Shawn Johnson East and Nastia Liukin started their gymnastics careers as friends, but comPetition nearly tore their bond apart.
Johnson East and Liukin connected while training for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The women, who were teens at the time, made Team USA. Johnson East walked away from the Games with one gold medal and three silvers, while Liukin received one gold, three silver and a bronze.
Despite winning silver together for the team, Johnson East and Liukin’s friendship began to deteriorate as they were pitted against each other.
“Nastia and I were best friends training and at the Olympics, we were rooMMAtes,” Johnson East said in a November 2024 interview with Access Hollywood. “We were 16 and 18 years old; we were kids. I felt like we were under the spotlight and scrutiny so much to be each other’s top, biggest comPetitors.”
After the Olympics, Johnson East and Liukin had an eight-year-long rift that got resolved right before Johnson East’s 2016 wedding to Andrew East.
Keep scrolling to see what Johnson East and Luikin have said about their relationship over the years:
2008
Liukin and Johnson East appeared in their first Olympics in Beijing. As they vied for gold medals, Liuikin and Johnson East realized that they were each other’s biggest comPetitors as they faced off in multiple events. Liukin ended up beating Johnson East during the all-around portion, which left Johnson with mixed emotions.
“It was this interesting feeling of I was so proud of her and I was so happy for her,’” Johnson East reflected during an appearance on “The Players Pod With Kelley O’Hara” in 2022. “And I was so heartbroken … it was a really hard thing to navigate as a kid.”
After finishing the Olympics, Liukin and Johnson East’s friendship took a turn for the worst. Both women later stated that no specific incident sparked their falling-out —instead it was caused by the pressure of their rivalry.
“You couldn’t like both. It was like Twilight,” Liukin explained of her relationship to Johnson East while speaking at the Grander Summit in 2018, per NBC News. “As a 16- and 18-year-old girl … we were so used to any time somebody told us something, we believed it. We thought that was right. Or that’s what was supposed to happen. Or that’s how we were supposed to act.”
2012
Both athletes announced their decision to retire from gymnastics ahead of the London Olympics. Johnson East announced in June 2012 that she was hanging up her leotard due to continuing problems with her knee. Liukin, meanwhile, initially had plans for a potential comeback, but she did not make the team.
2016
While the twosome were not on speaking terms, both Johnson East and Liukin admitted that they were on each other’s minds. Liukin later confessed that not initially receiving an invite to Johnson East’s wedding hurt her feelings and she wanted to patch things up.
“That’s when it really hit me, because I was like, ‘Oh my, gosh, this girl that I had been best friends with for so many years and this moment that’s about to happen in her life that is the biggest moment of her life,’” she said during the Grander Summit in 2018. “And I’m not going to be there.”
However, it was Johnson East who extended an olive branch first by reaching out with an emotional email. After the message, Liukin and Johnson East met up for lunch in New York City, where they patched things up. Liukin ended up receiving an invitation to Johnson East’s wedding.
“I can’t wait to watch you become Mr. & Mrs. East today,” she tweeted ahead of the April ceremony.
Later that year, Johnson East and Liukin spent some quality time in Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics.
“Being on the other side now, we’re able to experience Rio and the city and not just the comPetition, but really be able to experience it a little bit more,” Liukin told Bustle in August 2016.
2022
After reconciling, Johnson East shared that she and Liukin’s friendship was still going strong.
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2024
Johnson East confessed that both her and Liukin’s partners played a role in getting their friendship back on track.
“But when the world started interjecting [with] how we should handle it, they said we should also be each other’s worst enemies as well,” Johnson East recalled to Access Hollywood. “So, we didn’t speak for eight years. And eight years later, our boyfriends at the time got so tired of hearing us talk about each other that they said, ‘Enough of this, go talk to each other again,’ and we did.”
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Nastia Liukin
