Nastia Liukin Is Not That Nasty
The uber-awesome Michael K at DListed points to a blind item run on Rush and Malloy, implicating two Olympians are bitter-rivals with one doing something nasty to the other. Michael implies it's gymnastic champs Nastia Liukin and teammate Shawn Johnson. I say NO WAY. Here's the blind item:
Which two perky Olympian teammates are really bitter rivals? One spiked the other's protein shake with laxatives before a big competition, but her plan backfired when her nemesis not only powered through the competition but beat her so-called friend anyway.In all fairness, we don't even know what sport they are referring to or even what team, it could be those cheating Chinese gymnasts for all we know, but I highly doubt it's Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin. First of all, Nastia isn't what you would call "perky". Brooding, focused and serious, yes, but perky? Hell no. I watched virtually all of the coverage of the Olympic Gymnastic competition and Nastia is a no-nonsense kind of person, and her father Valeri Liukin, a former Russian Olympic gymnastic champion himself, would deeply frown on any kind of shenanigans of this nature. While it's true, the two girls, Nastia and Shawn stayed together during the Olympic competition, I doubt they are "bitter rivals." Gymnastics is notorious for high drama, and we absolutely would have heard something by now if there were any issues related to these two young women. In a wonderful NYT article about the two gymnasts, the writer points out the obvious:
The two friends are now setting out on their post-Olympic adventures. The question is which one will capitalize the most on her Olympic success? Johnson’s agent, Sheryl Shade, contended that there were no worries about one of them stealing sponsors from the other. She said that Liukin, 18, and Johnson, 16, appealed to different demographics. Liukin has the elegance of a ballerina. Johnson is perky.In truth, they both performed admirably, despite having to deal with a blatant and unrepentant Chinese team of cheaters. If we removed the underage gymnasts from the Chinese team, Nastia would be up at least one gold medal, and in all fairness, the U.S. Women's team would likely have won the team gold. That said, I wouldn't put this kind of thing past another U.S. gymnast, Alicia Sacramone - she's both perky and has a 'tude. Just kidding Alicia. Well, sort of. Please don't punch me.
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