Nastia Liukin Wins Olympic All-Around Gold, Johnson Takes Silver
And then there were three.
Mary Lou Retton
Carly Patterson
With her Gold medal winning finish in today’s Women’s All-Around Gymnastics competition, Nastia Liukin became the third U.S. woman to ever win All-Around Gold at the summer games .
With her friend, roommate, and teammate Shawn Johnson download commando divx taking Silver after a dramatic, clutch performance in the floor exercise, the two became the first-ever American duo to finish first-second in a Women’s gymnastics all around.
The two both overcame some borderline ridiculous judging that still left them in the hunt for the podium after the first two rotations, but the judges certainly did not make it easy on them. Despite wobble after wobble, the judges appeared to keep the Chinese competitors in the running with execution scores that seemed outrageous when compared to those given to the Americans for routines that were obviously cleaner to even the most untrained of eyes.
It looked as though the Americans were in for controversy of some kind – especially with Liukin and Johnson coming in as favorites for the All-Around. But in the end, the consistent talent of Liukin and Johnson, both of whom would have likely earned a Team Gold Medal if it wasn’t for the mistakes of one Alicia Sacramone (but that’s why it’s a team competition), avoided any controversy by pulling out clutch performances to end the night on the floor exercise.
For Johnson, who has been the face of USA Gymnastics since becoming World Champion in 2007, despite strong performances on beam, vault, and the uneven bars, it would have been impossible for her to surpass Liukin in the final event, despite throwing in an extra full twist into a tumbling pass to increase her difficulty.
Despite not taking Gold, Johnson’s willingness to take on a more difficult tumbling pass paid off, as she edged out China’s Yang YiLin by just .075 for the Silver medal.
In the end, Liukin’s grace, consistency, and incredible stuck landing after stuck landing were too much for the rest of the hotly contested field to handle.
Nastia Liukin, who will be a student at SMU in the fall, lived up to unreal expectations stemming from a lineage that had already tasted Olympic All-Around Gold through her father, Valeri Liukin. Her father said that they were only going for Gold and that Silver would have been a disappointment.
Nastia not only avoided disappointment, but she made us forget about the disaster that was Alicia Sacramone in the Women’s Team Final that made Liukin’s and Johnson’s near flawless performances feel like they went to waste.
Almost.
Also in the end, in a wonderful coincidence, the competition’s most beautiful girl (Liukin) and cutest girl (Johnson) ended up first and second in the competition, which is not only nice, but this U.S. victory will hopefully put to rest some of the talk about China’s clearly underaged women’s gymnastics team.
Former U.S. gymnast Amanda Borden said that if the U.S. had won the team competition, we’d only be discussing the team, not the Chinese team. Now that Liukin and Johnson have come out on top in the All-Around, the two have singlehandedly put the focus back on the competition and away from the tumbling toddlers.
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