VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Nastia Liukin Says She Was Destined To Be An Olympic Gymnast

Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin grew up with two Olympic champions. Her parents, Valeri Liukin and Anna Kotchneva inspired her to become an Olympic champion – she won Best All-Around Gymnast at the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as four other medals. Before the London Games, Liukin told uInterview she was destined to become a gymnast.

“Both my parents were gymnasts, so my dad went to the 1988 Olympic Games and won two gold and two silver medals and my mom was a world champion rhythmic gymnastics, so I think I was a gymnast before I was even actually born,” said Liukin, who is serving as a commentator for NBC’s Tokyo Olympic coverage.

Ever since she was a little girl, Liukin said she had always been interested in gymnastics. As soon as she understood what her parents had achieved, she wanted to follow in their footsteps.

“I’ve just always had a passion and love for the sport of gymnastics, and so I think that by them achieving what they did, I remember as soon as I knew what the word Olympic Games meant I wanted to go there and whatever that meant, I wanted to go to the Olympics and I wanted to follow in their footsteps and achieve … what they did and so it was really great to be able to have somebody that I looked up to as my parents, and then to see their Olympic and world medals and to say that I wanted one of my own,” Liukin told uInterview.