Nastia Liukin

...is my favourite Olympian right now.

I was perched on top of a mini fitball in front of my TV watching with absolute awe the women's individual all round artistic gymnastics. Nastia Liukin stole the Gold Medal yesterday, made her daddy's dreams come true (he was individual all round Olympic Gold Medalist in his time) and as some reporters put it, broke China's dominance over the gymnastics sport.

Did you watch it? She was absolutely amazing. In all events. I just can't get over how strong and powerful yet graceful, poised and flexible this girl is. Those two just don't go hand in hand. And very unlike artistic gymnasts, her body isn't extremely V-shaped, and all bulky. She's got this gorgeous lean body with long legs and long hands. Ooohhhh the jealousssyyy!!

What completely swept me off my feet was her floor exercise. Gone were the days where rhythmic gymnasts were all bendy and contortiony, while artistic gymnasts were bulky stiff ones. Artistic gymnasts are really flexible too! This girl was doing needle point pivots, and >180 split leaps and what nots. AND...and...they dont even wear half shoes! *salute* I'm just shocked at how much flexibility the sport demands now. I never really watched artistic but i've always thought they were mostly about leaping and tossing themselves around from corner to corner on the carpets. But nooo. They require just about as much poise and grace and perhaps not that much flexibility but they seem to be getting there!

I think i would've made a pretty good artistic gymnast. Or at least a far better one than i am a rhythmic gymnast. I wasn't very good in RSG (Rhythmic Sportive Gymnastics) last time and i reckon i just wasn't born to be very flexible, nor very graceful. I think i'm more of the powerful, muscly kind of gymnast. Though balance may pose a problem coz i'm not that good at balancing. Haha...but anyway...should've tried out Artistic Gymnastics! =)

Anyway, just watch this video. This was for the trials. I loveeeee her ending!


*jealous*