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Both women said that they had dreamed of finishing one,two in the Olympics they just weren’t sure in what order that would dream would occur.

Well, now they know and it was the surprising Nastia Liukin who claimed the gold medal, while world champion Shawn johnson won the silver, and China’s Yang Yilin taking home the bronze despite the allegations that continue to swirl about her age.

Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson and Yang Yilin display their Olympic hardware.

There are no doubts about the validity of Liukin’s age. The 18 year old daughter of 4-time Olympic medalist Valeri Liukin and Anna Kotchneva who was a world champion rhythmic gymnast, proved her pedigree throughout the all-around competition.

Despite having start values that were below that of Johnson’s, Nastia proved the more perfect gymnast on that day sticking her landings on three out of the four apparatuses and performing beautifully throughout. Meanwhile Johnson, the favorite heading into the competition, made some small missteps that cost her a shot at gold.

With the floor exercise coming last in the competition Nastia Liukin was once again perfect, creating a lead too great for Shawn Johnson to overcome and claiming the gold medal by more then 6-tenths of a point.

Liukin began life in Moscow, but departed for America at the young age of two and arrived in Texas. And so it became that the girl from Texas with the distinctly Russian name fufilled her dream of becoming Olympic champion.

Her father had come close to that very same dream some twenty years ago. Valeri just needed to stick his dismount from the high bar, just one moment, one stuck landing and his dream would come true. Yet, as he landed, he swayed, swinging his arms to try and regain his balance and prevent his body from taking that inevitable lurch forward that would cost him his dream. Gravity won out, as it always will, and Valeri took that step, losing the gold medal by just one-tenth of a point.

Now, exactly 20 years later to the day, he can celebrate the fact that he has raised a champion, a champion who conquered the dream that eluded him all those years ago.

Shawn Johnson will have her chance at the next Olympics to claim the gold that many thought she would win in Beijing. It wasn’t that Johnson made any major mistakes, in fact she performed quite well, it was just an accumulation of small miscues that ended up costing Johnson her own gold medal dream.

Both girls dreamed of going one-two in the Olympics, but on this day it was Nastia Liukin’s dream that came true.