THEY LIKE EACH other. Forget the
intense and distant looks on the mats, the one-two status that Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin own in U.S. women's gymnastics, or that the younger Johnson has eclipsed the more seasoned Liukin as the best all-around gymnast the United States has to offer - barely.
Try to overlook also that, in this sport of tiny people, the window of opportunity is even tinier, open just wide enough, and usually just long enough, for one of them to squeeze through and cash in
on the fleeting fame from Olympic success.
Overlook all that, and the age discrepancy between Johnson's wide-eyed 16 and Liukin's more measured 18, and overlook the abyss of their backgrounds. Because they are not, repeat, not, the gymnastics version of Tonya and Nancy, no matter how it might look out there this weekend.
"It's funny," Liukin was saying during a Wachovia Center media gathering yesterday. "Interview after interview people ask about that. People just can't believe that we can be so competitive and at the same time we can still be such good friends. But we are friends."
Liukin then offered proof, pulling her cell phone from her gym bag and showing interviewers a text-message exchange between the two after Johnson's hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, was flooded.
Liukin: "I just wanted to make sure you were safe and I'm sorry to hear about the flooding. I hope everything's OK. Let me know if there's anything we can do. I know we're far away but I'm here for you."
Johnson: "Thanks. We found a good gym in town but thanks for the support.
I don't think it's hit everyone yet. Just
really surprising. Can't wait to see everybody in a few days. Love you."
Love you?
Tonya loves Nancy? Nancy loves
Tonya?
"We hang out when we're here," Liukin said, laughing. "We text each other when we're not. But in the gym we are definitely very competitive. And you have to be."
Here's how competitive. Liukin, the
immigrant daughter of two Soviet gymnasts, was the all-around national champion before Johnson became age-eligible and won the last two. Johnson is the 2007 all-around world champion, but at the U.S. national championship earlier this month, she edged out Liukin by the slimmest of margins, and not before Liukin wowed the world with a 17.100 on the
uneven bars.
