BEIJING (AFP) — Russian-born Nastia Liukin of the United States won the women's gymnastics individual all-round event here Friday to break China's stranglehold on the sport at the Beijing Olympics.
Liukin's compatriot and Olympic Village room-mate Shawn Johnson took silver to make it a one-two finish for the United States, with Yang Yilan in third place for the hosts.
Decked out in a hot-pink leotard, Liukin finished on 63.325 points, with Johnson on 62.725 and Yang scoring 62.65.
"All the hard work paid off, all the injuries, tears, blood, rips, everything pays off at this very moment," the 18-year-old Liukin said.
"Everything just goes away, you can only think of good things now."
Until Liukin's win, China had won all three of the gymnastics gold medals contested at these Games and Johnson said the US one-two helped compensate for losing the team gold to the home nation on Wednesday.
"We came back and we showed the USA is really strong, we deserved the top two medals and we showed the world we can come back no matter what," she said.
Johnson, the reigning individual world champion, had been favourite for the Olympic title but Liukin proved too strong after returning to top form following a series of injuries in recent years.
Moscow-born Liukin moved to the US as a toddler with her father and coach Valeri Liukin, who won two golds and two silvers in gymnastics for the USSR at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
"I'm still fighting for that medal count with him, he has four, so I have a few more to go," she said.
"It's an amazing accomplishment, just to be here with him there on the floor exactly 20 years after he competed."
Her father, who had to settle for silver in the individual event in Seoul, was delighted to see his daughter go one better.
"I guess Nastia fixed that little mistake I had," he said.
None of the women dominated a close-fought final and the lead constantly changed as the gymnasts went through the four women's apparatus.
Liukin snatched the lead on the balance beam, an apparatus on which she is world champion, taking a wafer-thin 0.15 lead into the final round, the floor exercise and pushing Yang into second place.
The fervent support that has cheered China to three gymnastics gold medals so far during these Games was then stepped up a notch and there were boos for the judges when Yang scored just 15.0 after a stumble.
But Chinese spectators remained sporting and gave a rousing reception to Liukin's routine, even though a 15.525 put Yang out of gold medal contention.
As chants of "U-S-A, U-S-A" drowned out the home support for the first time at the Games' gymnastics venue, Johnson needed 16.125 on the floor to win gold.
The reigning world champion on the apparatus, Johnson said she put her heart and soul into the routine and could not have done any better.
There was a nervous wait for both gymnasts as they stared at the scoreboard for the crucial mark that would determine the title and Liukin said she felt then it could have gone either way.
"I honestly didn't know until she finished and the scores came up," Liukin said when asked at what point she sensed victory.
The diminutive Johnson ended up with 15.525 and Liukin the title, the 16-year-old saying she was glad it was her friend who beat her and not a rival from another country.
"It probably makes it easier," she told reporters as she struggled to contain her tears.
Johnson, who is a strong contender for gold in the apparatus finals, said she had considered retiring after Beijing but her experience here had been so positive she wanted to continue on to the London Olympics in 2012.
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