Saturday, October 8, 2011
Nastia Liukin Announces Comeback
The full story from Nancy Armour.
The story from IG2.
There is a reason Nastia's been shrinking over the last few months. Note that USA Gymnastics paid for Nastia to go to boot camp prior to Nationals and found her a gym to train in in Japan on the days she doesn't have to be at the arena to watch the women compete as the FIG Athlete Rep. She has even been doing some tumbling to keep her options open and return to form.
With Nastia's competitiveness and her father's insane drive, this will be a comeback to remember. Nastia returns to two-a-day workouts when she returns from Japan. Once she and her father are giving one another the icy Russian silent treatment in training, we will know just how likely medals are.
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I don't know,I'm still doubtful about this comeback.and although USA has no bar workers,with the new rules,and the drama that was caused in the last days with the injuries,I don't think it's that smart to take a gymnast for just one event.
ReplyDeleteShe is training multiple events....read.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of annoyed she announced it on the same night the U.S. girls did so well in qualifying. I don't know if she was trying to steal their thunder or what, but it's kind of lame.
ReplyDeleteShe has been hinting about it for a while. Nastia mentioned her hands feeling the effects from training on twitter. There are no bars at the Skating and Gym show.
ReplyDeleteSo excited. If anyone can do it, she can.
ReplyDeleteHate her, but I guess it helps the team to have another possibility there.
ReplyDeleteThat's the most genuine she's ever sounded since winning gold.
ReplyDeleteInterested to see how she does... I think there is a lot of hubris in starting this late, but if she pulls it off, more power to her.
ReplyDeleteI too, though, think it's rude she had to make an official announcement at Worlds. For gosh sakes, let the current team have their moment! Why couldn't she have announced last week, or this week? Why yesterday? If USA Gymnastics (and/or Marta) signed off on the timing of this announcement--which I would expect they did--that makes it even worse.
lmao. Sure Shawn had a press conference, but Shawn also didn't trot out the BULLSHIT at Nationals about not wanting to "take away from the other girl's moment" like Nastia did. Only to turn around and TAKE AWAY FROM THEIR MOMENT.
ReplyDeleteNastia is such a media whore. She couldn't bear to see this US Team doing great at Worlds. She just HAD to make this announcement 10 minutes after the girls competed.
ReplyDeleteYeah, she'll do serious training, as she's traveling to be in the Skating/Gym show. Please.
Don't get me wrong, Shawn is also a media whore, but at least she had enough sense to not announce her comeback in the middle of the US team's competition at Worlds.
ReplyDeleteNastia already said last year she'd try a comeback. I don't doubt that she will try, but I'm sure it's a publicity stunt more than anything. She has sponsorships on the line here.
I hate that I'm even thinking about this during Worlds.
ReplyDeleteyeah, I just want people to admit that Shawn is as big of a media whore as Nastia.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, Shawn held a press conference and signed up to have BBC follow her comeback during the very very early stages, on a scale of Chellsie Memmel to Shawn Johnson this is really not that attention grabbing. Nastia dropped 10 pounds and has been tweeting hints for months now. You know if her father okayed an announcement he can see this ending in olympic gold medals. I really don't think all the endorsements in the world is worth 'tarnishing' the Liukin name to him, or her frankly.
ReplyDeleteInterested to see how this pans out... I'm guessing this announcement means her bar routine difficulty is coming along nicely.
I don't see how this is a Shawn vs Nastia attention whore argument. One has nothing to do with the other. It's just obnoxious that the girl who pretends to care about "allowing" other girls to have their moment (when it's convenient for her) turns around and snatches it after such an amazing performance.
ReplyDeleteI think that previous statement that she so smarmily made only amplify this one.
Nastia + Shawn = Total Attention Whores.
ReplyDeleteNastia should have waited a week or two after Worlds to avoid looking so tasteless, media whorish, rude, etc.
I have no doubt that her and Valeri will come up with an insane bar score topping anything that Tweedle, Musty, Komova, Chinese, etc., are doing to win Olympic gold in EF. Totally eager to see this happen.
She has been working out and hinting so I'm guessing she's much further along than any of us think.
There went any chance of Anna Li making an Olympic run. Her bars were inconsistent to begin with and her beam was no good, with Nastia's return Anna Li better pray Marta puts her in TF to finally have her int'l elite moment...and then move on.
Whatever, if either Nastia or Shawn make London the rest of the girls will get way more media attention than they could ever generate on their own. There is not a star on that team. Although Aly Raisman has a much more quality twitter account than I would have thought possible based on her interviews.
ReplyDeleteI took Nastia's weight loss and inspirational/blistered hand tweets as confirmation that she was training again and I take this announcement as confirmation that it is going extremely well.
Nastia does look great. She couldn't really pull off the poof with the extra weight in her jawline, even if the summer of 2009.
This is the last time of the year that the media is going to be paying any attention to gymnastics. No one is going to be asking her about this in a few weeks. By Tuesday, everyone is going to be focused on the TF anyway.
ReplyDeleteAlso, no one really knows how far along she is, nor can anyone claim that this comes as any kind of surprise based on her tweets and weight loss during the past couple months.
You all say you arent surprised. You baited AJ and said he was full of it since July.
ReplyDeleteThe ONLY reason I compare Nastia to Shawn is that I fucking her haters out there that pretend as though Nastia is any different that their pet Shawn.
ReplyDeletealso, these are the same people that bashed Vega all this time and look what happaned! Vega was better than Maroney. People are saying "well, Maroney had nerves" yeah well, had Vega showed nerves, everyone would have said "oh, she should n't have been there to begin with." Why does Maroney get different treatment?
Finally, yeah, Nastia has been training a lot longer than she's leading people to believe. Valeri will create a routine that will get her to gold medal...especially since this is probably He Kexin's last appearence.
Were people really saying Maroney would best Vega? I thought Maroney was always iffy on beam and floor tends to give her trouble?
ReplyDeleteAlso, Nastia needs to let go to the poof that she is clinging onto for dear life. You are so much prettier than that crap.
ReplyDeleteYeah, people were bashing Vega after Li and ASac went down. Saying stupid shit like "she shouldn't have been on there to begin with" and "she's terrible." Well, Maroney is just a one event gymnast. Vega is AA. It's annoyign that people gave too much credit to Maroney and bashing Vega.
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad. I'm glad Vega shut everyone up.
ReplyDeleteActually, I'm glad that entire team shut everyone up. It was so tiring reading about "omg now the usa is fighting to even qualify a team to London" It's like no one wanted to give any of the girls credit. They were so wonderful.
I love how you can't discuss one without the other randomly being brought into the conversation.
ReplyDeletePeople have been worshiping at the temple of nastia for 11 years now.
ReplyDeleteI'm fan but have never been a fanatic. she has won more than shes earned. But this is the first time i'v ever been dissapointed in her as a person.
To make your announcement the day the usa lands in first place at the worlds is just plain rude!!!
people have giving the excuse that this is the last time of the year there will be media interested.. hello these things called BLOGS some of us read several times a day would be lit up and would start to work its way up to the higher media.
One thing I love about this is that it once again shows just how crazy Shawn and Nastia fans are. Calm down people, you sound like the crazy Yuna and Mao fans.
ReplyDeleteAs for the comeback, I'll believe it when I see it, which probably isn't likely.
I also loved how she said that after she talked to the girls they started believing in themselves. How cute. Delusional, but cute.
ReplyDeleteYou'd all whine more if she announced it after team USA bombed. Then you'd say she thought of herself as the team savior. Nothing she does will please you. The only girls who care about the team are the ones who can't win medals on their own. It is an individual sport where the loser emotional fans care more about team medals than the athletes.
ReplyDeleteShe already thinks of herself as the team savior. Did you not listen to the interview about how she talked to the girls and inspired greatness? Duuuuuuuh.
ReplyDeleteTo be serious, let's say team USA did bomb and she announced it. I have a feeling it would be a lot of THANK GOD more than anything. It's not like people hadn't already been joking about sticking Nastia in a leo once Alicia and Li went down (or whatever is going on with Li).
MoceanuReturns, is that you making all those comments about Shawn? And it's because people wanted Shawn as alternate over Vega? So you hate Shawn but wanted her to be in "shape" to help the team? And you are telling people to get over the Vega thing, but then you bash Shawn far worse than people do Vega? Wow!
ReplyDeleteThis just makes me wonder how on EARTH she was on the selection committee for worlds. She was obviously training, and the AP article states that Marta walked in on her, so she knew. There is a clear conflict of interest and it makes me angry. How can someone be impartial when selecting a team of potential competitors, especially because this is the meet that they can all prove themselves in.
ReplyDeleteAlso, why didn't Nastia announce her comeback at nationals. She was training and would have made a commitment by then, it was a crappy nationals, and would have given the gymnastic world a little hope. It wouldn't be taking away from anyones spotlight because the secret worlds training camps have meant that winning nationals means nothing now. Plus, with all of the injuries it would have been nice if she took the negative attention away from the sport? Just a thought... I think it is terribly poor form to announce it ten minutes after those girls had competed so well.
Anon @236...well stated! I agree 100%!!! It is really sketchy that she was allowed to be on the selection committee, and she picked the worst time to announce her comeback. She was absolutely stealing Team USA's thunder after an incredible showing.
ReplyDeleteAs an interesting side note, I was discussing this with my husband yesterday because I was so appalled by Nastia's timing with her announcement. My husband works in professional baseball, and he said that you could NEVER get away with doing something like this in baseball. For example, it's against the rules for individual players to make a big announcement during the World Series, and if they did do it they would get fined by MLB. The purpose of this rule is so the focus isn't shifted off of the World Series. Too bad USA Gymnastics doesn't have a similar rule, not that they would enforce it on Queen Nastia if they did.
Well, I'm glad that Nastia is training. I agree that if she made an official announcement, she and Valeri can see gold on bars in their future. They wouldn't have it any other way. And I'm glad for her. For all of the haters out there, Nastia has worked her ass off for her entire life for this sport. She's had a lot of success, yes, but she has deserved it. She has been the best in the world. We can sure use her bars, and so as a USA Gymnastics fan, I am thrilled. Barring major injury, we are going to have a 16.0+ bars routine for our team next year. Nastia on bars (and possibly beam) will help us medal at the Olympics next year. If Alicia is out, we will need Nastia's beam. If Bross isn't healthy in time, we would have been screwed. Now we have a shot.
ReplyDeleteGive me a break, people. No one in the US was paying attention to World's until Nastia announced her comeback, so there was no attention to be shifted. This just makes the path to London all the more exciting. Until now, we had a bunch of injured stars, top gymnasts with no personality, and a veteran who, despite her much heralded comeback, had a subpar season. Things just got interesting.
ReplyDeleteYay Nastia! Your detractors will find reasons to hate you no matter what. Glad you made your comeback official.
ReplyDeleteNastia has no intention of coming back. This is just a way to ensure that the money keeps flowing. Wake up people. Even if it were a serious comeback, the U.S. has enough depth that her services are no longer needed.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm not buying that the USA is screwed on beam if Alicia and Bross can't make it back. Obviously bars will be incredible with Nastia, but I'm sure beam would have been sorted out just fine. Alicia and Bross on beam =/= someone like Nast on bars. They're replaceable.
ReplyDeleteAlso disagree with the personality bit. Lol WHAT personality is Nastia suddenly bringing? Glaring during an fx isn't exactly personality. No more than Aly trying to smile (bless her heart). That said, bring on those bars girl.
Nastia has presence and attitude on floor and all events that the other girls simply don't have. Alicia has presence and Shawn does too. The other just don't. The presence is an inner confidence and flair.
ReplyDeleteI'm not knocking Nastia, but you really want to sit here and say people like Vega or Wieber have no presence on floor but Nastia does?
ReplyDeleteI for one am glad to see Nastia trying to comeback the USA is in need of a gymnast who possess some artistry instead of all pure power tumblers whose routines consists of shaking their butts and pointing at the audience.
ReplyDeleteI don't like how she announced it now but maybe it just slipped out maybe it wasnt meant to come out at worlds.
also does anyone know how long she was at boot camp?
Anon 11:26, not true at all. My bf doesn't know anything about Nastia coming back (or 'the girl with the big forehead' as he calls her) but he did text me to tell me Brady Quinn was flying to be with Alicia for her surgery...which I obviously already knew. But that goes to show you what the world cares about. I know lots of people who think Nastia is an over make up-ed wanna be celeb.
ReplyDeleteAnon 11:31...spot on. Nastia is not this balletic queen that people pretend she is. Butt out arms in a different position here or there and bending or kicking out a leg. I do think she is a good bar code whore and the US needs bars, but I honestly hope she doesn't get it together because I don't want her taking someone's spot just for bars. And I hate the bent legged tap that Valeri teaches...not to mention the birth giving double front dismount!
@7:52
ReplyDeleteYou just proved my point, actually. The likely reason your boyfriend knew that was because Brady Quinn is a football player. Meanwhile, the earth continues to spin on its axis, with the US largely oblivious to gymnastics.
LOL! I thought I was the only one in the world who thought that Nastia wasn't as "retro-Soviet" as everyone else does. I thought as a younger gymnast she had the potential to be one of the most aesthetically beautiful gymnasts in this century, but then she injured her ankle and while she still had beautiful lines, for lack of a better way to explain it I thought she started bouncing too much. She quit holding her positions which I feel started giving her choreo a muddled, awkward quality. I don't feel she's a bar lock. I always felt that's where she was the tightest and cleanest in her gymnastics, but as we all know, time doesn't stand still. Younger gymnasts are constantly improving, codes change, deductions become more stringent. I've always respected her ability as a gymnast, but Shawn's easily my favorite, and right now, I definitely wouldn't lock her in either.
ReplyDelete