 |
The celebration for Olympic individual all-around gold medalist Nastia Liukin began as soon as her United flight touched down at Dallas-Ft. Worth airport this afternoon, as local fire trucks saluted her aircraft with the traditional spray of water.
Hundreds of supporters, many of them little girls, broke into a roar as the Russian born gymnast shouted, “I’m proud to be from Texas!” “I thought it was just going to be a couple of girls from the gym” coming by to greet her, said the beaming 18 year old. Though clearly delighted with her performance in Beijing, her medals were nowhere in evidence - perhaps because she plans on collecting a few more. When asked about the 2012 Olympics in London, Nastia said, “I’m taking it one step at a time, and enjoying the moment, but - it’s not out of the question.” More cheers. Keep reading for what Nastia said about the controversy surrounding the Chinese gymnasts - and her meeting with servicemen and women, heading out to Afghanistan. |
The teen was asked about the controversy surrounding the Chinese team and questions about whether some of those gymnasts were or were not at least 16 years old, as required under Olympic rules; Nastia was extremely diplomatic: “All we can control is what we’re doing.”
The press conference was held in DFW’s Terminal B, in an area where volunteers gather to greet soldier passing through. When Nastia arrived, she ran into a group of servicemen and women who were about to head out to Afghanistan and spent some private time with them, away from the cameras before meeting the press and her fans.
Our man on the scene, Mike Federico, tried to shout out a question about her long flight from China - but his question went unheard - surrounded as he was by scores of media types and hundreds of shrieking fans.
Nastia’s one regret seemed to be that she didn’t get to the Great Wall of China, but she came home for a few days R & R before heading out on a tour of the country on Sunday.
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. | TrackBack URI
Leave a comment