Posted: 5:46 AM- BEIJING - She's Russian by birth, Texan by slight accent, willowy by gymnasts' standards, naturally blonde and possessing a gold medal from the sport's biggest individual event.

Oh, yeah. We'll be seeing a lot more of Nastia Liukin.

Friday's little competition was worth more to Liukin than just being able to favorably compare colors of medals with Olympic Village roommate Shawn Johnson or express more satisfaction in the journal entries they were intending to write before bedtime, hours after dueling in the women's all-around final.

This was about the Wheaties box and much, much more.

Celebrating with sponsors and officials that afternoon at the USA House, Liukin was not ready to say how her life would change, now that her father is not the only one in the family with a gold medal. Let's just say it is not about to get worse.

She already enjoys endorsements for makeup, credit cards, phones and jeans, and there are more, and bigger, deals where those came from. From a business standpoint, this was a fascinating duel.

Who would win? Liukin, 18, with more of a modelesque look and worldwide marketing potential, or Johnson, 16, positioned to become the next All-American girl in the Mary Lou Retton tradition?

The winner: "International appeal," said USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny, imagining the possibilities for Liukin and, by association, his organization and the sport. "She wins a lot of hearts with her style. That'll play very well, not just in the United States but around the world."

That's not to suggest that Johnson will disappear, having already signed with some major brands and Hy-Vee, based in her home state of Iowa, where a butter sculpture of her highlighted the State Fair. But the silver medal is somewhat costly, because Johnson was about to become big, big, big. Her agent had forecasted her to emerge as the "breakout star" of these Games, aside from that Phelps guy in the pool, possibly.

Now, the 4-foot-9 gymnast will never be Mary Lou-sized by McDonald's or anybody else, unless she returns in 2012.

It's all because the graceful, 5-3 Liukin delivered, to use one of her favorite words, at just the right time Friday. The Americans' 1-2 finish was historic but not unexpected, considering these two have reigned as the world's top all-arounders for a couple of years. Recent history, however, suggested the order would be Johnson-Liukin, not the other way around.

"I did strongly believe that our time was coming," said Valeri Liukin, Nastia's father and coach at one of the gyms he opened in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs, having moved his family from Russia after the Soviet Union's breakup when Nastia was a toddler.

Their timing was very good Friday, with the family's newest gold medal presented 20 years after Valeri Liukin earned team and individual (horizontal bars) golds for the Soviet Union, while barely losing the all-around competition to teammate Alexei Nemov.

Nastia - that's a nickname; she was born Anastasia Valeryana Liukin - recently created a bulletin board of inspirational photos. Her mother, herself a former rhythmic gymnast, added to the motivational effort by draping one of Valeri's gold medals on the board, and now, Nastia has one of her own.

"I've got two of them," her father pointed out during the medalists' news conference.

"I'm still chasing him," she acknowledged.

Nastia Liukin will have more opportunities in individual event finals this weekend, but her Olympics - and her immediate future - are already golden enough. Retton capitalized like crazy after winning the all-around in 1984, and Carly Patterson, even though she was relatively shy, landed her share of endorsements after winning in 2004.

Liukin will not have Retton's domestic presence, but she will have a broader market. She jokes about receiving "funny looks" when she visits her homeland and speaks Russian, because of her accent. But in the marketing game, any look is a good look, and Liukin will get lots of attention.