“If you’re going through hell,” said Win­ston Churchill, “keep going.” After Amer­i­can gym­nast Nas­tia Liukin suf­fered a severe ankle injury a year before the Olympics, many thought she’d never com­pete again. But Nas­tia, daugh­ter of two Soviet cham­pi­ons, was born to win. Her father Valeri, the first man to do a triple back­flip, com­peted in the 1988 Olympics and lost the gold medal by less than 1/10^th of a point. He spent the next two decades as his daughter’s coach, teach­ing her every­thing he knew about gym­nas­tics and deter­mi­na­tion. Injur­ing her­self dou­bled her resolve to win, says Nas­tia. She came back stronger than she’d ever been and went on to win the All-Around Gold—the same event her father had lost exactly 20 years before. —Jay Dixit

What are you most proud of?

Win­ning the All-Around Gold at the Olympic Games this past summer.

What were you feel­ing after you won?

A big sigh of relief, because I did have some dif­fi­cult times. I had an injury and so many peo­ple started doubt­ing me and ques­tion­ing whether I would even be on the Olympic Team. Those tough times made me even stronger. They got me to where I was last sum­mer. With­out my injury I wouldn’t have been as strong, just because I tried so hard to get back into it.

When did you feel most hope­less or discouraged?

In 2006, I did have that injury. I had to get surgery on my ankle. The recov­ery just took so long. I’d never had a seri­ous injury like that. I wasn’t aware of what was going to come. It took longer than we planned for. That was frus­trat­ing, try­ing to get ready for the Olympics when I was still hurt­ing really bad, and doing min­i­mal train­ing and just try­ing to avoid pain. Com­pet­i­tively, the year before the Olympics, 2007, was my worst year. Not too good to have that the year before the Olympics. But like I said, it made me stronger.

Why was that year your worst com­pet­i­tively? Was it because you were still not fully recov­ered? Or because you hadn’t had time to prac­tice after you were recovered?

I wasn’t able to put in the nec­es­sary train­ing because I was still hurt. I was in so much pain I wasn’t able to train. So when I went to com­pe­ti­tions, I wasn’t phys­i­cally prepared.

Was there ever a time when you had a set­back and you felt like it was your own fault or you blamed yourself?

Of course the injury. The only per­son you can blame the injury on is your­self. That was frus­trat­ing. It was a mistake.

Did you feel like it was just chance-everyone gets injured sooner or later? Or do you feel like there was some­thing you could have done dif­fer­ently and you were kick­ing yourself?

When I got injured, it was because of a fluke mis­take. I rolled my ankle. And I guess that can be changed if you pay more atten­tion to every sin­gle detail, but it was just one of those fluke things and it hap­pened. At the time there was noth­ing I could do to pre­vent it.

What was going through your mind? Were you think­ing, “I’ll never com­pete again”?

No. I never had those thoughts in my head. It was the week before we left for the 2006 World Cham­pi­onships and I wanted to do the All-Around but I wasn’t able to do it because I was injured. I wasn’t able to walk for a few weeks. I was on crutches and in a boot and I was only train­ing bars, but I was still put on the World Cham­pi­onship team and I com­peted for my coun­try at the World Cham­pi­onship only on bars and helped win a sil­ver medal. I would have loved to com­pete All-Around there.

What allowed you to get through those tough times and get your men­tal state-your con­fi­dence and assurance-back to the point where they needed to be so you could com­pete and win?

Sur­round­ing myself with really great peo­ple. My dad is my coach. My mom is the sup­port side of the team. And team­mates that helped me all the time. You can’t lis­ten to the neg­a­tive talk. There’s always going to be some pos­i­tive and some neg­a­tive when you’re a well-known ath­lete or just a per­son. When I first started hear­ing these things-that I’d never make the Olympic team because I was injured, that I wouldn’t get to where I was before the injury-it really upset me. Then I thought, “Why am I even let­ting this get to me?” If I know I can do it and my friends and fam­ily and coaches believe in me, it doesn’t mat­ter what peo­ple on the out­side are say­ing. They don’t know my per­son­al­ity. They don’t know I’m going to work even harder to get back to where I was.

Who was say­ing those things?

The media. I learned to not let the media affect you. That’s their job-to crit­i­cize and talk and have opin­ions. At first it got to me. Then I thought, “They’re not the ones doing gym­nas­tics.” I’m the one that’s in it.

What is it about your per­son­al­ity that gives you that mindset?

That I never give up. I showed peo­ple that per­son­al­ity at the Olympics. I didn’t give up until it was com­pletely over. A lot of peo­ple thought it wasn’t pos­si­ble for me to win that All-Around Gold but I always believed in myself and I always believed it was pos­si­ble. It takes a lot of dif­fer­ent char­ac­ter traits. But most impor­tantly, never to give up. That’s some­thing I learned from a very early age.

What do you think it was that taught you that?

Def­i­nitely my par­ents. My dad was an Olympic cham­pion and my mom was a world cham­pion, both in gym­nas­tics. Just from their expe­ri­ences and teach­ing me to con­tinue that path and to always believe in your­self and set big dreams and goals.

When you’re actu­ally com­pet­ing, are there moments when feel like you want to give up?

There are def­i­nitely some times when it does get hard, espe­cially in com­pe­ti­tions if you make a mis­take. But that’s some­thing I learned also. There were two times in com­pe­ti­tion when I had a mis­take and I had a fall and I hon­estly wanted to give up because I thought it would be over. And my dad, who’s always on the floor with me, just kept telling me, “Don’t give this up. It’s still pos­si­ble. Fight your way through it.” I won the com­pe­ti­tion both times.

Some peo­ple, when they make a mis­take, dwell on it and get dis­cour­aged. But you’re able to put it behind you-you have a fall and you put it out of your mind. What’s the trick?

It takes prac­tice. To mas­ter any­thing, whether it’s a sport or believ­ing in your­self, doesn’t come overnight. That’s just the way you have to set your mind, focus, and believe that it is possible.

When you’re com­pet­ing, what do you think you have in your mind? Are you think­ing, “I’m going to win”? “I’m not going to give up”? Or is your mind blank?

I don’t think about win­ning going into a com­pe­ti­tion. I go in try­ing to do the best per­for­mance, the best rou­tines I can. I never think about the out­come, if I’m going to win a medal or what color. That’s also some­thing I was taught from a young age-to focus on only myself. Of course you are going to have com­peti­tors, and peo­ple could be bet­ter than you or stronger than you, but as long as you’re focused on your­self and you give your best per­for­mance that day, that’s really all you can control.

I imag­ine that when you’re com­pet­ing it must be really impor­tant to stay present in the moment. Do you have a tech­nique for doing that?

I use a lot of visu­al­iza­tions. Before I go and salute, I replay my rou­tine over and over again in my head in the most per­fect sce­nario, just try­ing to hit every skill and try­ing to make it right. That always helps me.

How were you able to train through pain? Was it think­ing ahead to the future, like, “If I can get through this moment now, even if its painful, I can win later”?

I’ve always had those big goals and dreams in my head and the 2008 Olympics were always in the back of my mind. Going through dif­fi­cult times, I told myself, “I’ve been in gym­nas­tics 15 years, and there’s only a year left until the Olympics. I might be going through a strug­gle now, or an injury, but I can’t give this up now. I came a long way, and put so much effort and time and com­mit­ment to it already, and I’ve had those goals for so long.” With it so close, I didn’t ever really feel a need to give up. But going through the injury, you always have to take it one day at time. You can’t think too far ahead of yourself.

When you talk about those goals and dreams, did those come from your par­ents orig­i­nally or were they some­thing you wanted for yourself?

It was def­i­nitely some­thing for myself. Well, I guess both. My dad com­peted in the ’88 Olympics and he won the sil­ver medal in the All-Around by less than 1/10^th of a point, so when I won the gold medal in the All Around, it def­i­nitely made him proud. It was a redemp­tion that exactly 20 years prior, he had missed it by less than 1/10^th, so to be able to coach your athlete-especially because I’m his daughter-definitely made a big difference.

Did you have your father on your mind when you were competing?

You have to be a lit­tle self­ish when you com­pete because espe­cially in gym­nas­tics, it requires so much focus and con­cen­tra­tion. So you can’t be think­ing about too many other things. After the com­pe­ti­tion was when I felt it most.

What did he say when you won?

He said he was really proud of me. We couldn’t believe it. There’s still times now when I think about it and I’m like, “Did that actu­ally come true?” I wouldn’t say we were shock, because we knew it was within reach and we knew we were able to do it. But when you dream about some­thing for so long, and it finally comes true, it takes you a while to process it.

One-tenth of a point and his team­mate won. Was it because of a mis­take he made?

It was not really a mis­take. If you make a mis­take, it’s going to cost you 5/10 to 8/10. 1/10 of a point in gym­nas­tics is pretty much nothing.

How does it feel to be the best in the world at something?

To know that I am the best in the world at my favorite thing in life is such an incred­i­ble feel­ing. Know­ing that 16 years of hard work has paid off means so much to me.

You not only recov­ered from your injury, but you actu­ally came back stronger than before. What was it that enabled you to do that?

I did so much phys­i­cal strength­en­ing while I was injured. I did a lot of strength exer­cises for my legs, upper body and car­dio. This all helped me tremen­dously when it was time to go back to rou­tines and the events.

But did you also come back stronger men­tally? Do you think you were sharper, more con­fi­dent, more focused, more dri­ven? If so, how was it that your injury facil­i­tated this?

I did come back stronger men­tally because being away from the gym and not being able to com­pete at top shape made my desire so much greater. The media wrote me off and said I would never be an All-Around gym­nast again because of my injury. At first it really got to me and upset me. But my friends and fam­ily encour­aged me and told me that if you believe in your­self, your dreams, and your goals, “Impos­si­ble is noth­ing.” This is the quote I lived by for the last year. No mat­ter what peo­ple say, if I believe, that’s all that mat­ters.