Gymnast Shawn Johnson has crystal clear why she refused to talk along with her highest pal and previous Olympics teammate Nastia Liukin for 8 years.
Johnson, 32, who received the gold medal for stability beam on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, spoke about her friendship hiatus with Liukin, 35, throughout a up to date interview with Access Hollywood.
“Nastia and I were best friends, training, and at the [2008] Olympics we were roommates,” Johnson recalled. “We were 16 and 18 years old, we were kids.”
Although the pair had labored out a technique to be each competition and buddies, the society’s need for them to be sour opponents drove a wedge between the phenoms.
“I felt like we were under the spotlight and scrutiny so much to be each other’s top, biggest competitors,” Johnson defined.
“And we had figured out on the competition floor how to be best friends and competitors. But when the world started kind of interjecting how we should handle it, they said we should also be each other’s worst enemies as well.”
Next the Beijing video games, Johnson and Liukin didn’t discuss for 8 years. Handiest later their vital others intervened did the gymnasts get again in contact and revive 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 perceivable. “And ever since then, it’s just like we haven’t skipped a beat.”
“It was amazing,” Johnson stated of her and Liukin’s reunion, however added, “It also was really confusing for both of us because we were really nervous.”
“We didn’t know how to rekindle that [friendship],” the gold medalist confessed, despite the fact that their anxiousness used to be short-lived. “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 stated of the reconciliation. “And it’s been that way ever since.”
Along with her gold medal for the stability beam tournament, Johnson, who married former NFL participant Andrew East in April 2016, took house 3 silver medals on the 2008 Beijing Summer season Olympics, for flooring workout, person all-around and staff all-around.
Liukin received the coveted gold medal for person all-around in ladies’s gymnastics that while, additionally nabbing silver medals for the asymmetric bars, stability beam, and staff all-around plus a bronze medal for the ground tournament.
Johnson retired from gymnastics in 2012, later an extended struggle to conquer a knee shock that in the end averted her from committing to the 2012 Summer season Olympics in London. Liukin retired from the game that very same while later she didn’t construct america’ 2012 Olympic staff.
