Gymnast Shawn Johnson has revealed the reasons behind her eight-year silence with her best friend and former Olympics teammate, Nastia Liukin. Johnson, 32, who clinched the gold medal in the balance beam at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, discussed her estrangement from Liukin, 35, during a recent interview with Access Hollywood.
“Nastia and I were best friends, training together, and at the [2008] Olympics, we were roommates,” Johnson reminisced. “We were 16 and 18 years old, just kids.”
Despite finding a way to balance their friendship and competitive rivalry, the public's insistence on seeing them as bitter rivals created a rift between the two gymnasts. “I felt like we were constantly under the spotlight and scrutiny, expected to be each other’s top, biggest competitors,” Johnson explained. “We had managed to be best friends and competitors on the competition floor. But when the world started dictating how we should handle it, they said we should also be each other’s worst enemies.”
Following the Beijing games, Johnson and Liukin did not speak for eight years. It wasn’t until their significant others intervened that the gymnasts reconnected and renewed their friendship. “Our boyfriends at the time got so tired of hearing us talk about each other that they said, ‘Enough of this, just go talk to each other again,’ and we did,” Johnson disclosed. “And ever since then, it’s been like we never missed a beat.”
“It was amazing,” Johnson said of their reunion, but added, “It was also really confusing for both of us because we were really nervous.” “We didn’t know how to rekindle that [friendship],” the gold medalist admitted, though their nervousness quickly dissipated. “It was truly within, like, two minutes we were back to being best friends.”
“We both said the same thing, ‘I don’t know what happened but I miss you and I miss us,'” Johnson recounted about the reconciliation. “And it’s been that way ever since.”
In addition to her gold medal in the balance beam event, Johnson, who married former NFL player Andrew East in April 2016, also won three silver medals at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics for floor exercise, individual all-around, and team all-around. Liukin, on the other hand, won the prestigious gold medal for individual all-around in women’s gymnastics that year, along with silver medals for the uneven bars, balance beam, and team all-around, plus a bronze medal for the floor event.
Johnson retired from gymnastics in 2012, after a long struggle to overcome a knee injury that ultimately prevented her from competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Liukin also retired from the sport the same year after failing to make the United States’ 2012 Olympic team.
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