Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin Rewatched the 2008 Olympics Together In a Nostalgic Live-Stream
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The 2020 Olympics may have been postponed to July 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but there's no shortage of ways for fans to relive past iconic Olympics moments while at home in quarantine. NBC Sports has been offering up tons of historic Olympics content (available for streaming if you have a cable network login) so you can rewatch your favorite champions in all their glory.
This week, gymnastics fans enjoyed a blast from the past when Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson teamed up to rewatch the 2008 Beijing Olympic gymnastics finals. Refresher: In 2008, Johnson and Liukin helped lead the U.S. gymnastics team to 10 medals total—two gold, six silver, and two bronze—which, at the time, became the most medals snagged by the U.S. gymnastics team at any Olympic Games in history. The U.S. won silver just behind host country China's gold; Johnson took gold for balance beam and silver for all-around and floor work; Liukin won gold for all-around, silver for uneven bars and balance beam, and bronze for floor work.
Fast-forward to 2020: The two former athletes sat in their respective living rooms (#socialdistancing), donned their 2008 all-around final leotards, and sipped red wine while rewatching themselves making Olympic history—much to the delight of nostalgic fans watching from all over the globe on Instagram Live.
One of the best things so far during this quarantine was watching 2008 Olympic gymnastics and also @ShawnJohnson and @NastiaLiukin doing an IG live watching along in their same competition leos pic.twitter.com/livu6Fm8NP
— Auz (@theauzin) April 22, 2020
In an Instagram post, Liukin shared photos of herself in her 2008 leotard today alongside a throwback from Beijing. "Your girl's still got it," she captioned the post. "Actually, no, no I don't," she joked.
During her IG Live session with Liukin, Johnson seemed equally ambivalent about wearing her 2008 leotard. She said she had to break it out of a frame (true dedication) and that wearing the leotard while still breastfeeding her 5-month old daughter, Drew was "friggin' brutal."
"Milk boobies don't work too well in this leotard," she said in another video shared by Johnson's husband, Andrew East.
Fans happily tuned in to the IG Live session to see the since-retired gymnasts catch up about their experiences at the 2008 Olympics. Both Johnson and Liukin opened up about how nervous they were while competing. Johnson said she was "terrified" by her work on the gymnastics bar. Liukin agreed, saying she often felt scared about "chalking up" the bar (gymnasts have to be careful about chalking a gymnastics bar properly to ensure they won't slip during their turns).
@ShawnJohnson & @NastiaLiukin on instagram live watching the 2008 Olympics in the same leotards they wore for the All Around Finals???? best thing i’ve seen all month?????♂? pic.twitter.com/VlYPCmUIUT
— Mikayla Forster (@mikaylaforster) April 22, 2020
Johnson's daughter Drew got in on the fun, too. East shared an adorable clip of Drew in his lap as they watched mom in her triumphant vault performance. "It was OK," Johnson modestly joked in the video after watching herself stick the landing.
In case you need more throwback Olympics content to hold you over until the Tokyo Games, check out the full NBCSN Olympics TV schedule, which runs through April 26. (FYI: The channel is running more gymnastics coverage from 1988 through 2016 on April 24 and 25.)
