Why Shawn Johnson East and Nastia Liukin haven’t spoken in 8 years

Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson East recalls her eight-year feud with former teammate and close friend Nastya Liukin.

During the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the couple competed together as part of the US team. The gymnasts were good friends before the Summer Games, but Johnson East said in a recent interview that their bond quickly changed as they faced the pressure of being in the spotlight.

“Nastya and I were best friends, trained, and were roommates at the Olympics,” she said. Access to Hollywood in an interview on November 4th. “We were 16 and 18 years old. We were children. I felt like we had the spotlight and scrutiny to be each other’s best and biggest competitors, and on the competitive floor we figured out how to be best friends and competitors.”

Johnson East said the international stage ultimately affected their friendship.

“But when the world kind of started interfering with how we should handle this, they said we should also be each other’s worst enemies,” she explained. “So we didn’t talk for eight years.”

They kept their distance the whole time, but Johnson East said their then-boyfriends eventually got “so tired” of hearing them talk about each other that they pushed their girlfriends to open lines of communication.

“And we did it,” Johnson East said. “And since then we haven’t seemed to move. We’re each other’s biggest fans, best friends, biggest supporters, and we just love each other.”

As for how they rekindled their friendship, Johnson East explained that she and Liukin had lunch together in New York. As soon as they started talking, they forgot everything about the past.

“It really was like two minutes later and we were best friends again,” she said. “We both said the same thing, like, ‘I don’t know what happened, but I miss you and I miss us.’ And it’s been that way ever since.”

Johnson East, who won four medals At the 2008 Olympics, he was injured while trying to make the team for the London 2012 Games. Soon after, she retired from the sport and has since become a New York Times bestselling author, the wife of former football player Andrew East, and a loving mother. three children.

Liukin, who won five medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, has become a mentor to aspiring gymnasts. her website. Liukin also shares moments from his life on Instagramfrom style inspiration to travel photos and more.