stretching out
AFTER Nastia Liukin finished her obligation to compete in the 2009 Visa Championships in Dallas, it didn’t take long for her
to make one of many life decisions she will
face. But since she’s the Olympic champion,
her choices will become public and rarely please
everyone.
When Nastia announced during a conference
call at the end of August that she was taking a
break from gymnastics, she sounded apologetic.
“I know this is probably a shock to some, and
to some it might not have been,” she said.
Forget about it, Nastia. You don’t owe anybody anything. If you saw her compete at the
Visa Championships, you would understand her
decision. Her body was there more than her
heart and mind were. After her life-changing
experience in Beijing, Dallas must have felt
more like an appearance with scores—and not
very high ones.
Nastia looked a bit lost in Dallas, like when
you go to a party and don’t know quite where
to stand. She was in the meet without being ‘in’
the meet. Her presence had absolutely no bearing on the actual competition. That had to feel
strange. Nastia’s body language seemed to say
“Why am I doing this?” even though she herself
maintained afterward, “Hopefully, I’ll make the
world team and do bars and beam.”
“Hopefully” takes the teeth out of any state-
ment. You could tell she was struggling to
believe it herself, but that’s OK.
I was 19 once—and have certainly regressed
to that age a few times since—and my life decisions revolved around whether I should go to
college or get an apartment. At one point I had
gone through orientation at one university
three times before following through. (We all
learn from our mistakes, but I was slower than
most.)
Nastia’s situation is slightly more complicat-
ed. She has an Olympic title, sponsors, fans
(friends and followers), former gymnasts for
parents, and a reallylucky agent.
I have complete respect for Nastia’s parents,
Anna and Valeri, who helped build WOGA into
an extremely successful business. (They now
have three gyms.) I’ll reserve judgment on her
agent, Evan Morgenstein, whose job is to make
a business out of Nastia. All I know is that he
About
Nastia’s Choices
By Dwight Normile
Vague is a good
stance to take, espe-
ROLAND BARRE TT
cially when people
continually ask about
the next Olympics.
agreed to a phone interview once and, well, it
was an unpleasant experience.
So Nastia’s world includes two very different
tugs. She can return to what she knows well—
training at the family gym—or enjoy the unpredictable itinerary of an Olympic celebrity. Grips
or glitz? Tricks or tweets?
Nastia, who turned 20 on Oct. 30, wisely
chose to take a break of undisclosed length.
Vague is a good stance to take, especially when
people continually ask about the next Olympics.
Nastia says London 2012 is in the “back of my
mind.” What about her return to the gym? “I’m
definitely not setting a date for myself right
now,” she says.
When Nastia tweets that she is “so excited
for a day with nothing to do,” you realize her
sudden reality of no daily gymnastics—or a
commitment of any kind—must have been a
welcome relief. Freedom is indeed a wonderful
escape from any routine that has lost its
appeal, especially if you’ve already attained
the ultimate goal in your field.
Only time will tell if an endless string of
photo shoots and appearances can ultimately replace the sense of purpose that Nastia
probably felt as a competitive gymnast. For
now, though, there is no crime in taking
time off after the Olympics to regroup.
As someone who grew up in a gym,
Nastia certainly has paid her dues, both in
the sport and for the U.S. program. At her
last two world championships, in 2007 and
’06, she gamely played a supporting role
while competing on an injured
ankle. At the individual worlds
in ’05, the pointless rule of
score-truncation bumped
her to second all-around,
even though she and gold
medalist Chellsie Memmel
had actually tied. Nastia
never complained, at
least not publicly. (If she
wants to win one more
world medal to break her
tie with Shannon Miller,
that one certainly is good
enough in my book.)
So we need no apologies from Nastia, whose
grace thus far has been
exemplary, on and off the
competition floor. She just
needs to follow her heart with the numerous life
decisions that await. “I’m the kind of person
who likes to please people,” she says. “So I
really hope I’m not letting too many people
down.”
I think she might have let herself down by
trying to compete at the Visa Championships
when she wasn’t ready. She respects the sport
too much. By taking a breather now, Nastia
should be more committed than ever if she
decides to come back. And no, regardless of
what anyone else thinks, she doesn’t have to
come back at all. IG
