Carrying on the legacy

Gymnast Nastia Liukin is following her parents' footsteps

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- The name Liukin conjures images of past gymnastics glories. Valeri was a member of the 1988 Soviet men's team that won gold in the Seoul Olympics and was perhaps the most dominant men's squad ever assembled. Consider that in the all-around competition, Soviet men won all three medals, including Valeri's silver. His wife, Anna, was a rhythmic gymnast on equally preeminent Soviet teams from the same golden era. She was the world champion in clubs in 1987.

With plenty of experience in the world of gymnastics, the couple set out to do two things: first, they wanted to make a life for themselves and their daughter Nastia, when they moved to New Orleans in 1992; second, they wanted to keep Nastia from becoming a competitive gymnast, lest she endure the pressures of being "the daughter of..." They kept the first promise and have since moved to Plano, Texas, where they've opened a large, world-class gymnastics academy. Nastia broke the second promise for them.

"When she was four years old," Valeri recalls, "we would let her play around, but we weren't coaching her. We wanted her only to have fun with gymnastics. But kids imitate kids. She watched the older girls and without spotting or coaching she would do the exercises better than them. Our plan was not working."

Flash forward to this week's Pan Am Games, where Nastia finished with five medals, including golds in team and balance beam competition. At age 13, she is the U.S. junior national champion and would be a strong candidate for the 2004 Olympic team, if only she were old enough. The minimum age requirement to participate in the Olympics is 16, so Nastia must wait until the Beijing Games in 2008.

Now, in addition to remembrances of triumphs past, the name Liukin is also bringing to mind images of future triumphs. "I don't say she will be in the Olympics, yet," says Valeri, "but she has an innate sense. Most gymnasts have to learn to point the toes, keep the knees straight. The details are very hard. She knows this already. The basic skills are really advanced."

Nastia has her father's penchant for persistence, too. At most every competition in which he competed, Valeri was inevitably bruised, battered and taped. "We got married soon after Seoul," Anna recalls, "but [Valeri] broke his arm on the post-Olympic tour. So, in our wedding pictures, his arm is in a cast that is sticking out from his suit. It looks very funny." Valeri rolls his eyes at the thought that his elfin daughter, not yet five feet tall and weighing just 75 pounds, has the same genes. "Nastia does it until she gets it done right, whatever the element," he says. "I know you might not believe it, but, really, we have to sometimes hold her back. She looks skinny and fragile, but really she's a tiger."

Nastia agrees that she moves and looks more like her elegant mother, but thinks more like her father, who also became national junior champion in his country at age 13. Nastia was once uninterested in her parents' achievements, but has taken to watching their videos and asking to hear old stories. Tell this to Valeri and he has trouble maintaining his trademark stoic stare. "It's so nice for a father to know," he says. "Telling these stories is probably more rewarding for me than for her."

The stories are spreading. After the U.S. women captured the team gold on Saturday, the squad sat in a circle and took a congratulatory phone call from President Bush, who listened while each girl read off her name. After Liukin spoke, the well-prepared President replied, "That's my girl from Texas. You're in all the Texas newspapers, you know. Our star." These days everyone wants to be a part of the family.

Sports Illustrated staff writer Brian Cazeneuve covers Olympic sports for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com.

 

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