Health
Nastia Liukin talks the Paris 2024 team, mental health and more
2008 Olympic all-around champion Nastia Liukin.
We all like to talk about the Olympics: the athletes, their wins and losses, their strengths and weaknesses. Their successes seem to influence us. Their failures can leave us reeling and even angry. But few can truly speak from the perspective of an Olympic athlete. Nastia Liukin is not just an Olympian: she has won everything. Since winning the Olympic all-around gold medal in Beijing in 2008, Liukin has returned to being a commentator, mentor, businesswoman, athlete and much more.
She will go to the Olympic Games again in 2024, this time as an official ambassador. From the moment she sets foot in France, the five-time Olympic medalist will be on the road covering the Games for a renowned, soon-to-be-unveiled fashion retailer. As Liukin told me, she has had an affinity for fashion since a young age, and every outfit she showcases will have a “backstory or a meaning” tied to the spirit of the games. However, Liukin isn’t just in Paris for world-famous fashion.
Liukin will work with Dr. Michael Gervais from Finding mastery, work together to share its vision on this “the mentality… of what it takes to be the best in the world.” In this series, Liukin hopes to shed light on the psychological complexities faced by an Olympic gymnast, highlighting the person behind the athlete.
Nastia Liukin, photographed by Cibelle Levi Photography.
While Liukin acknowledges that it’s understandable to put elite athletes on a “pedestal,” she wants to help listeners see the humanity behind the gold medal smile (or heartbreaking tears). But how can someone who is not a top athlete compare to an Olympian at the top of his sport? Liukin told me we have more in common than you might think. She says it’s the “real life moments” – facing fear, dealing with heartbreak or achieving a goal – that underpin the Olympic storylines.
As an example, she cites her tumultuous Olympic comeback in 2012. Although Liukin ultimately missed the team after a disappointing performance at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, she believes the message she brought from the event applies to everyone.
“When I fell during trials and fell on my face… I literally fell on my face, but everyone will fall on their faces… figuratively or literally. It’s about how you carry on and how you pick yourself up.”
Liukin wants viewers to realize that the inherently human questions: “What should I do? Who am I? What do I like?” also flash through the minds of top Olympic athletes. Liukin, who was brought to the cultural forefront with Simone Biles’ “twisties” at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, believes the discussion about the mental health of athletes remains an eye-opening and essential conversation.
The Olympic champion himself struggled with the psychological toll that came with adjusting from “athlete” to “non-athlete” status. Although she “never envisioned a life without (gymnastics),” determining the next steps wasn’t easy at first. Liukin describes a certain “heartbreak” that came with leaving the competitive sports side.
Although she initially struggled to set new goals outside of her fundamental “relationship” with gymnastics, “this doesn’t mean you have to close the door on it or cut it out of your life completely.” Liukin’s desire to move on and “do everything for the sport…[for the] next generation and generations to come” ultimately helped ease the transition into her role in a new era of elite gymnastics.
Liukin competes on the uneven bars.
The current generation is impressive in every respect. Complete with two Olympic All-Around Champions (Biles, Sunisa Lee), Jade Carey (Olympic Gold Medalist), Jordan Chiles (Olympic Silver Medalist) and rookie phenom Hezly Rivera, the Paris Olympic team may be the United States’ most decorated team ever .
Although she won’t be competing, Liukin has no shortage of connections to the squad. With the addition of her parents’ star student, Liukin finds herself in a new role: that of a nervous fan.
Coached by Liukin’s parents and former gymnasts, Valeri and Anna Liukin, 16-year-old Hezly Rivera earned her first Olympic berth after a phenomenal performance at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June. However, Liukin could hardly watch.
Like her mother during Nastia’s 2008 Olympic campaign, Liukin could barely watch the match because she “felt sick.” [her] stomach” with fear in an ironic twist of fate. “I literally couldn’t watch,” she laughed, adding that her ability to detect her parents’ emotions through the television screen only made matters worse. Despite Liukin’s concerns, Rivera’s incredible performance secured her ticket to Paris, bringing the Liukin family full circle.
06-22-08 – Photo by John Cheng for USA Gymnastics. Olympic Trials Day 2 Women’s competition takes place … [+]
Although Hezly has the title of “newcomer,” Liukin believes she is in very good hands with her coaches and experienced teammates. All four of her teammates are world or Olympic champions, and Biles and Lee have won Olympic all-around titles, the most coveted medal in artistic gymnastics. According to Liukin, the title comes with a unique pressure.
Describing it as a “pressure you work for your whole life,” Liukin believes Rivera’s Olympic teammates are prepared for the tasks ahead, citing their Olympic berths as evidence. “I’m just really happy for them… coming back is so much harder the second or third time… and so I’m so inspired by their perseverance and their hard work… and all the obstacles they’ve had to go through. ”
And while Liukin excitedly (and nervously) anticipates the future successes of the team, Hezly, and her parents, she mourns the devastating injuries that upended the U.S. Olympic Trials. While she subscribes to the belief that “everything happens for a reason,” Liukin questioned the “reason” behind the untimely injuries to Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely and Kayla DiCello – all frontrunners on the Olympic team.
“My heart breaks for them and their families and their coaches. I just pray that they can recover from it… not just from a physical standpoint [but ] mentally and emotionally.”
As Biles’s world learned in Tokyo, the mental component of elite sport cannot be ignored. Together with a new generation of athletes and gymnastics leaders, Liukin hopes to lead the fight for a safer, stronger sport. Look for Liukin in Paris as she takes the stage in a new but incredibly meaningful role.
