Anastasia Valeryevna “Nastia” Liukin: She is the 2008 Olympic individual all-around Champion, the 2005 and 2007 World Champion on the balance beam, and the 2005 World Champion on the uneven bars. With nine World Championships medals, seven of them individual, Liukin is tied with Shannon Miller for the second-highest tally of World Championship medals (among US gymnasts); Liukin has also tied Miller’s record as the American gymnast having won the most medals in a single non-boycotted Olympic Games. She is a four-time all-around U.S. National Champion, winning twice as a junior and twice as a senior.
Summer Olympics: Gold-AA, Silver-Team, UB and BB, Bronze-FX, Bejing, (2008). World Championships: Gold-Team, BB, Silver-UB, Stuttgart, (2007), Silver-Team, UB, Aarhus, (2006),Gold-UB, BB, Silver-AA, FX, Melbourne, (2005). Other International Competitions: Pan American Games: Gold-Team, AA, BB, Silver-UB, San Jose, (2008), Pan American Games: Gold-Team, Silver AA, BB, Rio de Janeiro, (2007), Pan American Games: Gold-Team, BB, Silver-AA, Bronze-UB, FX, Santa Domingo, (2003).American Cup: Gold AA, Philadelphia, (2006), American Cup: Gold-AA, New York, (2006); Pacific Rim: Gold-Team, UB, Silver-AA, BB, Honolulu, (2008). U. S. National Championships: USAG Nationals: Gold-UB, BB, Silver-AA, Boston, (2008), USAG Nationals: Gold-UB, Silver-BB, Bronze-AA, San Jose, (2007), USAG Nationals: Gold-AA, UB, BB, St. Paul, (2006), USAG Nationals: Gold AA, UB, BB, Silver-FX, Indianapolis, (2005). Nastia is fluent in English and Russian. Family: Parents: Olympic Champion Valeri and World Champion Anna Kotchneva-Liukin. Nastia was born in Moscow, Soviet Union. The family moved to the United States when Nastia was two and a half years old, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, and settled first in New Orleans before moving to Texas. In 1994, Valeri Liukin teamed with another former Soviet champion athlete, Evgeny Marchenko, to open the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) in Plano. Nastia is an only child.
