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Saturday, July 7, 2012

Nastia Liukin Deserves More

I was going to title this post "Why Does Shawn Johnson Get All the Attention?" but I did not want to make I did not want this to be one more hit when someone types in "Shawn Johnson is the best gymnast in the world" or some such NONSENSE!

I will be the first to say that Shawn Johnson is amazing. She achieved great accomplishments and done things most people never will and deserves to be rewarded. However, her rewards have been disproportionate compared to the amount of rewards other gymnasts have received, such as the other, bigger star of the '08 games Nastia Liukin. For example, Shawn has many more sponsors and promotional partners than Nastia, and seems to get more opportunities than Nastia, like Oprah (with Mary Lou and Nadia, both AA gold medalists-Nastia is the other and I assume wasn't invited.), and dancing with the stars.

I know life will not always be fair, but this thing with Nastia and Shawn just bothers me. I swear everyone in the world from my Grandma to the little kids in the gym believe that Shawn won the All-Around gold.

Why does everyone love Shawn so much more than Nastia? Okay, so Shawn smiles and waves to the camera during her competitions. What is more impressive, looking cute for the camera or being an Olympic Champion? Nastia needed to focus to win that gold medal, she couldn't be hamming it up for the cameras every second!

Maybe people assume Shawn is better because she has that short, stocky, stereotypical gymnast body and she is a "power gymnast." What does that even mean? Do people think Nastia's marathon bar routine and her front handspring-double front on floor, and her QUAD TWISTING BACK LAYOUT (never competed  but landed several times in training) don't take any power????!! People always sum up that all-around comp in Beijing with "artistry beat power." NO. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Nastia did not win because the judges preferred artistry over power. She won because she has BOTH, while Shawn is more of a one-trick pony. She throws huge skills, but that's about all she can do. Nastia's average D scores are comparative to Shawn's, but she makes the skills look fluid and effortless, which is what gave her that edge in Beijing.

Another thing I can't stand is when people argue about who should have won the all-around. Many people say Shawn was the best and the judges were "unfair." Um, people! Nastia qualified for (and medaled in) 3 apparatus finals, while Shawn only qualified for two! That CLEARLY makes Nastia the better all-around gymnast!

I don't want anyone to think I hate Shawn Johnson because I truly don't. I just hate seeing Nastia get so overlooked while Shawn the attention hog gets more and more of it.

Yes, I'm mad. lol





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