Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin has revealed she suffers from a medical condition, and her pink spandex splits photo offered quite the wow factor as she broke the news. The 31-year-old five-time Olympic medalist received mixed reviews for making her ultra-flexible Instagram update a promotional one recently – while her 1.1 million followers are used to the paid partnerships, they weren’t expecting one with a pharmaceutical company.
Nastia Liukin Wows In Upside-Down Splits With Reveal
The photo, below, came with Nastia balancing her Olympian body in a massive flexibility display and from a beam. The gymnast, who retired at age 22 back in 2012, proved she hasn’t lost her skill-set, with both legs stretched out into a perfect split, plus her bare feet pointed out, ballerina-like.
Highlighting her ripped figure in a cute pink pair of leggings and a matching sports bra as she delivered the balance upside-down and barefoot, Nastia told fans:
“STILL GOT IT, kind of! Training looks a lot different these days than it once did. What some of you might not know is that I struggled with frequent #migraines leading up to some very special moments in my life.”
Keep Scrolling For The Snap
Liukin, who called her migraines “debilitating,” added that after years, she’d finally found “Nurtec® ODT (rimegepant) 75 mg, which alleviates pain quickly and lets me get back to the important things in life.” The 2008 all-around champion abided by Instagram’s promotional guidelines, confirming her post was a paid partnership. Her followers did not seem enthused – in fact, they’re straight-up slamming her.
“What’s up with all the ads for pharmaceuticals. First Laurie, now Nastia. I get that influencers need to advertise for stuff in order to earn their income, but why pharmaceuticals?” one user wrote.
“Really?? A pharmaceutical?” another asked, with a third saying: “Pharmaceutical ad. Yiiiikes.”
Not The Only Celeb At It
Nastia is not alone in promoting Rx drugs on social media. Also falling under fire for their medical promos have been 37-year-old fellow migraine sufferer Khloe Kardashian, plus former eczema sufferer Jessica Simpson.
“Seriously. Why r u promoting drugs?????” another disgruntled user wrote. Liukin was, however, supported by a few fans, some of whom took to the comments section to reveal their own migraine experiences. One claimed they’ve taken the precise drug Nastia was promoting – they weren’t hard on her as they wrote: “So, it doesn’t bother me when “famous” people can help promote solutions that could potentially help others who are suffering.”
Nastia does not appear to have responded to the backlash.