Anastasia Valeryevna Liukin (born October 30, 1989),
better known as Nastia Liukin, is an American
gymnast. She is a four-time U.S. National Champion
in artistic gymnastics and is the 2007 and 2005
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 currently tied with Shannon Miller as the
most decorated American gymnast in World
Championships history.
Liukin is coached by her father, Valeri Liukin, at
her family's gymnastics club, WOGA, in Plano, Texas.
Nastia Liukin was born on October 30, 1989 in
Moscow, Russia. She is the only child of two former
Soviet champion gymnasts: 1988 Olympic gold medalist
Valeri Liukin and 1987 World Champion in rhythmic
gymnastics, Anna Kotchneva.
The family moved to the United States when Liukin
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.
Outside of competitive gymnastics, Liukin has made
several appearances in film and television, most
notably a commercial for Adidas with Nadia Comaneci,
which ran during the 2004 Olympics, and a cameo in
the April 2006 Disney film Stick It. She has
expressed a desire to become an actress in the
future.
Liukin has several corporate sponsorships, including
Visa, AT&T, GK Elite Sportswear, Longines and
Adidas, and has served as a Longines Sports
Ambassador of Elegance since 2006. She also has her
own line of gymnastics equipment, which includes
mats and balance beams in her signature pink,
produced by AAI.
Liukin is fluent in both English and Russian. She
graduated from high school in the spring of 2007,
and was accepted to Southern Methodist University.
