We’ve missed you, Nastia. The most recent edition of Keri Strug returned to competition last week. Nastia Liukin competed on the balance beam at the Cover Girl Classic and placed second. After the jump we have a ton of screen captures from her performance.
UPDATE: There’s actually video coverage of the Cover Girl Classic available from Universal Sports. You can see thehere and you can also watch the entire show on demand here highlights of Nastia on the balance beam .
Via Dallas News:
The Olympic champion returned to competition for the first time since the Beijing Games on Saturday night, and it was as if she’d never been away. She posted the second-best score on balance beam, her only event, and her 14.5 was only .1 points behind teammate Ivana Hong.
“As soon as we marched out today, that’s when it really hit me: I felt like the old Nastia again,” she said. “Listening to the anthem, I got butterflies in my stomach. It was a cool feeling to be back where I’m at and do what I have a passion for.
“I’m just so happy to be back in this environment. This is what I love to do.”
Liukin is only the third U.S. woman to win the Olympic title, and she’s been in high demand for appearances, photo shoots and commercial opportunities since she left Beijing. She loves everything she’s gotten to do – she picked up the ESPY award for female athlete of the year last week – but the schedule has wreaked havoc on her training.
But with the national championships only three weeks away in her hometown of Dallas, Liukin did the Cover Girl Classic to get back in the competition zone.
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