Biography
Anastasia "Nastia" Liukin is her full name. Most poeple just call her Nastia. She was born on October 30, 1989 in Moscow, Russia. Her parents are Anna and Valeri Liukin . When Nastia was two and a half years old, her parents decided to move from Russia to the USA to get closer to family. Nastia is the daughter of two gymnasts that each earned the title of World and/or Olympic Champion in their careers. Anna and Valeri Liukin both bought a gym and opened it. Her parents were both the owners so they were always at the gym, from the time it opened to the time it closed. Nastia's parents did not have alot of money at that time so they could not pay for a babysitter. Whenever her parents were at work Nastia was at the gym with them. "I was always running around and on the bars, and that's kind of how I started," she stated. Nastia began copying the other children in the gym while they were performing their floor routines. That is how it all started. As the years went on Nastia parents finally let her do gymnastics and she was great at it from the start. At the age of 12 Nastia was already qualified as an "Elite" gymnast. She was competing all over the United States. She was bound to go to the olympics. In 2005 Nastia competed her first year as a "Senior" elite. Nastia was selected to represent the USA on uneven bars and beam, easily qualifying through to the final on each. This allowed her to tour with other Elite gymnasts in Europe and the United Kingdom, where she trained with gymnasts from other coutries. In the year of 2007 Nastia Liukin competed to go to qualify for the oylmpics. It had been a tough journey but she managed to qualify with an ancle injury. She was the first picked and she was chosen to lead team U.S.A in the 2008 Bejing Olympics. She walked out of the Olympics with a gold metal. She won the whole Olympics for the Gymnasts on team U.S.A.