2008 Olympic All-Around Champion Nastia Liukin.
We all love to discuss the Olympic Games: the athletes, their triumphs and their losses, their strengths and weaknesses. Their successes seem to affect us. Their failures can rattle –even, anger us. But few can truly speak from the perspective of an Olympic athlete. Nastia Liukin isn’t just an Olympian: she’s won it all. Since clinching the Olympic All-Around gold medal at Beijing 2008, Liukin has been a commentator, mentor, businesswoman, athlete again, and so much more.
In 2024, she’s headed to the Olympic Games once again, this time as an official ambassador. From the moment she steps foot in France, the 5-time Olympic medallist will be on the move covering the games for a renowned, soon-to-be-revealed fashion outlet. As Liukin told me, she’s felt an affinity for fashion from a young age, and every single outfit she showcases will hold a “backstory or a meaning” tied to the spirit of the games. Liukin isn’t in Paris just for world-renowned fashion, though.
Liukin will be partnering with Dr. Michael Gervais of Finding Mastery, collaborating to share her perspective on “the mentality...of what it takes to be the best in the world.” In this series, Liukin hopes to shine a light on the psychological complexities that an Olympic gymnast faces, emphasizing the human behind the athlete.
Nastia Liukin, photographed by Cibelle Levi Photography.
While Liukin acknowledges that it’s understandable to put elite athletes on a “pedestal,” she wants to help listeners see the humanity behind the gold medal smiles (or heart-wrenching tears). But how can someone who is not an elite athlete relate to an Olympian at the top of their sport? Liukin told me that we have more in common than one might think. She says it’s the “real life moments” – facing a fear, dealing with heartbreak, or achieving a goal, that underlie Olympic storylines.
She cites her tumultuous 2012 Olympic comeback as an example. While Liukin ultimately missed the team after a disappointing showing at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, she holds that the message she carried away from the event applies to all.
“When I fell at trials and fell on my face...I fell on my face literally, but everybody will fall on their face...figuratively or literally. It's about how you keep going and how you pick yourself up.”
Liukin wants viewers to realize that the inherently human questions: “What do I do? Who am I? What do I like?” also flash through the heads of top Olympic athletes. Brought to the cultural forefront with Simone Biles’ “twisties” at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Liukin believes the discussion regarding athlete mental health remains an “eye-opening” and essential conversation.
The Olympic Champion herself struggled with the psychological toll of adjusting from the status of ‘athlete’ to ‘non-athlete.’ While she “never envisioned a life without (gymnastics),” determining next steps wasn’t easy at first. Liukin describes a certain “heartbreak” that came with leaving the competitor’s side of the sport.
While she initially struggled to set new goals separate from her foundational “relationship” with gymnastics, “it doesn't mean that you have to shut the door on it or completely remove it from your life.” Liukin’s desire to further and “do anything for the sport...[for the] next generation and generations to come” ultimately helped facilitate the transition to her role in a new era of elite gymnastics.
Liukin competes on the uneven bars.
By all standards, today’s generation is an impressive one. Complete with two Olympic All-Around Champions (Biles, Sunisa Lee), Jade Carey (Olympic gold medalist), Jordan Chiles (Olympic silver medalist), and rookie phenom Hezly Rivera, the Paris Olympic team is arguably the United States’ most decorated team ever.
While she won’t be competing, Liukin has no shortage of connections to the squad. With the addition of her parents’ star pupil, Liukin finds herself in another new role – that of a nervous fan.
Coached by Liukin’s parents and former gymnasts, Valeri and Anna Liukin, 16-year-old Hezly Rivera clinched her first Olympic berth after a phenomenal showing at June’s U.S. Olympic Trials. However, Liukin could barely watch.
Much like her mother during Nastia’s 2008 Olympic campaign, Liukin could hardly watch the meet, feeling “sick to [her] stomach” with anxiety in an ironic twist of fate. “I literally could not watch,” she laughed, adding that her ability to detect her parents’ emotions through the television screen only added insult to injury. Despite Liukin’s worries, Rivera’s incredible performance punched her ticket to Paris, completing a “full circle moment” for the Liukin family.
6/22/08 - Photo by John Cheng for USA Gymnastics. Olympic Trials Day 2 Women Competition take place ... [+]
While Hezly holds the “newcomer” title, Liukin believes she is in very good hands with her coaches and veteran teammates. All four of her teammates are World or Olympic Champions, and Biles and Lee have won Olympic All-Around titles, the most coveted medal in Artistic Gymnastics. With the title, Liukin says, comes a unique pressure.
Describing it as a “pressure you work your entire life for,” Liukin holds that Rivera’s Olympic teammates are prepared for the tasks ahead, pointing to their Olympic berths as evidence. “I'm just really, really happy for them...coming back is so much harder your second or third time around...and so I'm so inspired by their persistence and their hard work...and all the obstacles that they've had to go through.”
And while Liukin excitedly (and nervously) anticipates the future successes of the team, Hezly, and her parents, she mourns the devastating injuries that rocked the U.S. Olympic Trials. Though she subscribes to the belief that “everything happens for a reason,” Liukin questioned the ‘reason’ behind the untimely injuries of Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely, and Kayla DiCello – all Olympic team frontrunners.
“My heart breaks for them and their families and their coaches. I just pray that they are able to recover from it...not just from a physical standpoint [but ] mentally and emotionally.”
As the world learned from Biles in Tokyo, the mental component of elite athletics cannot be ignored. Along with a new generation of athletes and gymnastics leadership, Liukin hopes to spearhead the push for a safer, stronger sport. Look for Liukin in Paris as she takes to the stage in a new yet incredibly meaningful role.
