Ten Years and Counting
It is not always that an athlete will make a huge impact on their sport once they have retired.
Nastia Liukin has been a part of gymnastics her whole life. Her parents also did gymnastics and her father became her coach.
Nastia Liukin was a part of the 2008 Beijing Olympic games where she competed in the all-around competition, uneven bars, floor, and beam. She won the gold in the all-around competition, silver for the team, uneven bars, and beam, and then a bronze for her floor routine.
Liukin to this day has the highest uneven bars score in the team competition, with a score of 16.900.
Liukin attempted to make the 2012 London Olympic games and made it to the trials where she fell on her uneven bar routine. It was then that she knew it was time to move on from her elite gymnastics career.
After the 2008 Olympics games, she got the idea to do the Nastia Liukin Cup, not knowing how big of competition it would come to be.
The Nastia Liukin Cup is a competition that is held every year, during the first weekend in March. It is a partnership between USA Gymnastics and Liukin for pre-elite gymnasts before they step out on the national stage.
The event was first held on March 5th, 2010 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and has been held there every year since. There are 36 girls from all over the world that are invited each year.
The reason behind this competition is to give young women a chance to showcase their skill as if they were at the Olympic trials or games, but have less pressure behind it. Most of these girls are just entering the elite world of gymnastics and haven’t been in this setting before.
It really allows them to see what it would be like to compete at the national level and start on their journey. The competition gives this sport the feeling of community and comradery because gymnastics is an individual sport. It can sometimes feel lonely, but this is bringing people together, creating a team feels even if they are competing separately.
“I knew what the experience was that I was trying to give these young women,” Liukin said. “I really didn’t have that opportunity, and that’s another reason that I really wanted to create this. I remember sharing this idea at the very beginning, and people were like, ‘Okay, this seems like a great idea, but how are we going to make this work?’ I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t know, but we’re going to make this work.”
This is now one of the top competitions that pre-elite gymnasts go to. This competition has been the start of a lot of elite gymnasts’ careers, whether it is at the Olympic or collegiate level.
Gymnasts such as Gabrielle Douglas, Morgan Hurd, Ashton Locklear, Maggie Nichols, and MyKayla Skinner have been apart of the Nastia Lukin Cup and have then gone on to win gold at the World Championships.
This is not only a weekend about gymnastics. The 36 girls that compete get to talk to Liukin on a personal level, with no coaches, parents, or press around. There is a wide variety of discussion from gymnastics, to boys, to growing up, and so many other things. She is very open and honest with them.
This has now become one of the all-important gymnastics competitions of the last 10 years, and there will be many more.
