07-03-2012, 12:11 PM
Nastia is 22. And she's done.
We met Nastia a few months ago. She was on a promo tour for this event and a signing was held at a Peninsula gym. The stupid gym wasted like 15 mins. of her short appearance there showing a homemade overview video on her. Now, you must understand, Nastia has been the queen of gymnastics since Beijing. She has several product lines of gymno gear, her own national meet circuit, was a spokesperson for Covergirl, has made several movie and tv cameos, and is in almost every ad in the national gymno mag. That being said, she was very gracious, grounded and stunningly beautiful in person (when competing, she pulled her hair back into a ponytail exposing her impossibly high forehead, but in normal life, with her bangs down, she looks much more attractive). After the vid, a huge chaotic signing line formed and we were at the end. Because time ran out, the rep had to pull her away and she was desperately trying to sign for her fans. I did an 'over the top' Shaolin move to thrust T's "Road to London" sweatshirt and get one of the last autographs.
The ironic thing is that she has a signature gesture, a flick back of her foreleg. When she fell off the bars on Sunday, she fell hard, a total bellyflop faceplant. You could see the impact on her neck. And as she lay there for a second, her foreleg flicked back. It was hard to watch a champion of her caliber fall, but all things are impermanent, especially sports champs.
That being said, it's a competitive sport. All competitive sports have losers. In fact, the majority of competitors are losers. Don't feel bad for them, even if they are little girls.
We met Nastia a few months ago. She was on a promo tour for this event and a signing was held at a Peninsula gym. The stupid gym wasted like 15 mins. of her short appearance there showing a homemade overview video on her. Now, you must understand, Nastia has been the queen of gymnastics since Beijing. She has several product lines of gymno gear, her own national meet circuit, was a spokesperson for Covergirl, has made several movie and tv cameos, and is in almost every ad in the national gymno mag. That being said, she was very gracious, grounded and stunningly beautiful in person (when competing, she pulled her hair back into a ponytail exposing her impossibly high forehead, but in normal life, with her bangs down, she looks much more attractive). After the vid, a huge chaotic signing line formed and we were at the end. Because time ran out, the rep had to pull her away and she was desperately trying to sign for her fans. I did an 'over the top' Shaolin move to thrust T's "Road to London" sweatshirt and get one of the last autographs.
The ironic thing is that she has a signature gesture, a flick back of her foreleg. When she fell off the bars on Sunday, she fell hard, a total bellyflop faceplant. You could see the impact on her neck. And as she lay there for a second, her foreleg flicked back. It was hard to watch a champion of her caliber fall, but all things are impermanent, especially sports champs.
That being said, it's a competitive sport. All competitive sports have losers. In fact, the majority of competitors are losers. Don't feel bad for them, even if they are little girls.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse