Will she or won't she? Nastia Liukin says she still isn't sure about a comeback to elite competition, but she is going to have to make a decision soon.
Liukin was on hand at the CoverGirl Classic last weekend in Chicago, but kept a very low profile, not speaking to the press and not doing any on-camera interviews with Universal Sports. From Chicago she went to New York, where she was be part of the "Team USA: Britain bound" festivities commemorating the one-year-till London celebration/media kickoff Wednesday.
Today, Liukin, Alicia Sacramone and Jonathan Horton will be signing autographs for the public at the NBC Experience Store in NYC at 9:45 a.m.
Even the mainstream press, which up to now has been patient with Liukin's hedging about returning to elite or not until now, noted the disparity in her words when it came to talking about the Olympics and what her role will be.
"From one sentence to the next, Liukin will veer from sounding like an athlete ready to retire from elite competition to one determined to go to another games," AP writer Rachel Cohen noted. That sums up Liukin's mindset -- she'd love to do another Olympics (wouldn't we all?) but she's not sure if she's completely ready to commit to the long hours of training.
Anyway, why should she? No female Olympic all-around champion since Mary Lou Retton in 1984 has returned to major international competition. Even Mary Lou, a woman with genuine love for the sport and competition, only lasted part of the way through 1985.
The date Liukin makes up her mind whether the comeback will really happen or not is likely to be sometime this fall, probably after the World Championships. But by waiting so long, Liukin is cutting it close. As Shawn Johnson might be able to tell her, even Olympic gold medalists need some competition facetime to work off the rust. If Liukin does that at the 2012 U.S. Championships, it is likely to be too late.
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