Top 150 Olympic Athletes - #150 - Nastia Liukin

Nastia Liukin

USA

Artistic Gymnastics

Overall Ranks

#46 among American Olympians

#26 among Artistic Gymnasts

#11 among Female Artistic Gymnasts

#3 among American Artistic Gymnasts

Olympic Results

2008

Individual All-Around - Gold

Team - Silver

Uneven Bars - Silver

Balance Beam - Silver

Floor Exercise - Bronze

Total

Events - 5

Gold - 1

Silver - 3

Bronze - 1

Anastasiya Valeryevna Luikin, nicknamed Nastia, was born on October 30, 1989 in Moscow, USSR. Her father, Valery, was an Olympic gymnast who competed for the USSR the year before she was born, earning 2 gold medals and 2 silvers, including the Individual All-Around silver. When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, the family moved to the United States, eventually settling in Plano, Texas, where her father opened a gymnastics training gym.

She began doing gymnastics at age 3, and by 2002, she was competing at the national level, taking second place in the Individual All-Around junior division at the 2003 Pan-Am Games, but she was just slightly too young to compete at the 2004 Olympics.

Over the next 3 years, she won 9 total medals at the World Championships, including two golds in the Balance Beam. She was the #2 overall finisher at the 2008 US Olympic Trials and made the team easily. In the qualifying round, she qualified to compete in 3 event finals, the Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, and Floor Exercise, as well as the Individual All-Around.

In the Team competition, she participated in 3 events, earning her highest score of 16.9 on the Uneven Bars, which was the highest score in the entire Olympics, helping the Americans earn the silver medal. In the Individual All-Around, she got through all 4 events without a single mistake, which earned her the gold medal, just ahead of teammate Shawn Johnson.

She began the event finals with her weakest event, the Floor Exercise, but was able to put together a performance good enough to win her the bronze. In the Uneven Bars, she ended up tied with He Kexin of China for the best score, but was awarded the silver medal based on the third tiebreaker. She also won the silver in the balance beam, becoming only the 3rd American to win 5 gymnastics medals in the same Olympics.

She retired the following year, but attempted a comeback ahead of the 2012 Olympics, but after failing to qualify for the American team, she retired again for good in 2012. She may have only competed in 5 events in her Olympic career, but she was so impressive on each of them that she has earned this spot on the list of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time.