Nastia Liukin
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STUTTGART, Germany, Sept. 8, 2007 – Nastia Liukin of Parker, Texas, and Alicia Sacramone of Winchester, Mass., added a silver and a bronze medal, respectively, to their world team gold medal at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. Liukin was second on the uneven bars, with Sacramone finishing third on the vault. 

 

Guillermo Alvarez of Denver and Kevin Tan of Fremont, Calif., both just missed the podium to finish fourth in the men’s floor exercise and still rings, respectively. Alexander Artemev of Morrison, Colo., placed sixth on pommel horse.

 

Shawn Johnson of West Des Moines, Iowa, Liukin and Sacramone will compete tomorrow, Sept. 9, on the final day of individual event finals. 

 

Known for her elegance and clean lines, Liukin nailed all of her release moves and had only a small step on her double-front, half-out dismount. Her 16.300 was just .05 behind the 16.350 of gold-medalist Ksenia Semenova of Russia, who had a slightly higher A (difficulty) score.  China’s Yang Yilin was third at 16.150.

 

“I had a step on my landing and that’s what cost me,” said Liukin, who was the world bars champion in 2005 and the silver medalist in 2006.  “I will learn from this experience and move on for next year.”

 

“I am not disappointed (at this event),” said Liukin.  “Our big goal was to win the team gold medal, and we did that.  Also, I have proven that I can do four events.  We’ve got a lot of events next year and my main focus is on Beijing.”  

 

Liukin’s silver brings her total world medal tally to eight, one short of the mark of nine world medals held by Shannon Miller, who has earned more world and Olympic medals than any other U.S. gymnast (16 total).  Miller, the only U.S. woman to win back-to-back all-around world titles, has five gold, three silver and one bronze world medal to her credit, as well as seven Olympic medals (two gold, two silver, three bronze).  Liukin has three gold and four silver  world medals and will compete in the balance beam finals tomorrow.

 

“Eight medals is such an accomplishment,” said Liukin.  “Shannon is a great inspiration to us.”