Five-time Olympic gymnastics medalist turned sportscaster and style icon Anastasia “Nastia” Liukin has much to talk about as she prepares to be an on-air sportscaster for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games being held in Tokyo this year (from Friday, July 23rd through Sunday, August 8th).During this busy time, she is grateful to be able to eliminate from the top of her list: worrying about a migraine attack.
It is that worry that had made planning difficult for Nastia, an experience shared by many of the nearly 40 million Americans who live with this devastating disease (the second most debilitating disease globally). As she will tell you, it is nearly impossible to compete when a migraine attack hits. Migraine often struck Nastia when she was on the balance beam. Symptoms such as difficulty seeing then crushing head pain became so severe that Nastia had to stop practicing for safety’s sake. As if competing in the Olympics was not stressful enough, worrying about the possibility of having a migraine attack during a competition compounded this pressure. But like many, she plowed through knowing she could not just quit.
