Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson East recalls her 8-year feud with her former teammate and close friend Nastia Liukin.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the pair competed together as part of Team USA. The gymnasts were good friends before the Summer Games, but Johnson East said in a recent interview that their bond quickly changed when they faced the pressure of being the center of attention.

“Nastia and I were best friends, we trained and at the Olympic Games we were roommates,” she said. Access Hollywood in a November 4 interview. “We were 16 and 18 years old. We were children. “I felt like we were under the spotlight and scrutiny to be each other’s biggest and best competitors, and we had figured out on the competition floor how to be better friends and competitors.”

Johnson East said the international stage ultimately ended up impacting their friendship.

“But when the world started saying how we should handle it, they said we should also be each other’s worst enemies,” he explained. “So we didn’t talk for eight years.”

The two kept their distance during that time, but Johnson East said her then-boyfriends eventually became “so tired” of hearing them talk about each other that they pressured their girlfriends to open lines of communication.

“And we did,” Johnson East said. “And since then, it’s been like we haven’t missed a beat. We’re each other’s biggest fans, best friends, biggest supporters and we just love each other.”

As for how they rekindled their friendship, Johnson East explained that she and Liukin had lunch together in New York. Once they started talking, they completely forgot about the past.

“It was really, in about two minutes, that we became best friends again,” he said. “We both said the same thing, like, ‘I don’t know what happened, but I miss you and I miss us.’ And it has been that way ever since.”

Johnson East, who won four medals at the 2008 Olympics, she was injured while trying to make the team for the London 2012 Games. Shortly after, she retired from the sport and has since become a New York Times bestselling author, wife of former Andrew East football player and loving mother of three children.

Liukin, who won five medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, has become a mentor to aspiring gymnasts, according to your website. Liukin also shares moments from his life. more on Instagramfrom style inspiration to travel photography and more.

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