow American Chellsie Memmel
Chellsie Memmel
Chellsie Marie Memmel is an American gymnast. She is the 2005 World All-Around Champion, making her the third American woman, after Kim Zmeskal and Shannon Miller, to become World Champion in the All-Around. She is also a World Champion on the uneven bars and as part of the U.S. team...
. She also won the all-around in the junior division of the 2004 Pacific Alliance Championships.
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
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...
in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. Her scores in the junior division at the 2004 U.S. National Championships were competitive with those being posted by the seniors, and Marta Karolyi
Marta Károlyi
Márta Károlyi , is an American gymnastics coach and the National Team Coordinator for USA Gymnastics. Károlyi is originally from Romania, she and her husband, Béla, are ethnic Hungarians, and trained athletes there as well, but defected to the United States in 1981...
, U.S. National Team Coordinator, has said that if Liukin had been eligible, she would have been named to the Olympic team.
2005–2006
In 2005, Liukin won her first senior National Championships and, once again, earned gold medals on the bars and beam. At the 2005 World Championships2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships
The 38th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia from the 21st to the 27th November 2005. Only the all-around and event finals were contested at this meet...
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
she finished second in the AA behind teammate Chellsie Memmel with a score of 37.822.
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
American Cup (gymnastics)
The American Cup, is an elite senior level international gymnastics competition held in the United States, and is generally considered to be one of the first major competitions of the Gymnastics season, as it is held in March or February of each year. In 1978-79 the event was sponsored by Dial and...
. 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 extremely 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. However, due to an ankle injury sustained in training before the competition began, she was only able to compete on one event, the uneven bars. In spite of her injury, in the qualification round, Liukin's bars set earned a 16.2, the highest score of any competitor on any apparatus in the meet. Her bars routine in team finals scored a 15.7 and helped the U.S. team win the silver medal. Liukin also qualified for the event finals on bars, where she took a small step on her dismount and finished with a 16.05, earning a silver medal behind Britain's Beth Tweddle
Beth Tweddle
Elizabeth "Beth" Kimberly Tweddle MBE is an English gymnast. Tweddle is a three time world champion having won the 2010 World Championships and 2006 World Championshipson the uneven bars and the 2009 World Championships on the floor...
.
2007
Liukin's ankle injury required surgery, and the recovery period kept her out of both national and international competition for much of the year. In July 2007, although she was still recovering from her injury, she returned to competition as a member of the American team for the Pan Am Games in Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. She competed only on bars and beam, contributing to the team's gold medal finish and winning an individual silver medal in the uneven bars finals and an individual silver medal on the balance beam final.
Despite limited training time on floor and vault in the summer of 2007, Liukin opted to compete all-around at the 2007 U.S. National Championships. She posted the highest score of the entire meet on bars and the second highest score on beam on the second day of competition, winning the senior bars title for the third year in a row and placing second on beam. However, she also suffered several falls and errors on floor and vault, and finished in third place overall, more than five points behind Shawn Johnson
Shawn Johnson
Shawn Machel Johnson is an American artistic gymnast. She was the 2008 Olympic balance beam gold medalist and all-around, and floor exercise silver medalist, the 2007 all-around World Champion, and the 2007 and 2008 U.S. all-around champion...
, the all-around gold medalist.
Following Nationals, Liukin was named to the American team for the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, competing all-around in the team qualifying round and in on bars and beam in the finals. Liukin's score for her bars routine in team finals was a 16.375, the highest score of the day and, in the end, the entire World Championships. However, at the end of her beam routine, her foot slipped while she was setting up her dismount, prompting her to change her usual skill, a two and a half twisting salto, to a simple back tuck. While she lost credit for her dismount, she also avoided a deduction for a fall, and earned a 15.175. The team recovered from this and other mistakes to finish first overall with 184.400, nearly a point ahead of the silver medal Chinese.
Liukin's struggles with the balance beam continued in the all-around final, where she fell from the apparatus during her flight series. In spite of a 16.100 on bars, the highest score of the day from any competitor on any event, she finished the competition in fifth place. In the event finals, however, Liukin rallied and regained her World Champion title on the balance beam with a score of 16.025. She also earned a silver on the uneven bars, scoring a 16.300 after taking a step on her dismount.
2008
Liukin's first meet of the 2008 season was the American Cup in New York City, where she defeated 2007 winner Shawn JohnsonShawn Johnson
Shawn Machel Johnson is an American artistic gymnast. She was the 2008 Olympic balance beam gold medalist and all-around, and floor exercise silver medalist, the 2007 all-around World Champion, and the 2007 and 2008 U.S. all-around champion...
to regain her title. She posted the highest score of the meet, a 16.600 on the uneven bars. In March, Liukin competed at the Pacific Rim (formerly Pacific Alliance) Championships in San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, where she led the American team to a gold medal and won the all-around and balance beam titles. In the team competition, Liukin posted an all-time high score of 16.650 on the uneven bars, but in event finals, she fell on her Gienger
Gienger
The Gienger is a gymnastics skill performed on the uneven bars for women and the high bar for men. It is named after German gymnast Eberhard Gienger. The release move looks like a half-turn layout "flyaway" above the bar....
release move and took a step on her dismount, earning a 15.225 and taking second place.
At the 2008 U.S. National Championships in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Liukin fell on floor on her double front tuck the first day of competition, but had a strong meet on her other events and placed second in the all-around behind Shawn Johnson. She regained her National Champion title on the beam and defended her national title on the uneven bars for the fourth consecutive year, scoring a 17.050 in preliminaries and a 17.100 in finals, the highest recorded score for any American gymnast at any event since the advent of the new Code of Points. In June, Liukin competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials in Philadelphia, finishing second behind Johnson, and earning a berth on the American team for Beijing.
2008 Olympics
Liukin performed all-around in the qualifying round of competition. She qualified to the all-around final with a score of 62.375, which ranked her second among all competitors and 0.35 points behind Shawn JohnsonShawn Johnson
Shawn Machel Johnson is an American artistic gymnast. She was the 2008 Olympic balance beam gold medalist and all-around, and floor exercise silver medalist, the 2007 all-around World Champion, and the 2007 and 2008 U.S. all-around champion...
, her friend and Olympic roommate. Liukin also qualified to three event finals: beam, uneven bars and floor exercise; more than any other American competitor.
In the team finals, Liukin performed on three events: beam, bars and floor exercise. Her uneven bars score of 16.900 was the highest mark awarded in the entire Olympic competition. Liukin performed second on balance beam, matching her qualifying score of 15.975. On floor exercise, she stepped out of bounds on her first tumbling pass, incurring a 0.10 point penalty, with a final score of 15.200. The American team earned the silver medal, 2.375 points behind China.
On August 15, Liukin performed clean routines on all four events (sticking her landings on 3 out of 4 events) to win the all-around gold medal with a final score of 63.325. Shawn Johnson took the silver medal with a score of 62.725. The win marked the third time that an American woman had won the Olympic all-around title; Mary Lou Retton
Mary Lou Retton
Mary Lou Retton is an American gymnast and Olympic gold medalist. She was the first female gymnast from outside Eastern Europe to win the Olympic all-around title, after 14 Eastern Bloc countries boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.-Personal life:Retton was born in Fairmont, West...
and Carly Patterson
Carly Patterson
Carly Rae Patterson is an American singer and former gymnast. She is the 2004 Olympic All-Around Champion and a member of the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame...
were the two previous American gold medalists. It was also the fourth time in the history of the Games that two athletes from the same country have taken first and second place in the women's all-around. The last time this was accomplished was the 2000 Olympics, when Romanian gymnasts won gold and silver; Soviet gymnasts also won gold and silver all-around medals at the 1952 and 1960 Games.
In the event finals, Liukin displayed a beautiful routine to earn a surprising bronze medal on floor exercise with the score of 15.425, behind teammate Shawn Johnson with 15.500, and Romanian Sandra Izbasa with 15.650. On uneven bars, Liukin and China's He Kexin
He Kexin
He Kexin is a Chinese gymnast. At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing she won gold medals on the uneven bars and as a member of the Chinese Artistic Gymnastics team. In 2008, she won two World Cup titles on the uneven bars. On the bars she was one of the few gymnasts in the world to score over 17.00...
both posted final marks of 16.725, and earned identical A and B-panel scores of 7.70 and 9.025, respectively. However, He Kexin won the gold medal, and Liukin was awarded the silver, after a tie-breaking calculation that took into account individual marks given by judges on the B-panel. In the balance beam final, Liukin scored 16.025 to claim silver behind Shawn Johnson's 16.225. With her fifth Beijing medal, Liukin tied Mary Lou Retton and Shannon Miller
Shannon Miller
Shannon Lee Miller is a former artistic gymnast from Edmond, Oklahoma. She is the most decorated gymnast in U.S. History, and considered one of the greatest gymnasts the United States has ever produced...
for the most gymnastics medals won by an American in a single Olympic Games.
Following her success in Beijing, Liukin was named the USOC Female Athlete of the Month (August) and ultimately USOC Co-Sportswoman of the Year alongside swimmer Natalie Coughlin, the Women's Sports Foundation Individual Sportswoman of the Year, FIG Athlete of the Year and USAG Sportswoman of the Year. In addition she was ranked third in the Associated Press' 2008 Female Athlete of the Year voting.
In March 2009 Liukin was announced as one of 12 semifinalists for the AAU Sullivan Award. The annual award honors the athlete who best represents "the qualities of leadership, character, sportsmanship, and the ideals of amateurism". On April 15, 2009, Liukin's Olympic teammate Shawn Johnson won the AAU Sullivan Award.
2009
Liukin decided that she was not done with gymnastics and made her first post-Olympics competitive appearance at the CoverGirl Classic, where she competed only on balance beam. She placed 2nd behind teammate Ivana HongIvana Hong
Ivana Hong is an American artistic gymnast. She was a member of the gold medal American team at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and the all-around bronze medalist at the 2007 Pan American Games. Hong was named an alternate to the 2008 U.S. Olympic team and was a member of the U.S...
. Liukin thought about competing uneven bars and beam at the U.S. Championships, but decided to once again just perform on beam. She placed 4th and looked on track to possibly make a fourth World Championships team. Liukin was added to the National Team and included in the World Championships selection camp. However, she pulled out of Worlds selection consideration because she felt that she was not quite up to World Championships standards.
2011
It was announced prior to the 2011 World Gymnastics Championships that Nastia was planning a comeback to competitive gymnastics. She stated that instead of going for the all around, she would concentrate on balance beam and uneven bars, an area where the U.S. had been weak. She targeted the 2012 Covergirl Classic for her debut. Nastia was also part of the selection committee for the 2011 world team. She was added to the National Team again in November 2011.Routines
As of 2008, Liukin performed the following skills on these apparatuses:| Apparatus | Skills | A Score | Top Score in World Championship/World Cup/Olympic Competition |
| Vault | Yurchenko 1½ | 5.5 | 15.100 (Olympic Qualifications) |
| Uneven Bars | Glide kip cast to HS (KCHS), Stalder shoot to HB (Ray); KCHS, Pike stalder 1/2 to eagle grip, Eagle endo, Ono, Healy, Ono 1/2, Gienger; KCHS, Pike stalder, Tkachev; KCHS, Pak salto; KCHS 1/2, Toe shoot to HB; KCHS, Giant 1/2 to eagle, double front 1/2 dismount | 7.7 | 16.9 (Olympics Team Finals) |
| Balance Beam | Press to handstand mount arms by ears; Front aerial walkover, Back flip flop, Layout stepout; Full turn w/ leg at horizontal; Switch leap 1/2; Split jump, sheep jump; Side salto tucked; Onodi, wolf jump 1/1; Salto forward piked, take of from one leg landing on one foot to scale (Liukin); Switch split ring leap; Round-off, 2½ twisting dismount | 6.7 | 16.400 (2008 Pacific Rim Championships) |
| Floor Exercise | Front Handspring (FHS), front layout 1/1, front 2/1; FHS Double front; Switch ring, Split leap full; RO 1½ -1½; Double turn w/ leg at horizontal; Switch leap 1/2; RO 2½ dismount | 6.2 | 15.525 (Olympic AA final) |
Following the 2008 Olympic Games, Liukin had a skill on beam named after her in the 2005–08 FIG Code of Points. The 'Liukin' was rated as a D and was described as follows: salto forward piked, take off from one leg to one foot landing to scale, hold for two seconds. Changes in the 2009–2012 FIG Code of Points meant that the skill is no longer considered as an appropriate skill.
Floor music
On March 18, 2009, Liukin announced that she is working on a new floor routine.- 2006–2008: "Variations on Dark Eyes (Occhi Chornye)" {Edit} by Lara St. John
- 2004–2006: "Second Kill" and "Building the Bullet" by Luis Bacalov
- 2001–2003: "Rondo Capriccioso" by Camille Saint-Saëns
Film and television
Outside of competitive gymnastics, Liukin had cameo roles in the April 2006 Touchstone Pictures film Stick ItStick It
Stick It is an American teen comedy-drama film starring Jeff Bridges, Missy Peregrym, and Vanessa Lengies. It was written and directed by Jessica Bendinger, writer of Bring It On; the film marks her directorial debut...
, a 2008 episode of Gossip Girl
Gossip Girl
Gossip Girl is an American young adult novel series written by Cecily von Ziegesar and published by Little, Brown and Company, a subsidiary of the Hachette Group. The series revolves around the lives and romances of the privileged teenagers at the Constance Billard School for Girls, an elite...
and a quick cameo appearance on the newest Bravo TV show, NYC Prep
NYC Prep
NYC Prep was a reality television program on the Bravo channel. It followed six Manhattan teenagers in their daily lives as they attended events such as weekend parties, fashion shows, shopping sprees, charity events and dinner parties...
. She has expressed a desire to become an actress in the future. Following the Beijing Olympics, Liukin appeared on many talk shows in the United States, including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night With Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
, and the Oprah Winfrey Show.
She also appeared in the second season of Make It or Break It.
Liukin was on The Tour of Gymnastics Superstars
The Tour of Gymnastics Superstars
The Tour of Gymnastics Superstars was a nationwide concert tour that showcases the talents of 17 American gymnasts as well as recording artists Jordan Pruitt, Carly Patterson, and KSM...
, which was broadcast nationwide on MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
. Tapings of the second show of the tour were included in Frosted Pink with a Twist, which was a television special about women's cancers. The TV special aired on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
on October 12, 2008, and featured singers Jesse McCartney
Jesse McCartney
Jesse McCartney is an American singer-songwriter, actor and voice actor. McCartney achieved fame in the late 1990s on the daytime drama All My Children as JR Chandler. He later joined boy band Dream Street, and eventually branched out into a solo musical career...
, Kenny Loggins
Kenny Loggins
During the next decade, Loggins recorded so many successful songs for film soundtracks that he was referred to as, King of the Movie Soundtrack.He began with "I'm Alright" , "Mr. Night", and "Lead the Way" from Caddyshack...
, Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
and Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
.
Liukin is set to guest-star on the CW's Hellcats
Hellcats
Hellcats is an American cheerleading comedy-drama television series that originally aired on The CW in the United States from September 8, 2010 to May 17, 2011...
.
Professional alliances
Liukin has her own line of gymnastics equipment, which includes mats and balance beams in her signature pink, produced by American Athletic, Inc.Liukin's corporate sponsors include Visa, AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, GK Elite Sportswear
GK Elite Sportswear
GK Elite Sportswear is an American manufacturer of uniforms for gymnastics, dance, and cheerleading - including leotards, warm ups and apparel. GK Elite is also the exclusive supplier of adidas gymnastics wear worldwide....
and Longines
Longines
Longines is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. The company was originally founded by Auguste Agassiz in 1832 and it currently holds the oldest registered logo for a watch company . Longines is currently owned by the Swatch Group.Longines is known for its 'Aviators' watches...
. She appeared in an Adidas
Adidas
Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...
commercial with Nadia Comăneci
Nadia Comaneci
Nadia Elena Comăneci is a Romanian gymnast, winner of three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and the first female gymnast ever to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event. She is also the winner of two gold medals at the 1980 Summer...
which ran during the 2004 Olympics and a 2008 commercial for Visa Inc. She signed an endorsement deal on March 15, 2010 and appears in commercials for Subway
Subway (restaurant)
Subway is an American restaurant franchise that primarily sells submarine sandwiches and salads. It is owned and operated by Doctor's Associates, Inc. . Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world with 35,519 restaurants in 98 countries and territories as of October 25th, 2011...
After the Beijing Olympics, she was signed to be one of two American Olympians featured on Wheaties
Wheaties
Wheaties is a brand of General Mills breakfast cereal. It is well known for featuring prominent athletes on the exterior of the package, and has become a major cultural icon...
cereal boxes.
Liukin has expressed interest in the fashion world; she has served as a Longines Sports Ambassador of Elegance since 2006 and, along with her teammates Shawn Johnson
Shawn Johnson
Shawn Machel Johnson is an American artistic gymnast. She was the 2008 Olympic balance beam gold medalist and all-around, and floor exercise silver medalist, the 2007 all-around World Champion, and the 2007 and 2008 U.S. all-around champion...
and Alicia Sacramone
Alicia Sacramone
Alicia Marie Sacramone is an American artistic gymnast.Sacramone began gymnastics at the age of eight, began competing in the elite ranks in 2002 and joined the U.S. national team in 2003. At US National Championships from 2004 to 2008, she won twelve medals, including four golds on vault and two...
, was one of the first female athletes ever to be signed as CoverGirl spokesmodels. She also collaborated with Vanilla Star Jeans to create a junior girls' clothing line and has modeled for Max Azria
Max Azria
Max Azria is a French fashion designer of Tunisian Jewish descent who founded the contemporary women's clothing brand BCBGMAXAZRIA. Azria is also the designer, chairman and CEO of BCBGMAXAZRIAGROUP, a global fashion house that encompasses over 20 brands...
. In June 2010, she launched a line of girls' wear called Supergirl by Nastia for department store chain JC Penney.
In October 2008, Liukin partnered with World Vision
World Vision
World Vision, founded in the USA in 1950, is an evangelical relief and development organization whose stated goal is "to follow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of...
to help her home state of Texas to recover from Hurricane Ike
Hurricane Ike
Hurricane Ike was the second-costliest hurricane ever to make landfall in the United States, the costliest hurricane ever to impact Cuba and the second most active hurricane to reach the Canadian mainland in the Great Lakes Region after Hurricane Hazel in 1954...
.
Competitive history
| Year | Event | AA | Team | VT | BB | UB | FX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | U.S. National Championships (junior) | 15 | |5 | 5 | |||
| Junior Pan American Championships | 2nd | 1st | 2nd | 2nd | |||
| 2003 | U.S. National Championships (junior) | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | ||
| Pan American Games 2003 Pan American Games The 14th Pan American Games were held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from 1 to 17 August 2003. The successful bid for the games was made in the mid-1990s, when this country had one of the highest growth rates in Latin America.... |
2nd | 1st | 1st | 3rd | 3rd | ||
| 2004 | U.S. National Championships (junior) | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | ||
| Pacific Alliance Championships (junior) | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | ||
| 2005 | U.S. National Championships | 1st | |4 | 1st | 1st | 2nd | |
| World Championships 2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 38th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia from the 21st to the 27th November 2005. Only the all-around and event finals were contested at this meet... |
2nd | 1st | 1st | 2nd | |||
| American Cup | 1st | 6 | |||||
| 2006 | U.S. National Championships | 1st | 1st | 1st | |7 | ||
| World Championships 2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 39th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Aarhus, Denmark from October 13 to October 21, 2006 in NRGi Arena.It was the first time the World Gymnastics Championships was organized by a Danish city... |
2nd | 2nd | |||||
| Pacific Alliance Championships | 1st | 1st | 2nd | 1st | |||
| American Cup | 1st | ||||||
| 2007 | U.S. National Championships | 3rd | 2nd | 1st | |12 | ||
| World Championships 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 40th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, Germany, from 1 to 9 September 2007.Oldest and youngest competitors- Men :- Women :- Finals :- Qualifications :- Floor :... |
|5 | 1st | 1st | 2nd | |||
| Pan American Games 2007 Pan American Games The 2007 Pan American Games, officially known as the XV Pan American Games, were a major continental multi-sport event that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 13 to July 29, 2007. A total of 5,633 athletes from 42 National Olympic Committees competed in 332 events in 34 sports and in... |
1st | 2nd | 2nd | ||||
| 2008 | U.S. National Championships | 2nd | 1st | 1st | 8 | ||
| Pacific Rim Championships Pacific Rim Championships The Pacific Rim Championships is a major regional biennial gymnastics competition. It is open to teams from member nations of the Pacific Alliance of National Gymnastics Federations, including the Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, USA and other nations on the Pacific coast... |
1st | 1st | 1st | 2nd | |4 | ||
| American Cup | 1st | | | |||||
| U.S. Olympic Trials | 2nd | 5 | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | ||
| Olympic Games 2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events... |
1st | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 3rd | ||
| 2009 | U.S. CoverGirl Classic | 2nd | | | ||||
| U.S. National Championships | |4 | | |
Personal life
Liukin is fluent in EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
. She graduated from Spring Creek Academy
Spring Creek Academy
Spring Creek Academy is a Dallas area Private School for "Gifted, Talented, and Highly Motivated students". Located in Plano, Texas, Spring Creek Academy opened in 1996 and currently serves approximately 200 students in grades K-12....
, located in Plano, Texas
Plano, Texas
Plano is a city in the state of Texas, located mostly within Collin County. The city's population was 259,841 at the 2010 census, making it the ninth-largest city in Texas and the 71st most populous city in the United States. Plano is located within the metropolitan area commonly referred to as...
, in the spring of 2007. She had enrolled as a freshman international business major at Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
in January 2008, but 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. Nastia's signature color is pink, hence her pink leotard worn during the 2008 Beijing Olympics All-Around competition.
Liukin currently updates a blog on her official website and regularly posts on Twitter as @NastiaLiukin. She has a line of GK Gymnastics Leotards and grips and a line of pink gymnastics equipment from AAI.
It is rumored that Nastia Liukin is in a relationship with Olympic Figure Skating champion Evan Lysacek
Evan Lysacek
Evan Frank Lysacek is an American figure skater. He is the 2010 Olympic champion, the 2009 World champion, the 2005 & 2007 Four Continents champion, the 2007 & 2008 U.S. national champion, and the 2009/2010 Grand Prix Final champion....
. People Magazine claimed to confirm their relationship in a February 2010 article, but Lysacek denied the rumors in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, stating that the two are just "very close friends."
External links
- Official site
- "Nastia Liukin", on TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
’s list of "100 Olympic Athletes To Watch" - Nastia Liukin talking about her experiences at the 2008 Beijing Games on Gymnastike.org
- "Nastia Liukin: Reflecting on Beijing Part I" – Interview with Gymnastike (Dec 08)
- "Nastia Liukin: Reflecting on Beijing Part 2" – Interview with Gymnastike (Dec 08)
- Nastia Liukin Cup on Universal Sports
- Nastia Liukin Speaks to SportsTownChicago.com