The former Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson is speaking out this week to reveal why she refused to speak to her best friend and former teammate Nastia Liukin for eight years.
Johnson And Liukin’s Falling Out
Johnson, 32, who won the gold medal for balance beam at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, opened up about the friendship hiatus that she took from Liukin, 35, for nearly a decade.
“Nastia and I were best friends, training, and at the [2008] Olympics we were roommates,” Johnson told Access Hollywood. “We were 16 and 18 years old, we were kids.”
Sadly, the public pressure for the two girls to be rivals ended up being too much for them both.
“I felt like we were under the spotlight and scrutiny so much to be each other’s top, biggest competitors,” Johnson explained. “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.”
Johnson And Liukin Reconcile
Once the Beijing games came to an end, Johnson and Liukin did not speak for eight years. It was only when their respective significant others got involved that they actually talked to each other again.
“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 revealed. “And ever since then, it’s just like we haven’t skipped a beat.”
“It was amazing,” she added of their reunion. “It also was really confusing for both of us because we were really nervous. “We didn’t know how to rekindle that [friendship]. It was truly within, like, two minutes we were back to being best friends.”
Check out Johnson’s full comments on this in the video below.
Related: Kerri Strug’s Immortal Vault: The Jump That Sealed Olympic Gold
Johnson’s Powerful Email To Liukin
Johnson retired from gymnastics in 2012 after a knee injury stopped her from competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Liukin retired that same year after she didn’t make the Olympic team.
In order to reconcile with Liukin, Johnson wrote a lengthy email to her while sitting in an airport in Dallas.
“If you don’t respond, I totally get it,” Johnson wrote in the email. “Just know that I love you. I miss my best friend. I support you in everything you do.”
Liukin was in a New York City restaurant when she got the email. She had just done an interview in which she was asked if she would be attending Johnson’s wedding to Andrew East. At the time, Liukin had not been invited.
“That’s when it really hit me because I was like, oh my gosh, this girl that I had been best friends with for so many years and this moment that’s about to happen in her life that is the biggest moment of her life, and I’m not going to be there,” Liukin recalled. “When [the reporter] said that, I was like, I have to fix this.”
Liukin could not help but break down in tears over Johnson’s email. Weeks later, the two of them met up in Manhattan. The rest, as they say, is history, as they remain close to this day!
More about:Athletics News