"Every young athlete aspires to one day see their face on the cover of the Wheaties box," Liukin said. "It's been a huge inspiration to see great gymnastics champions on the box, like Mary Lou and Carly, plus the 'Magnificent Seven' from 1996. It's a privilege and an honor for me to be on the box, and I'm very excited to be part of the Wheaties tradition."

Liukin credits hard work and determination for her success. "I tell young athletes all the time that if you want to become a champion, you need to stay focused, train hard, and pay attention to what you eat," she says. Proper nutrition is a critical part of peak performance, and Liukin says that's why Wheaties was a part of her training regimen. Source

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Her floor routine was spectacular. The 18-year-old's usually stoic expression melted away with each landed tumbling pass. On her final pass, Liukin landed, raised her arms and smiled, something she rarely -- if ever -- does while performing. It was hard not to smile along with her. As she walked off the floor, Liukin walked to her teammate and slapped hands. For a moment, they looked into each other's eyes, a moment of silent acknowledgement of the long road both women had taken to get to this point.

"When I saw her score come up, I knew I couldn't score six-tenths higher," Johnson said, her chin shaking as she spoke to the media. "So going into floor, I didn't care about score or placement anymore. I just wanted to finish my Olympic experience as best I could."

Just like her teammate, Johnson finished the competition with a flawless routine, then walked to her teammate and gave her a hug. "Nastia has been around a long time and has a lot of experience and she deserves the gold," Johnson said. "I was meant to have the silver."

Liukin is only the third American woman to win the all-around; Carly Patterson (2004) and Mary Lou Retton (1984) are the others.

But perhaps this is not Johnson's final chance at individual gold.

After the meet, both gymnasts retracted earlier comments that this Olympics would mark the end of their careers.

"Now she is thinking to keep going," Valeri said of his daughter.

Then, during the news conference, Johnson said she'd changed her mind, too.

"A month ago, I would have said I was done," Johnson said. "But after being here, I would give anything to feel this way again." ESPN

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Anastasia "Nastia" Valeryevna Liukin (Russian: Анастасия "Настя" Валерьевна Люкина; born October 30, 1989) is a Russian-American artistic gymnast. She is 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 as having won the most World Championship medals of any American gymnast in history.

Liukin performed all-around in the qualifying round of competition. She qualified to the all-around final with a score of 62.375, which ranked her second among all competitors and .35 behind Shawn Johnson. Liukin also qualified to three event finals: beam, uneven bars and floor exercise; more than any other American competitor.[35]

In the team finals, Liukin performed on three events: beam, bars and floor exercise. Her uneven bars score of 16.900 was the highest mark awarded in the entire competition.[36] Liukin performed second on balance beam, matching her qualifying score of 15.975.[37][38] On floor exercise, she stepped out of bounds, incurring a .10 penalty.[39][38] The American team earned the silver medal, 2.375 points behind China. [Wiki]

Liukin could upset Johnson if she focuses on her landings and somehow finds a way to clean up her highly difficult bar dismount. Her dominant events are by far the uneven bars, which she is hoping to win in the individual event finals, and the balance beam, in which she owns a world title. Each tenth of a point matters, and that mentality will allow Liukin to stay in the game against Johnson. Mistakes on her landing, steps out of bounds and shaky elements will only lessen Liukin’s chances of catching her. [Yahoo Sports]

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