Russian-born Nastia Liukin of the US won the women’s gymnastics individual all-around event yesterday to break China’s stranglehold on the sport at the Beijing Olympics.
Liukin’s compatriot and Olympic village roommate Shawn Johnson took silver to make it a one-two finish for the US, while the host nation’s Yang Yilan finished with bronze.
Liukin finished on 63.325, with Johnson on 62.725 and Yang scoring 62.65.
PHOTO: EPA
Until Liukin’s win, China had won all three of the gymnastics gold medals contested at these Games and Johnson said the one-two helped compensate for losing the team gold to China on Wednesday, where US mistakes proved costly.
“We came back and we showed the USA is really strong, we deserved the top two medals and we showed the world we can come back no matter what,” she said.
Johnson, the reigning individual world champion, had been favorite for the Olympic title, but Liukin proved too strong after coming back from a series of injuries in recent years.
Moscow-born Liukin moved to the US as a toddler and is the daughter of Valeri Liukin, who won two golds and two silvers in gymnastics for the USSR at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and acts as his daughter’s coach.
“I’m still fighting for that medal count with him, he has four, so I have a few more to go,” she said.
Her father, who had to settle for silver in the individual event in Seoul, said he was glad to see his daughter go one better.
“I guess Nastia fixed that little mistake I had,” he said.
None of the women dominated a close-fought final and the lead constantly changed as the gymnasts went through the four women’s apparatus.
Romanian Steliana Nistor led after round one, but Johnson was breathing down her neck just 0.1 points behind after an explosive routine on the vault.
Yang overtook them both, scoring a stellar 16.725 on the uneven bars to leap from fifth place to first to lead Liukin by a wafer-thin 0.15 points at the half-way mark.
Liukin then capitalized on an opportunity to snatch the lead on the balance beam, an apparatus on which she is world champion, scoring 16.125 to go ahead 0.15 points.
Her routine pushed Yang into second place, with the Chinese gymnast scoring 15.75 on the beam as the crowd anxiously watched her every wobble.
The fervent support that has cheered China to three gymnastics gold medals so far during these Games stepped up a notch going into the final floor exercise.
But there were boos when Yang scored 15.0 after a stumble during her routine, though the spectators remained fair and cheered Liukin’s routine, which earned 15.525 from the judges.
Johnson needed 16.125 on the floor to win gold and even though she is reigning world champion on the apparatus, Johnson fell short with 15.525, saying afterward that she could not have done any better.
Johnson said she was glad it was her friend Liukin who beat her to the gold.
“It probably makes it easier,” she said.
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