American gymnast Nastia Liukin hung up one of her father's Olympic gold medals in her bedroom to inspire her to win one of her own in Friday's all-around final.
Dad Valeri won two golds and two silvers at the 1988 Seoul Games and was delighted his 18-year-old daughter had claimed the prestigious individual crown that he missed out on when he came second in his all-around event.
"I guess Nastia fixed the little mistake I had," a beaming Valeri told reporters. "I'm very proud of my baby."
Having already picked up a silver in the team event, Nastia had her sights on out-doing her father on the medal front after he joked "I still have two more than you".
United States' Nastia Liukin competes on the balance beam during the women's individual all-around final of the artistic gymnastics event of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing on August 15, 2008. [Agencies] |
"I'm still chasing him, I have three more finals to beat him," said Liukin, who will compete in the asymmetric bars, floor and beam finals.
Her coach-father, who represented the Soviet Union, has been Liukin's role model and she said that looking at one of his Olympic medals had given her additional drive.
"I saw it every single day and that gave me the extra motivation. That made a little bit of a difference, just having it and being able to see it in my room," she said. "(I thought) maybe in a few months I can have one of these of my own."
Valeri said it was now time to put his own medals away and display his daughter's instead.
"Nastia's are more important for our family," he said. "It's a feeling that I don't think any father can describe."
Liukin, who put behind her a couple of injury-hit years to beat world champion and teammate Shawn Johnson and third-placed Yang Yilin of China, said the hard work had been worth it.
"All the injuries, tears ... everything pays off this very moment. You can only think of good things now," she said.
Despite her victory, she said there was still room for improvement and she pointed to her asymmetric bars routine as one to work on before the apparatus final.
Her fluid and stylish routine picked up the second highest score of the day on the apparatus of 16.650 but during the team final the same moves had earned her the top score recorded at the Olympics so far of 16.900.
"I can definitely do a better bar routine and that is definitely the one thing that I was hoping to do more on," she said. "Come the bars final, I'm really hoping to step it up a bit and do better on that routine."
Agencies