Nastia Liukin recalls representing Team USA as 'eye-opening in so many different ways'

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Nastia Liukin was 18 years old when she took home a gold medal and four other medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and etched her name into the Team USA history books.

Looking back on her lone run at the Olympics, Liukin told Fox News Digital in a recent interview that wearing the stars and stripes was "eye-opening in so many different ways."

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Nastia Liukin of the United States, winner of one gold medal, three silver medals and one bronze medal in artistic gymnastics at the Beijing Olympic Games, poses at Prince Yun Palace on Aug. 20, 2008, in Beijing. (Scott Halleran/Getty Images for VISA)

"I think for me, it was always something I dreamed about," Liukin said. "I remember watching the Atlanta Games and watching the [Magnificent Seven] walk into the Georgia Dome, and I didn’t quite at that age … understand really what it was, and I knew it was something that my dad did – and he had four medals – but I didn’t understand really what it was. I just knew it was a sport that I loved, and it was on TV, and I wanted to be just like them.

"I think the older I got and the more I fell in love with the sport and more passion I had for the sport, the more I wanted to do that. I wanted to wear red, white and blue with the American flag on my sleeve and on my leotard, on my warm-up jacket."

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Nastia Liukin of the United States, left, teammate Shawn Johnson, center, and Cheng Fei of China display their medals after the finals of the balance beam event at the Olympics Games in Beijing on Aug. 19, 2008. (Nelson Ching/Bloomberg