2008 Olympics: Nastia Liukin Wins Gold for U.S. In Women's Gymnastic All-Around

The Bejing Olympic gymnastics All-Around competition finally played out like it was supposed to for the women on Thursday. Nastia Liukin came through on her balance beam and floor exercise routines to claim the Gold medal over Shawn Johnson by a mere .60 point margin.

Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson have been the talk of the press since the World Championships where Shawn Johnson showed exactly what she is capable of doing. Becoming the young new champion. Nastia has been the favorite to win the 2008 Olympic All-Around since the 2004 games. Today she fulfilled the dream she and her Olympic champion father, Valeri Liukin, set out to do when she was a toddler.

The drama was plentiful from the start, though the worst was the waiting while the judges often had to reach for the dreaded cell phone to ask a higher judge for a rule clarification. Here is an idea, lets put the highest judges right at the judging table to make all of the decisions. Of course the controversy of last year's men's finals, with the Gold medal being mistakenly awarded to the USA (it should have gone to Korea, but there was an error in the start value of his routine) has brought on the carefulness during the Bejing games.

The Chinese gymnast, Jiang Yuyan, took herself out of the competition almost immediately with a vault that landed with her sitting squarely on the mat. In the All-Around competition it is almost impossible to come back from a score below a 15, Jiang Yuyan scored a 14.825.

The surprise for China was Yang Yilin, who stepped up her performance to bring home the Bronze for the home team. The controversy for Yang came on the vault where she somehow outscored a near perfect Nastia Liukin for the lead.

Shawn Johnson delivered the same solid performance on the balance beam as she did in the World Championships. She earned a 16.050, her fist score above a 16.00 in the Bejing games. Shawn followed the beam routine with a strong floor routine, but it did not have a high enough start value to overtake the lead Liukin had established. Shawn Johnson showed her ever present grin and no signs of disappointment at all, as well she should be proud.

The women Olympic gymnast have another day of competition and both Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin will be competing. Johnson and Liukin will both compete in floor exercise and beam, with Liukin also qualifying in uneven bars.